rendezvous & flea market in prairie du chien, WI

Here's the next post in this week's thrifting catch-up: some photos of my trip with my grandparents and aunt down the southwestern border of Wisconsin and the beautiful Mississippi River.

We left La Crosse at 8 AM on Saturday, June 18. Prairie du Chien isn't very far at just over an hourlong drive. The annual Rendezvous attracts visitors from all around the state (and certainly northeastern Iowa, as it's right by the border), offering such diverse events as:

longbow making
flint knapping (I don't actually know what this is)
1700s medical practices
fiddle playing
primitive cooking contests
pie auctions
primitive bow shoots

It's basically a large fur trade reenactment, with the majority of the vendors dressing in traditional clothes and living primitively for the weekend, selling handcrafted goods and delicious food. I saw many people in dirty linen tunics, a lot of white people dressed in Native American garb, and one fellow sporting a wholly tattooed upper body, thick silver ring through his nose, and leather flap - that is the only way to describe it - covering his junk to complete the look. Ohhh, Rendezvous.

my fellow antiquer: grandpa!

my new bikini (just kidding! vomitous! but if I went to a flea market without seeing one of these Confederate flag bikinis I'd think I was going crazy...they are unfortunately that prevalent!)

the above quilt top was $25. I loved the colors, but it had about five large, significant tears in it (you can see one at the bottom), and the vendor ended up having something else I preferred.

scary bear

in love with this table. the gingham look, the patchworky cushions, ah! it was child-sized and priced at $15. you'd better believe if I had kiddos this would have been coming home with me!

I  brought some purchases back home with me but I haven't yet photographed them. Today is the third or fourth day of rain in a row and since I love to take my pictures outside in natural light, I'm waiting it out.

The other roadblock to my photo-taking is that I just bought a new point and shoot yesterday after my beloved Canon Powershot, with which I took all of the pictures on my blog so far, was accidentally dropped on a concrete floor at a party. It still turns on and off but it won't take new photos. Luckily the guy who dropped it was very gracious and helped me purchase my new pink Canon Powershot :)