{travelpantz} the best pizza i have ever had + day one of our minnesota road trip

so, we have been back from our cross-minnesota road trip for a few weeks now, but i still have a few great posts i want to share.

todays involves pizza, wisconsin & a picture of grandpas. ;)

when we started our 8-day cross-minnesota road trip ; we left minneapolis on wednesday afternoon. our first stop was nesbitt's nursery in prescott, wisconsin. [yes, our first stop in our MINNESOTA road trip was in WISCONSIN!]

each wednesday night from 430-8pm, they have pie night. they hand-make pizza pie, sweet pies & savory pies [quiche]. everything is made on-site & most of the ingredients come from the farm.

they have live music [when we were there, there were four grandpas playing swing music], fresh squeezed lemonade & a great patio.

no dogs allowed on the patio, so when the pizza came, we sat under a big tree with daphne & enjoyed the country.

the pizza was amazing! ours was a large caramelized pear & goat cheese.

not only did we eat the entire pizza, but we also bought two slices of pie!

inside the shop, they also have a market FULL of local items ; honey, soap, dish towels, ect.

we had a really great time! if you live in // near eastern MN or western WI ; i highly recommend stopping for pie night! 

have you ever been to a place like this?!

[travelpantz] // the day we visited 1899 & photos from our minnesota road trip

how many photos are too many to add in a post?
so, we have been back from our trip for a couple weeks now & i still havent shared any photos [sorry, mom!]
[blake, daphne & i took an 8-day road trip across the state of minnesota. we camped each night at a different state park, ate s'mores, hiked hills and bluffs & visited a bunch of historic sites]

on day 3 of our trip, we camped at forestville state park [for the locals, its thisclose to the iowa border, on the eastern side of the state]. the park is beautiful & we spent two days hiking & exploring.
inside the state park is historic forestville ; its a minnesota history site & its SO COOL!
in the late 1800s, forestville was a real town with residents, a general store, a road, ect ect.

we are minnesota historical society members, so we get in free to all the sites around the state. this is our second year with a membership and this is by far, the coolest site i have been to.
what makes it different, is that its a living history site ; which means there are costumed actors that are living in 1899. and they DONT break character! so, everything you talk about is in regards to 1899. which means, there is no internet, women dont work outside the home OR vote and folks are living off dollars a day!
i am a total sucker for stuff like this!

what we saw :
when you walk through the gate, there is a women that talks to you in 2013, but explains when you cross the dirt road, its 1899 & the actors wont answer your 'current' questions.

so, we cross the street & start in the general store. many of the items in the store are original items that were left when the shop was boarded up in 1910.

from the store, we went into the house [in 1899, the man who owned the store lived in & owned the house] & spoke with his sister. she took us through the house & into the kitchen where we saw what she was making for lunch, where she stores all of her preserves, this sitting room where the men gathered & told us her story of riding the ferris wheel at the worlds fair in chicago!

we left the house & toured the garden with the head gardener. he let us sample some fruit & told us about his typical days work.

after the garden, we entered the small barn // tool shed where blake was able to sculpt a table leg out of a fallen tree branch. there were a dozen chickens that were roaming free & we were able to enter their coop, too. [i passed ; chickens make my skin crawl..]
finally, we entered the main barn, where the animals would have lived in 1899.

we ended the tour with a photo in a buggy ;)

you guys, this was so awesome! we had a really great time & the actors did such an awesome job!
if you are in minnesota & want to take a road trip, the southeastern part of the state is beautiful!

have you ever been to a 'living history farm' before?

travelpantz in europe : a hidden gem in hungary! :

Budapest, Hungary: A Hidden Gem

Hello, friends of Diana!
My name is Jennifer and I write a little travel blog of sorts called Jenni Austria Germany. 
I've spent a good part of the past three years living and traveling abroad, mostly in Austria and Germany [bet you didn't see that coming, did you?].
As a result of these experiences, I've developed many opinions [maybe a little too many], one of which is: don't prematurely judge a city by its reputation or lack thereof.
For me, some cities [London, for instance] truly live up to their name, whereas others [Rome, ugh] leave something [or many things] to be desired.

Indeed, most tourists, when planning their European excursions, focus on the more popular hotspots: London, Paris, Rome. Now, I have some great memories in Paris, and London is one of my favorite cities, but I consider Budapest to be a surprisingly delightful city and find myself wondering why more tourists don't flock to Hungary's capital.

One reason why I love Budapest?
It's very, very, very inexpensive. According to the current exchange rate, a single U.S. dollar buys 233 Forints (the Hungarian currency). I once bought a jacket in Budapest for less than $2.00. A friend of mine, Chris, once withdrew the equivalent to $50 from an ATM in Budapest and had to go out of his way to spend it all before the weekend was over. He resorted to buying food and drinks for everyone, lest he have some leftover Forints, useless outside of Hungary's borders.

As far as sight-seeing goes, the Danube River which separates Buda from Pest (the two sub-cities that make up Budapest as a whole) is beautiful. Really, there are treasure troves to be discovered upon nearly every main street -- a Parliamant building here, a cozy little tea house there.

But the best part of Budapest [in my opinion] is...the baths.
The enormous thermal baths serve both medicinal and recreational purposes and lend themselves to Budapest's title of "the city of spas". While it is the older generation who mostly frequent these magical water wonderlands, you won't feel out of place as a young tourist. You'll have your choice of indoor and outdoor baths, but I prefer the outdoor. After paying an entry fee depending on the number of hours you plan to spend there, you'll change into your swimsuit, store your clothes in a locker and then enter the 'bathing' area. As the baths are modeled after those of ancient Greece, you'll feel as though you've gone back in time. And speaking of time -- it doesn't matter during what season you visit Budapest; the baths are heated. Winter, spring, summer, fall -- no worries, they'll be open. So set aside a day [or two] [[or three]] for the baths and soak your life away in the warm, calming waters. You won't be sorry. And if you are, I'll reimburse you the $3.00 it cost you to swim there.
___________________________________________________________________

i love it!
the post from chelsea about backpacking [on the cheap] through europe & this one from jenni makes me dream about going back to europe.
[i lived in germany for 5 months!]

stay connected with jenni!
twitter // blog [she has pages & pages of travel photos & stories from all over europe ; i love it!]

: blog i love tuesday : and a few more pictures from the weekend :

hey!
did you see my goals for june?
[they are the post below]

anyways, i love blogging. i love lurking reading blogs. and i love being inspired by other peoples pretty pictures and good ideas.

this is dianna.

 [whoa. same name!]
and she blogs over here.
i love the colors of her layout and the cursive font is really sweet.
she blogs about being crafting, reading a lot of good books and all of her fancy cooking.
[90% of what she makes, i cant eat, but i love seeing all the recipes. and one of these days, i will veganize a few of her things and post them over here]

go read her blog. say hello. tell her that her name is really cool ;)

also, here are a few more pictures from our weekend.
[yesterday = brunch with our dear friend emily, a 25 mile bike ride, meeting some friends in the park and checking out the waterfalls. after we got home, i got into 'craft gear' and knocked a million things off the list.]

also, i dont know how i havent mentioned this yet : be we are going on vacation this week!
where??!
stop one = washington dc to see my super cute friend sho. and to see THE BACKSTREET BOYS! if you have been reading for a while, or have known me since 7th grade, you know that i am in LOVE with nick carter all of the backstreet boys! we will be in dc for a few days ; hopefully riding bikes, eating vegan treats and doing this workout. seriously.
stop two = north carolina to see blakes family. also, riding bikes. not eating animals. and hopefully not getting eaten by sharks in the ocean.

anybody been to raleigh or dc?
what should we do?
[we are huge fans of the show bones. and blake wants to find the founding fathers bar, although, we are sure it doesnt exist.]

ok.
byel

: i am a crafting M-A-C-H-I-N-E! :

love it.
today was a 'craft-at-home-day'
i am slowly getting faster. [ha. that sounds silly]

all new things are going up in my shop after this post.
check it all here.

ohh.
i am happy with these.

timberwolves game tonight. we got 2 tickets for $2.50. cheap date night. i am excited.
[30 days of list post coming soon!]

: NEW PROJECT! :

oh, how exciting!
i have a lot of ideas flying through my brain.
and on paper. and in my dreams. 

i have two new lines that i want to produce.
1) babypantz : kid stuff. baby stuff. i have 2-4 ideas in the works. like, really in the works.
2) travelpantz : bags and pouches that will help you get to where you need to go.

i know that a lot of my friends/family read this blog [hey guys!]. i also know that i have been getting views from all over the country, from humans i dont personally know [hey!]. so a small 'about me' ...
i am from minnesota. i was born there [here.] i moved to iowa. and then back. and then iowa. and then back. and then i moved to germany. back to minnesota. and then vermont. and then portland, oregon. and now, as of 6 months ago, i am back living in minneapolis.
i have always considered minnesota 'home.' always. even when i didnt have an address in mn, it was always where i fit. coming back, and knowing that i will stay is a cool feeling. ive done a lot of moving. a lot of figuring out who i am. and where i should be. im pretty sure its here for now.

so, the first two :travelpantz: bags :::::: [i am so happy with these] [also, these are just iphone photos, i will take better ones when the sun is shining!

right now, i have fabric cut for a million more bags, but these are the two i have done today. [if youd like a bag with your state, let me know!][these will be in my shop in a few days!]