It's always a bittersweet June day when we take Abby to Pepin for her two week camp. It's a gorgeous drive along the Mississippi through Alma, Fountain City and Nelson. Abby returns refreshed and seemingly rid of the previous school year...but it's also two weeks without our oldest kid! No letter writing or phone calls, just some secret texting (I know she's going to play some frisbee golf tomorrow with buddies). First day of camp happened to fall on Father's Day, so we piled in the great white whale and thought we'd hit The Creamery in Nelson before goodbyes.
Julia thought she would be able to avoid the camera altogether on this trip – and almost did...but up against the cat-like reflexes of the IPhone she didn't stand a chance.
Dripping scoops of Rum Cherry, White Chocolate Raspberry, Mocha Chip and Chocolate later,
it was time for the drop-off, where Carly quickly stole the show and a limb-swing from some unsuspecting camp counselor, only to just about fall off in one of those butt-slip-and-hang-on-for-your-life moves. The camp grounds in the background, a wide open field, is lined with the cute stubby cabins that Abby and her friend Abby stay in. Facing Carly the Pepin lake beach stocked with kayaks and canoes, docks, a water jumping trampoline, and bonfire ring with bench seating around it in a semi-circle.
On the way back, at the far outskirts of the town of Pepin, we had to stop by the new winery Villa Billezza, which truly looks as though it were a brand new version of something plucked right out of the Tuscan countryside,
so much so that you stand there in awe of the grounds and the question over and over again comes up, "is this Pepin, WI"? It turns out that many of the south-facing riverside bluffs of WI share some identical geographical gifts of other European wineries. The grapes were just budding in this June break-out day of sunshine
and luckily we had along with us a willing participant to sample some of the sweet vine fruit.
When we return in a couple of weeks to get Abby, we'll have try the reds.
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