a mini getaway

On Saturday Matthias decided we needed to go on a little road trip. Although we go for drives in the area fairly often, we don't usually go with a destination in mind. This time we decided to visit the Potosi Brewery in Potosi, Wisconsin. We had tried a couple of their beers before this and were eager to see the brewery.

There's a restaurant as well as The National Brewery Museum. We ate outside on the patio beside gardens and a pool filled with fish.

The food was delicious (as was the beer!). We didn't stay for the museum because we wanted to have plenty of time for our next stop.

From Potosi we drove on to Dubuque, crossing the Mississippi into Iowa.

We were headed to the Botanical Gardens. Admission was free and the gardens were very nice. There was a fairly large rose garden.

Almost all of the roses were filled with blooms (and the blooms, it was sad to see, were filled with Japanese beetles). I was a bit surprised that the garden didn't feature more hardy and Old varieties, but it was beautiful anyway. I'm always happy to visit a rose garden, no matter what kinds of roses it might hold. A few, like Elle, above, were fragrant, too, my favorite part.

I really enjoyed the herb garden, especially this little corner filled with basils.

And after tramping around in the full sun and heat of those areas and a few others (including a bed filled with some gorgeous dahlias), it was refreshing to walk through the shady hosta garden.

The sign claimed that they have the largest public collection of hostas.

As we made our way to the Japanese garden and koi pond (avoiding the wedding that started soon after we left the rose garden), we walked through an area where Matthias spotted a toad hopping through the grass. I crouched down to look and a tiny toad jumped on my arm. Then we noticed more tiny toads hopping all around us. Matthias found what's probably the tiniest toad I've ever seen:

The koi pond itself was a bit of a disappointment, but the gardens surrounding it were pretty.

As we walked back, ready to leave, I realized we'd missed the wildflower area. I'm glad we decided to go back for it because along its outside path I kept noticing roses, Old Roses. The entire wildflower garden is surrounded by Old Roses and other, newer, ultra-hardy varieties.





These, unlike the roses in the rose garden were not being sprayed. Many were blooming.

Unfortunately some of the labels were wonky and didn't always correctly name the varieties. If I hadn't been so overheated and dehydrated at this point in our visit I probably would have spent some more time investigating the plants and taking photos. Even so, it was a nice surprise finish to our visit.

It's fun to explore our new area. There are still so many places for us to discover, even if we do love spending time in our own garden most of all.

What about you? What have you been discovering lately?