What I did on my summer vacation

Okay, not really.  But since the weather has been beautiful lately and because our lives are about to change dramatically, I suggested that we spend this afternoon on a little trip that I've wanted to take for awhile. 

So this afternoon, after lunching with Ben and the girlies, Rene and I jumped in the car and headed off to Hixson, WI.  Hixson is about 90 minutes away toward LaCrosse.  What's in Hixson?  Well, I recently found some genealogical information about a "person of interest" and he ended up living in Hixson.  (It's a long and kind of boring genealogical story; probably the only interested parties are Mom and I.)  Anyway, it was a beautiful drive and we accomplished our genealogical mission quickly and without incident.  Then we had some time to go see this:

Yes, it's an Indian mound.  We are big aficionados of Indian mounds.  One of our most memorable family trips involved lots and LOTS of Indian mounds.  This mound, Silver Mound, is a little bit different.  It is not a burial mound.  It was a quarry for a type of prized quartzite used to make stone tools and arrowheads.  Artifacts from this mound have been found spread across Wisconsin and into other states.

We really wanted to go walk around the mound, but couldn't find any way to access it.  We drove all the way around it, but couldn't ever find a way to get up onto it, although we could see a guy in the far distance walking on it.  (Good thing we have lots of experiences driving fruitlessly around on the sides of mountains.) It is an offical archeological dig and they probably don't want people up there.  But I really wanted to find some arrowheads especially for Tanner, Andrew and Russell.

By the way, since some of you have asked--we went in this.  It is replacing Rene's truck.  Eventually, it will replace the Impala and Rene can get another truck if he wants.

I forgot to mention that Joanna and Ben and Russell came to visit.  We made some awesome Olympics food, including this pizza.  Yes, we dyed the mushrooms blue.  We also made a cake with the leftover filling, buttercream and fondant from Janet's wedding.  It was a patriotic cake with blue stars.  I didn't take a picture.  But it was yummy.   And that's the royal "we".  Joanna did virtually all the work.