Today I’m going to start out strong and kick off the blog with two awesome, family-friendly locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Yesterday we ventured over to White Pine Berry Farm in River Falls to do our annual strawberry picking. Just a quick hop across the border, and you’ll find the most delicious, fresh u-pick berries at the farm. We decided to go on a misty (turned quite rainy), overcast day, and luckily for us that meant we had the fields almost completely to ourselves.

In previous years, it’s been pretty busy when the weather is nice, but they’ve always had abundant picking, regardless. If you want to check what crops they have available and what hours they’re open, the farm posts on their Facebook page and updates their website regularly with pertinent picking info.

We love taking the tractor back to the fields and filling up our buckets with their ruby red gems. This year we didn’t partake in the “kid zone” that they offer, but they do have a couple of alpacas to feed and pet, along with some fun games and occasionally a bounce house.

After you’ve overflowed your berry buckets, be sure to head inside the barn to sample some freshly made donuts and homemade fudge! They offer so many bespoke items like alpaca wool stuffies, local honey, jams, and more.

After we had our fill of farming for the day, we decided to head back across the border to get some pizza. We ended up trying a new-t0-us place called OG Zaza in Saint Paul.
The location could not be better!

If you’re a fan of:
– New Haven style pizza
– Tasty beers
– Dining al fresco
Then this is the place for you. We were a little curious when we initially drove up to the building, but quickly realized we were facing the rear of it and had to go around to the parking lot to enter the courtyard. OG Zaza is located within a distillery called King Coil. The vibe is great, and the pizza was easy to order. One critique I would add is that they don’t allow build-your-own style pizzas, so my simple sausage pizza loving children were a little dismayed, but they made do with cheese and pepperoni.

We decided to head outside to eat in the courtyard. It’s littered with tons of seating, lots of greenery, a huge watertower to sit under, and some cool art. Lake Monster Brewing Co. is just steps away, which makes it really easy to go grab a beer to wash your pie down with. My husband got an apple cider ale that was crisp and refreshing.

Once we finished eating, we cleaned up and headed inside the building that surrounds the courtyard. We kept seeing people going in and coming out holding iced coffees, so naturally we had to check it out.
Inside the building was the most hip coffee shop possibly known to man, SK Coffee. I ordered a decaf iced mocha, half-sweet, as usual. The barista was great and took the time to tell me that they use a 70% cacao syrup, so it wouldn’t be too sweet. He encouraged me to try it made normally and offered to remake if I didn’t like it. I took his advice and was so glad I did, it was made perfectly and wasn’t cloyingly sweet or overpowering.

We decided to stroll around the building which was adorned with tons of colorful things to look at and fun art installations.
All in all, it was a great afternoon filled with both rural and urban fun! If you decided to stop by and check anywhere that I’ve recommended out, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!