A Christmas Kind of Town: Phipps Inn & Hudson, WI

Phipps Inn

Today the road has brought me to Hudson, WI.

December has arrived which means it’s time for the annual Christmas review here at the Corner.  This year’s selection was Hudson, WI which is located right across the St Croix River from the Twin Cities and is home to Phipps Inn, owned and operated by Maryellen and Rich Cox.

Weather wise, I had a considerable amount of good fortune as no snow had fallen in the region so I had a clear and safe drive over to Hudson.  I arrived in town about 4:30 and was blown away by the activity in the downtown area.  I mean the joint was jumping!!  Very surprising for a small town.  Later I was to learn that Hudson is considered part of the Twin Cities metro area and receives a lot of visitors in the downtown area due to its plethora of restaurants and shops.

As my car slowly creeped through the heavy traffic, I could already tell that Hudson was a Christmas kind of town with the beautiful Christmas decorations hanging over the main drag as well as the colorful displays in the shop windows.  Once past the main drag, I was able to turn off into the historic district where I found Phipps Inn.

Phipps Inn is an 1884 Queen Anne Victorian mansion that had once been owned by, you guessed it, the Phipps.  They were a wealthy and philanthropic family which, regrettably, has died out though smatterings of their history still exist, both in the form of the inn and in at least one local museum.

I was greeted at the door by Maryellen Cox who gave me a quick, socially distanced check-in and led me to the Peacock Chamber which would serve as my headquarters for a few days.  The inn was lovingly decorated for the holidays and Maryellen told me normally they have even more decorations out, but kept things a little simpler this year due to the pandemic.  Personally, I thought it was just right.

The Peacock Chamber is located on the third floor of the mansion and the floor was once the ballroom before renovations.  The chamber itself is just perfect for a writer.  A half canopy queen sized bed is at the center of the room.  The room contains lush wood paneling, a gas fireplace and a massive two person jacuzzi tub with waterfall faucets.  A small table is located in the corner for breakfast in the morning or, in my case, a place to get some writing done.

After leaving me to my own devices, I did a quick exploration of the house, getting photos of all the Christmas goodness before donning my coat and hat and walking around the neighborhood to get photos of Christmas lights.

After a brisk walk, I decided to get some dinner and ordered some takeout from a popular local bar/restaurant called Paddy Ryan’s and ordered one of their house specialties, Irish Stew.  The stew was right on the money with a lightly spiced broth filled with lamb, bacon, and vegetables.  After dining, it was time to give my Christmas itch a serious scratch so I visited the nearby town of Somerset to take in Sam’s Christmas Village.

Sam’s Christmas Village is located on a 40 acre piece of property by the Apple River in Somerset and boasts a series of displays with a total of over 6 million lights.  Two of the hallmarks of the Village are its 500 foot light tunnel and 50 foot animated Christmas tree.  The property also boasts an onsite restaurant, gift shop and S’mores cabins (cabins that contain fixings and means of making s’mores).  The lights are all outside so social distancing is a snap.  A series of firepits along the path will help ward the chill out of your bones and a mask also makes for a dandy face warmer.  Sometimes Santa Claus can be found wandering the property spreading Christmas cheer.

This place truly awoke the kid in me as I marveled at the intricate light displays.  I honestly could have spent hours there, but, man, it was a frigid night.

I returned to the inn where I reviewed a new album by Omaha musician, Billy McGuigan.  You can read that review here.  At that point, I curled up under the triple sheets of my oh, so soft bed and put out the room lights shortly before my own went out.

The next morning, I rolled out of bed, turned on the fire to warm the room and proceeded to fill my tub.

Now this jacuzzi is a bathing tub, but you have to have the jets turned off when you want to scrub.  The tub has a very interesting effect when the jets are on.  A second waterfall faucet cascades water while the jets are going, but, somehow, doesn’t seem to add any extra water to the tub.  I’m not sure what the trick is, but it’s a neat effect.  After a good long soak, a knock at the door let me know breakfast was ready.

Normally you can have breakfast either in the dining room, your room or the front porch.  For social distancing, breakfast is currently only served in the room.  I found a basket with food and cutlery waiting for me and I enjoyed orange juice, milk, a Pecan French Toast cake or souffle for lack of a better word, raisin scone, sausage, fruit and a couple of chocolate chocolate chip nuggets.

Raisin scone, fruit, OJ, milk, Pecan French Toast Souffle, Sausage, and some dessert is hidden behind the fruit.

With breakfast put away, I took another walk around the neighborhood for some exercise as well as to get photos of houses with Christmas decorations that can only be viewed in daylight.

At noon, I stopped at the Octagon House Museum for a private Christmas tour.  The house had once been home to the Moffatt family and for Christmas the theme is the Christmas of the late 1800s.  The tour guide, Linnae, admitted that they embellish the theme a bit.  The Moffatts were from Scotland and Wales during the Victorian period and Victorian Christmases are very flashy.  However, the Moffatts were devout Baptists and lived very austerely and so would not have had the flash and sizzle of a traditional Victorian Christmas.

Octagon House Museum

It was a pleasant way to see how life was lived in yesteryear.  Photos were not permitted inside the house, but I did buy and photograph some postcards showing the home’s interior so you can get an idea of what the interior looked like.

Upper Left: Living Room Upper Right: Music Room Lower Left: Kitchen Lower Right: Dining Room. The china had been owned by the Phipps family.

When my tour was done, I listened to the Iowa Hawkeyes put a beating on Illinois in football.  Admittedly, it took a couple of quarters for Iowa to kick it into gear, but it’s how you finish that counts.

My stomach started to rumble so I ordered some dinner from the Milwaukee Burger Company and picked up their Jalapeno and Smoked Cheddar Infused Burger with a side of Tailgater’s Chili that I enjoyed in my room.  The burger was just right.  Perfect kick.  Smoky.  And the chili really stuck to your ribs.

I did another walk around the neighborhood and visited the downtown area to get photos of their lights.  I thought about working on this article when I got back and decided I was taking the night off.  The instant I did, my body said, “You got it, boss” and I felt my adrenaline shut off and the toll of a long drive and the running around I’d be doing hit me all at once.  I drew a hot bath and let the jets massage my lower back for about 20 minutes before crawling into bed and reading myself to sleep.

I tell you there’s nothing like a full night of sleep.  I awoke ready to write and breakfast arrived about 9:15am.

Today’s repast included a sticky bun that had an apple cinnamon sauce and sliced pecans (I think), a baked apple with a cherry on top, a tiny square of mint cake, a casserole of eggs, sausage, cheese, potatoes that came with a brown, spicy salsa and my milk and OJ.

Mint cake, milk, OJ, Baked Apple, Breakfast Casserole, salsa, sticky bun and bread.

Another fine meal was tucked away and left me time to finish writing and begin the trip home.  But a stay at Phipps Inn in the quiet town of Hudson can be a restful retreat for you and if you like Christmas there’s always Sam’s Christmas Village and the Twin Cities are just a short drive away.

Until the next time. . .happy travels. . .and happy holidays!

Springtime Snowbird: Red Wing, MN & Golden Lantern

The travel content in my blood had gotten pretty low so I decided it was time to get away for the weekend.  I booked a getaway in Red Wing, MN, home of the Golden Lantern.

While I love travel immensely, sometimes the travel part of travel can get mighty tedious.  My father has an interesting hobby in that he likes to look at atlases to plan his journeys or simply to learn more about the cities that I visit.  When I told him I was heading to Red Wing, I half jokingly asked him if he could plot a route that would be light on interstate.

Dad rose to the challenge and plotted a route.  I asked him how much time this would add to my trip and he asked what time I had planned on getting there.  When I said 3pm, he said I could leave at 6am.  I didn’t particularly relish the idea of tacking an extra 3 hours onto the drive so I figured it would be back to the interstate for me.

A few days before I left, I realized that the route to Minnesota takes me very close to my old hometown of Fort Dodge, IA.  I checked to see how much more time would be added if I went that route and found it would only add an extra hour to the drive.  I contacted my best friend, Josh Kudron, and asked if he wanted to meet me for lunch.  He said yes and I now had a much more satisfying drive on my hands.

It was a very pleasant drive as I drove the route I knew so well, passing through numerous small towns on my way to Fort Dodge.  It had been quite a while since I had visited the old burg and noticed a lot of changes to these small towns.  Just outside of Rockwell City, I found that they were tearing up the highway and had to take a detour which routed me through the tiny town of Rinard and I appreciated adding a new small town to the journey.

I ended up arriving in Fort Dodge about a half hour before I was to meet Josh.  I decided to take a quick jaunt down memory lane and actually get a picture of my first childhood home.  I still remember every nook and cranny of the place.  The house and property had once fallen into quite a bit of disrepair in the years since my family had moved out.  My dad’s lovingly maintained backyard had transformed into an overgrown jungle due to a dispute between the house owners and the owners of the convenience store next door.  At one point, the house had been condemned until it was bailed out by a new owner.

My childhood home. It’s seen better days, but it’s also seen worse.

The new owner made the house look a lot better with a new siding job and I was stunned to see the backyard restored to quite a bit of its former glory.  I snapped a photo and drove off to my old elementary school.

This was my old elementary school

The school had once been a Catholic school and church called Holy Rosary, but had been sold off many years prior.  It had been a rehabilitation center for young girls suffering from drug and alcohol addictions before being bought out by an evangelical church and renamed Community Christian School.  Though I only got one photo, a flood of childhood memories washed over me as a lot of the good times spent there ran through my mind.

Then it was time for lunch.  I met Josh at my favorite fast food joint, Taco Tico.  It’s a pity that there are only 16 of these restaurants in the United States because these are the best tacos ever made.  Josh picked up the tab and we spent a long lunch catching up on old times and filling each other in on recent events.  I ended up having to call an end to lunch as I had to get to Red Wing to check in and bad weather was looming.  Keep that last point in mind.

Ah, Taco Tico!! Yum!!

Now it was off to the interstate to complete my drive to Red Wing.

I arrived in town about 5pm and made my way to the Golden Lantern.  I was greeted by the inn’s owner, Sioux Christensen, and led to my room, J.R.’s Suite.  The room had an incredible calming quality and is very. . .red from thee burgundy curtains and easy chairs to the red blanket on the king bed to the carpeting to the towels.

 

The Golden Lantern is a Tudor Revival mansion that was originally the home of Jesse R (J.R.) Sweazy who was the president of the famed Red Wing Shoe Company which is still in operation today.  The house remained in the family for several generations before his grandson sold the property in 1992 at which point it was renovated into a B & B.

 

I did my normal explorations and helped myself to some cheese and crackers in the living room.  After settling in, I headed to the main drag to have dinner at Bev’s Café.

Bev’s Cafe

Bev’s is normally only open for breakfast and lunch, but stays open for dinner on Friday nights.  I ordered an Inferno burger with some crinkle cut French fries and I enjoyed a leisurely dinner as I continued reading Ten Little Aliens, a sci-fi retelling of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians.

I returned to the inn after dinner where I put my Jacuzzi tub through the paces, even adding a splash of pomegranate to the water because. . .why not.  I don’t know if it added to my relaxation, but I felt pretty sedate when the bath was over.

From there I posted pictures before going to sleep for the night.

Earlier I had mentioned that bad weather had been looming.  Well, I woke up the next morning to. . .wait for it. . .A SNOWSTORM. . .IN MID-APRIL.  I’m talking a full blown, wind whipping snowstorm which canceled all of my exploration plans for the day.

There are worse things than being forced to stay indoors in a comfortable inn.  Luckily I had arranged for even more relaxation by opting to have breakfast in bed that first day.  A tray was left outside my door at 9am and I enjoyed a long breakfast of bacon, fruit, orange juice, apple cinnamon roll, and a frittata/omelet entrée.

Afterwards it was pretty much reading, a little TV, and working on the computer for the day.  I did take my car for a brief spin to keep the engine warm, but the wind was whipping around the snow so much that I was only out for 15-20 minutes.

About 5pm, I walked the block to St Joseph’s Catholic Church to attend worship services.  For a small town, the church was surprisingly big.  Almost as big as the church I attend back in Omaha.  The storm had mushroomed into a full blown blizzard threatening to dump up to a foot of snow by 7am the next day.  Due to the storm, less than 50 people attended the service and the sermon and songs were clipped a bit to get us back home.  Still, it was a good service, if a bit edited.

 

I still needed to eat and ending up finding a Perkins nearby where I started reading a new Sherlock Holmes pastiche, The Red Tower, while I ate a Country Club Melt.  After dinner, I noted with relief that the snow had tapered off which gave the city plenty of time to clean up.  This meant I would be able to head for home tomorrow as extending my stay had been a very serious possibility.

I enjoyed another bath and began writing this article before retiring for the night.

When I woke up the next morning, I peeked out my window and noted that the streets were very clean.  Red Wing only got 5 inches of snow, but had I been just an hour west, I would have been buried.  The Twin Cities received a whopping 10.5” of snow and it was still falling.  At this writing, they are up to 18”.

I joined two other couples for breakfast where we enjoyed strawberries and cream, sausage patties, chocolate crepes, and Eggs Benedict.  A nourishing, tasty breakfast indeed.  Some interesting conversation followed and then I made the long drive home.

I’d like to give the city of Red Wing a redo at some point so I can truly experience the city, but the Golden Lantern is a fabulous inn and definitely gets a recommendation for a visit.  From the large rooms and bathtubs to the gourmet breakfasts, you will certainly have a grand and relaxing time.

Until the next time. . .happy travels.