The OWLs braved the cold for two very nice events in January. Many of us traveled to Winona for a fun day of lunch and a visit to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. We are blessed to have such a fabulous art collection so close by. The potluck was a rousing success with 32 of us attending Pastor Karyn’s educational and inspiring presentation on the trip to Israel.

December was an exciting month for the OWLs. Many of us traveled to Sugar Creek for an excellent program, meal and music. We followed that with a Christmas potluck full of great food and fun games. Dressed in our Christmas sweaters, everyone went home full of Christmas goodies with smiles on their faces.

The holiday season is always a good time for fellowship with friends old and new as we prepare for the birth of Christ. The OWLs have developed a couple of traditions for the holiday season. The details are below and as always will look forward to including new people in our activities. December is a great month to give us try, Christmas spirit abounds and the fun is continuous.

September began with a fun potluck and music from the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s sitting on the deck at the Narvesons. It was a beautiful day and fun was had by all. The month was completed with a tour of Mayowood Mansion and Gardens in Rochester.

May and June were great fun for the OWLs. Our May trip on the Winona Trolley and visit to Pickwick Mill was fun and educational for all. The photos were taken at Pickwick Mill, one of the oldest surviving flour mills in Minnesota. The water wheel really works!

The OWLs will be taking July off for vacation fun and summer outings. Our next meeting will be our August Potluck on Wednesday, August 5th at noon.

May got us off to good warm weather start with our trip to Winona on the trolley and a fun potluck showing old photographs and telling stories of summers past. A good time and great food was had by all.

We will kick off June with the Potluck one week earlier than usual. Out potluck will be held on Wednesday June 10th, at noon in the fellowship hall. Our speaker for the program will be Gerald (Jerry) Bonsack a well-known photographer and Environmental Engineer in our area. Jerry recently returned from a cruise to Alaska where he used some exciting new photographic techniques to capture the glaciers and landscapes of the Alaskan cruise. If you are a photographer you will be interested in the techniques Jerry uses to capture the images in his program. If you are a travel enthusiast you can just sit back and enjoy the view with Jerry’s interesting insights. We will meet in the fellowship hall so we can view the presentation of the large screen.

The OWLs March began with an exciting trip to the International Festival of Owls in Houston, Minnesota. Many of us got up early on a Saturday morning to experience a day of owls. We saw a very interesting program featuring a number of live rescue owls, learned about the owl art now on display around the town of Houston. Had an owl-themed lunch, saw a video on the Italian owls festival and bought owl souvenirs. You could easily say the day was a hoot….

The OWLs are a hearty bunch. In spite of subzero temperature, we gathered for our potluck on Ash Wednesday. Thanks to everyone who brought extra food to help feed the mid-day worshipers. After a fantastic lunch, we had a fun time learning about each other’s heritage. We found a great number of us are from Norwegian descent, but we also have a few Germans and some from England. A great time was had by all… just see the photos on the left!

For March we hope for warmer weather as we leave the confines of La Crosse for our outing. We will travel to Houston, Minnesota, on Saturday, March 7, to visit the International Owls Festival. 

In spite of cold and snow the OWLs had a very enjoyable January. Our outing to the Johnsmith concert at the Pump House preceded by dinner at the Waterford provided much warmth, laughter and good music during our Friday Night Out. Our potluck with speaker Rob Wessler presenting his experiences in China was fun and informative.

In February our theme will be history and heritage. Our first event is our potluck which will be on Ash Wednesday, February 18 at noon in the narthex. As we have done in the past we will provide lunch to Lenten worshipers after the morning service. Please bring some extra food to share. For our program we will once again turn to ourselves and have an opportunity to get to know each other better through our stories. Our theme is history and heritage. We all come from different backgrounds and national heritages. Please come prepared to tell a little about yourself and your family heritage. Each person will have about five minutes to share memories, show family artifacts or simply tell a story about their youth or ancestors. If you know some of your family genealogy and would like to share, that is fine too. As always, you can sit and listen if you prefer not to share.

The cold weather did not slow the OWL’s down in November. On Friday Nov. 7th we (27 of us) took the opportunity for a Friday night out. It started with a great dinner at the Westview Inn and ended with a fun Las Vegas style show featuring the “Phat Pack” at the Heider Center in West Salem. A great time was had by all....

The OWL’s will get the fall season started with an exciting road trip to our state capitol in Madison. We will depart the church at 8:00AM on Wednesday Sept. 10th. Our September Potluck with be in the Narthex on Wednesday, Sept. 17th at noon.