Nelson Family Blog: La Crosse, WI

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

La Crosse, WI

Well, I dropped the ball and got super behind on blogging. Like, I missed the whole month of July. Whoops. We have been busy, but that's a little sad. So, I will try to catch up over the next couple of posts.

At the end of June, I went to La Crosse, WI for the LWMS National Rally. Some other ladies from church went along as well. I rode with Heather out there, and we shared a room together at the rally. We arrived a little early on Thursday, so we had some time to do some site seeing. La Crosse sits right on the Mississippi River, so it was very beautiful.

The first thing we did when we got to La Crosse (which was a solid 5 hour drive) was a paddle boat tour on the Queen Cruises. It was pretty fun. We got to go on a tour of the Mississippi River, which was beautiful and really interesting. The tour was warm, and lasted a solid 3 hours. Heather and I really enjoyed it, and got to visit with some nice people on the boat.

After the boat, we walked through a nice garden/park area, and then checked into our hotel. After getting settled in, we headed to the Convention Center for the opening church service. This service was really cool. There were about 1200 people in attendance, and we had a church service, with a presentation of flags, choir, and communion. It was really cool to worship with some many other WELS members.

The church service did get a little long, so once it was over we were ready to head back to the room and call it a night. Friday was full of speakers, and workshops, and exploring the city. We also spent some time manning the Sioux Falls booth, since we are hosting the convention next summer.

On Saturday, we had some more speakers. Then, in the evening we had our big banquet meal and entertainment. We had some skits, music, and a really good meal. Overall, it was a good evening.

On Sunday, we had a closing morning church service, and then we got ready to head back home. Overall, it was a nice trip. It was a lot of sitting and listening, so some of the days got really long, but it was also inspiring and really cool to learn what all our missionaries are accomplishing across the world.

On our way home, we stopped at a look out point where we could see the Mississippi River from a high point in the city. That was pretty cool. Then, we hit the road and headed for home. I was ready to be back home. It was a fun little weekend getaway in a pretty city.