Hey! Hey? Hey! What's Up Dunn County🌞
La Dee Dah & Ladies Night Out! - Dunn County Alternative Education - Detours to Beauty🌻🌳🌾
I'm not talking about the song, “La Dee Dah” from the 1960's Four Seasons. I am talking about a really, really fun shop with unique gifts for others or a splurge for yourself right in Downtown Menomonie. It's been a while since I stopped by to purchase some cool earrings to spruce up my wardrobe and have a friendly chat with Karen Hurtgen, who was then owner of La Dee Dah's Gift Shop since 2008. When I made my entrance into La Dee Dah's to find a baby shower gift which by the way, has many cool handmade with love items for baby's and toddlers, found the only change in the gift shop's environment is a new friendly cashier and owner of La Dee Dah's to chat with! Her name is Emilie Menz. She is the proud owner along with her husband, Jon who honorably kept the iconic name - La Dee Dah in which Karen built up over the last 18 years before handing the gift shop to the Menz's. It still has the same uniqueness of gifts for everyone. Yes! Even for the guys! From jewelry, inspirational plaques and handmade gifts for baby's and the kitchen for the gals to wallets, pens, hats and shot glasses for the guys. The Menz's are truly keeping the legend of La Dee Dah in Downtown Menomonie alive. A great time to check out La Dee Dah's is to call or text all your girlfriends to get together for some fun in historic Downtown Menomonie for another iconic tradition of Ladies Night Out on Thursday, July 21st for some shop, dine and browse extravaganza. It starts at 11 am and winds down at 8 pm. If you want to know all the shops and places to chow at in Downtown Menomonie ahead of time, you can go to www.downtownmenomonie.com. I have participated in a few over the years and it is quite the adventure, even if you are all by yourself. Trust me, you will not be alone for long. So many Dunn County neighbors to hang out with🙂
Are any Dunn County parents out there looking for an alternative for your children’s current education? Do you feel you need more control over what your children are being taught? Than I may have a great resource that gives you steps to take to plug your children into an alternative source of education if considering exiting the public school system or just transferring to another public school district. DCEA, Dunn County Alternative Education has a website called, www.dunncoeducationalternatives.org that gives you some local options available if you are looking for a change in your child's education. It shows you steps to take if you want to apply to a different public school district, a private school, online virtual school whether through SDMA, virtual charter school or any other online program out there to curtail to your child's needs and the parents budget and lastly homeschooling. There is even information available for children with special needs. And if you have lots of questions or just need more information to take that first step, please come to Alternative Education Night brought to you by Dunn County Patriots at Kyote's Den just west of Menomonie on Highway 29 on Thursday, July 28th at 6:30 pm to listen and learn more about alternative education available in Dunn County. You will be surprised how many options are actually available for your children’s educational growth. It's time to explore all the different avenues toward expanding your children’s horizon to alternative education.
Summer time is always a great time to hop in the car or motorcycle or bike and take a little trek to some fun in the sun with the sunroof open, or your hair blowing in the wind from a convertible, or what's left of your hair after putting on your helmet for those adventurous winding road motorcycle trip or the downhill ardreline bike ride. Sounds like a blast until you hit those construction zones that are popping up in Dunn County. Especially if you are on a time crunch, construction zones are no fun when you end up taking a detour that might take more time out of your day to get to your final destination than your original route.
It happened to me, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon headed up to Northern Dunn county on County Q for a baby shower. I was looking forward to a winding country road trip through the rolling hills of Knapp and New Haven township on County Q. I made it to Knapp! But just north of Knapp a bridge was out due to repair work. Back tracked and headed on Hwy 12 toward Wilson to only find one lane open because of another bridge construction. This resulted in a delay because of stop lights at the construction site. And believe me, it felt like FOREVER while waiting for the green light to give us cars and trucks back on the road again to travel along to our final destination. Than when I arrived in Downing thinking I got this and back on track to hop back on County Q, the road was torn up and looked like a gravel pit type road 🤦♀️ Uggg!!! And I ended up in Boyceville hitting Hwy 79 north to Connorsville. My frustration started to grow as I looked at the clock in my car realizing I have been driving for almost an hour. 😳 After some deep breaths to relieve my stress I was prompted to just relax and enjoy Heavenly Father's beauty of the earth. Forget about the time and just soak in the beauty. And as I began to just enjoy the beautiful landscape of Northern Dunn countryside I was much more relaxed and struck with awe of the beauty of the trees, some rock formations along with running creeks and farm land AND winding roads😃 So I am calling this road trip, “Detour of Beauty”. Detours can spice things up in our road trip adventures. So do not fret if you end up taking a detour. It could very well be your best road trip yet!
From one Dunn County neighbor to another-Have a Sunny Summer Dunn County Days 🌞
Laurie J Christianson