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I'm back from La Crosse, WI, a lovely little town at the confluence of the Mississippi & Black rivers. Actually, there are so many waters that come together in this region that it's known as "Seven Rivers": major waterways are the Black, La Crosse, Root, Kickapoo, Trempealeau, and Bad Axe rivers, as well as the Mississippi, an impressively broad channel even this far north. My hotel was right across from Riverfront Park, which was a lovely place to stroll in the mornings before it got too hot. Here I'm looking to the south - the bridge crossing the river here heads west into Minnesota.

La Crosse, in addition to being a charming riverfront town with lots of restaurants and shopping, also boasts a minor-league baseball team -- the La Crosse Loggers, who were in the hunt for a wildcard berth in the Northwoods League playoffs when we caught a game one evening. The Loggers, who are all NCAA athletes (and unpaid in order to retain eligibility,) played sloppy but with a good deal of fire. The Loggers overcame a one-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth when the first baseman crushed it over the right-field wall with a man on third. Quite the exciting finish!