Needless to say, I was a bit frazzled by the time we reached Eau Claire on our way home to Minneapolis. Visit Eau Claire had generously given us a free room at The Plaza Hotel and Suites as part of our Family Adventure (expect the unexpected) weekend in Eau Claire. I’ve stayed at the Plaza Hotel and Suites one other time, so I knew it was clean, safe, and has large (warm) wading pool for toddlers and other shortish kids (like mine). My husband left early from work and met us there. He had pool duty while I confirmed the bar tender was friendly. A Spotted Cow and some WiFi later, everyone was in a much better mood.
I love this photo from the wading pool. Owen darted around the tile angel fish and the sunlight coming in from the glass ceiling brightened our moods. The hotel has natural sunlight coming in from all different places. I didn’t notice this before, but the architect created alcove areas throughout–places families can congregate and eat other than in the room of some poor unsuspecting soul.
For a late dinner, we made the short drive to the neighboring town of Chippewa Falls (originally a logging camp and still home to Leinenkugels–beer and circular saws, what a combo). Having previously only been on the brewery tour, my experience in Chippewa Falls has mainly been along the river near downtown. However, if you venture out to Lake Wissota, absolutely stop at LaGranders Drive In (even if you only order a root beer float).
While you can order and eat from your car, if you have kids, their gerbil gene will no longer remain dormant on the paths between tables and around the gnome tree.
This picture was taken from our covered gazebo. Note 66% of the kids playing together in this second rare vacation photo. By the time our home-made custard arrived, they were too tired to finish it all (more for us-a brilliant strategy!). The lure of cable and cartoons with commercials drew us back to the hotel.
If you read the first Eau Claire post, you may remember the minivan lurching violently towards a group of mountain bikers. I had arranged for my husband to bring my mountain bike and diverged from them for a well deserved hour on the single track at Lowes Creek.
During this time, the rest of the motley crew had a blast at the Children’s Museum. Not personally at the Children’s Museum, I will now quote my husband, “That was one of the best children’s museums I’ve been to. It was small, but they had a lot to do. There was this giant mouth you could crawl into, but Calvin got freaked out by the recording of the chomping sound.” He felt the need to take this picture:
The only other photos of 66% – 100% of the kids getting along were blurry from them having some hyper-active fun in the water room.
Let me reiterate that the biking was really great. Even with trails named Tetnus Shot and Mind Trick. And I did not see any snakes (this seemed important at the time).
Herein lies the blog journal of our weekend in Eau Claire. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the experience. While our focus was family-oriented, I’d love to read more about the women’s getaways, wineries, biking, canoeing, and arts/culture the city has to offer. So, someone get there and get blogging!
