So, we are driving home from a quick day-trip to Minneapolis and as we drop down that final decent along the River, what do we see? Silently gliding up the Mississippi River is our Viking Cruise ship, what a site to see. It’s sleek and it definitely glides as it makes its way along the river. A friend said he was out kayaking near Iowa and went around a bend to come face to face with the five story ship. It’s far better than I expected and hope you get a chance to see it. Can you tell I’m fascinated by this boat?
The cost is something to consider, but also consider you are floating along in a five star hotel with the most outstanding food and entertainment. We are really happy La Crosse is one of the stops Viking chose, we will do our best to show the passengers a great time. There are several shore excursions, one going into central Wisconsin to Talieson for the Frank Lloyd Write experience!
Here’s a link you can check out and see if it doesn’t float your boat: https://www.channel3000.com/i/viking-mississippi-cruise-ship-makes-stop-in-la-crosse/
In other news, we like to keep you up to date on our projects and I have a big announcement to make….ready? We have been working hard to get the carriage house painted before winter. We noticed one of the first things guests see when the drive into the parking area is peeling paint and faded colors on the carriage house. That’s not very Castlelike, so we pushed things around on the project list and got started painting the front of the carriage house, which is quite tall! What a chore, the whole front is covered in cedar shingles of different shapes, which means it all has to be painted by hand with a barn brush (new term for me to learn) and it’s really one shingle at a time. Might as well do it right, as we try to do with everything around the Castle. That means painting on primer first and then a good coat of paint. Painting the front of the carriage house twice took a few weeks but it was well worth it. It looks a hundred times better. We had Gordon make new storm windows for all the windows, about twenty of those. Now my turn to paint each one three times, primer and two coats of red paint. It is almost done for the season.
And now for big announcement, I hadn’t forgotten. We are well on our way to reopening the Castle Gift Shop. We had a wonderful gift shop when we opened but all that changed with COVID. Now we have been chosen as a brand partner for some wonderful and exceptional things I’ll write about in another post and will officially launch that line of products. We look forward to again supporting local artists and craftspeople with the jewelry, pottery, metalwork, weaving, stained glass and more. For 130 years the Castle has been welcoming friends, family and guests. That tradition continues with our Bed and Breakfast. The big stone house is alive with music and color and people coming and going. I can imagine that was the plan all along when Jesse and N. B. Holway decided to build their home on Cass Street. It’s a joy for us and more rewarding than we can say to be able to share it.
Take care, safe travels. Make your holiday travel plans soon and stay in your favorite room at Castle La Crosse. The holiday decorations go up soon, too. Let’s get past Thanksgiving and pumpkin season first.
Billy & Brandon
