We started a tradition a few years back of taking a weekend getaway after tax season to relax, just Russ and me. We've had fun visiting new places in Kansas, and this year we decided to travel to Wamego. On the way there, we stopped to check out Lake Waubunsee, which was an unexpected "Gem of the Flint Hills." It was a bit windy, but Russ' hair didn't get too messed up, thankfully.
While driving, we also happened upon a herd of buffalo on the plains. Aren't they stately-looking creatures??
A little further up Highway 99, we stopped to read about the stone fences that lined the roadsides. Can you imagine building 16.5 feet of a fence like this for a mere 40 cents?!? Apparently, it was an okay gig, though, because there were miles and miles of stone fences built.
The first town we stopped in was quaint Alma. They had a beautiful historic Lutheran church that we would've loved to tour.
Russ' main reason for visiting Alma was their cheese factory! It wasn't Osceola, but definitely worth the stop. We bought some yummy cheese (super cheap, too!) for our weekend.
What goes great with cheese? Wine, of course. From Alma, we traveled to the booming metropolis of Paxico (population 221), which had an adorable little downtown. . .
. . . to begin our informal Waubunsee/Pottawattomie County wine tour, beginning with Wyldewood Cellars Winery.
We tasted some yummy elderberry wines at Wyldewood and drove outside of town to another historic church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church of Paxico. It was beautiful from the outside. . .
. . .but I was excited that the doors were open so we could admire the inside as well.
We drove from the church through the country to Prairie Fire Winery.
They had a lot of yummy Kansas wines with fun names and labels.
This winery was on a beautiful property and they encouraged us to go exploring. It was a chilly day and we took some delicious mulled wine with us on our leisurely hike.
The views from the top of the hill were really pretty.
The vineyards were rather bare at this point in the season; it made me want to take another trip back in a couple of months to see everything green.
From Prairie Fire, we continued on to our final destination of Wamego, where we found a late lunch at Barleycorn's Downtown Deli.
It was a nice afternoon, so we walked all over downtown, even taking a stroll down the Yellow Brick Road! Wamego is known as the center of the Wizard of Oz universe, which you'll see more of in a bit.
We finished our wine tour in downtown Wamego at the Oz Winery. Their wine names and labels were so unique and creative!
No visit to Wamego would be complete without a tour through the Oz Museum!
There was so much to see in this museum! Of course, they had all of the characters from the book/movie.
They had a copy of the original book from 1900, and all of the books in the series. Did you know there are 14 Oz books?
There were beautiful quilts, woodcarvings, and stained-glass all dedicated to the theme.
They had an old-fashioned theater to watch clips from the movie.
And we even took a pretend ride in the hot air balloon that almost brought Dorothy home.
When we were planning our trip, we were excited to learn that this weekend was their annual Tulip Festival. I LOVE tulips, and couldn't wait to see the thousands advertised.
As our trip got closer -- and our never-ending winter continued -- I was afraid there would be no tulips at all. While the numbers were significantly less than usual, I was glad to see that there were some of my favorite flower in bloom after all.
These flowers made me so happy!
We decided to get checked in to our motel before exploring more of Wamego. As you might have guessed, there aren't a ton of lodging options. We typically go for the Bed & Breakfast option,but the B&B in Wamego was pretty pricey, so we tried out the Simmer Motel.
We weren't sure what to expect, and were very pleasantly surprised by our room. It was recently renovated and very nice!
There was more to see in Wamego, including their famous city park. A Veteran's Memorial was recently completed and it was really beautiful.
The park is known for its old Dutch mill, which was originally used to make flour.
There were supposed to be 10,000 tulips in bloom in the park, and Russ estimated there were more like 157. Oh well, it gives us an excuse to go back another year.
Other sites to see included the Beecher Bible Rifle Church, founded in 1862 by emigrants from Connecticut to support the abolitionist cause.
We also took a drive to the "Cholera Cemetery" where many died along the Oregon Trail.
This was an especially difficult river crossing for the covered wagons and teams traveling west. There was an opportunistic Potawotami man by the name of Louis Vieux who operated a ferry, charging $1 per wagon. He made quite a fortune at that time!
We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a popular bar and grill with a rather un-original name: 4th & Elm. You guessed it, the name is the address. Then we went back to our room and opened a bottle of wine we'd purchased earlier in the day. We bought a couple of souvenir glasses from our winery tour.
The next morning was very rainy, which was a huge bummer for all of the Tulip Festival activities planned. It didn't have any effect on our choice for breakfast at the adorable Friendship House restaurant. Their homemade cinnamon rolls were amazing! I also had a breakfast bierock that was really delicious and filling. It was a great start to our day!
While checking out some of the drier portions of the Tulip Festival events, we ran into this crew!
Possibly our favorite tent was that of the Kansas Tourism. Anyone who knows Russ and me, knows that we like to visit obscure places in Kansas and this tent gave us lots more ideas of destinations!
Another really cool place in Wamego is the Columbian Theater downtown.
This theater was built by a Wamego banker, J.C. Rogers, after he attended the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (also called the "Columbian Exposition" commemorating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of America). Rogers filled his new theater with artwork and artifacts from the fair.
These paintings from 1893 were beautifully restored in the 1990s.
We had another wonderful and relaxing post tax-day getaway! I love this time with Russ, and I'm thankful for Grandmas and Grandpas who are willing to keep the kids while we are gone!
