Larson Family Blog: Pilgrimage to Minnesota and Wisconsin

Tom had a three day weekend so we took an impromptu trip to St Paul/ Minneapolis to see the Cathederal (and Mall of America) and then to LaCross Wisconsin to visit Our Lady of Guadalupe shrine. On the way, we even got to stop and visit our pastor in his home town and meet his family.

This is the cathedral in St Paul. It is a replica of St Peter's in Rome and is an amazing sight to see. We arrived an hour before 7am Mass started. I didn't get any pictures of the inside but here is the website. http://www.cathedralsaintpaul.org/

In the basement there is a LEGO Cathedral that fascinated the boys.

After Mass we went to IHOP and then over to the Mall of America. First stop... LEGO land!!!

...then a bit of time at Nickelodeon Universe http://www.nickelodeonuniverse.com/

We went to check in at the hotel, took our naps, had some turkey sandwiches and then went back to the Mall for the evening.

Dominic and Xavier next to Woody

The next morning we packed up, went to Mass at Holy Trinity and then drove to Winona where our pastor is from. http://www.visitwinona.com/

After a short visit, tour of the town, and lunch at Beano's for some wonderfully unique sandwiches, we headed to Lacrosse for our final pilgrimage stop. http://www.guadalupeshrine.org/ It was cold and a little rainy but, hey, it's a pilgrimage. And it was well worth the 1\2 mile! What a beautiful church! I didn't even think to take a picture.

...but we got plenty of pictures of the SPAM Museum on the way back :) The Hormel plant is in Austin and we were driving right through. It was a really fun and interactive museum! Much more than expected. Admission was free and we learned all we could ever want to know about SPAM!