Oh, the Places You’ll Visit! YO U ’ L L B E S E E I N G G R E AT S I G H T S A R O U N D T H E VA L L E Y. With a Valley as wonderful as ours, it’s no doubt that there are plenty of wonderful places to visit and see. Whether it’s for a casual brunch or a delectable dinner, time spent volunteering, afternoons sailing or mornings playing, the spots you’ll visit in our quaint space are ones to surely embrace. So, get on your way and visit a few of my favorite locations around the St. Croix Valley. written by Hailey Almsted photos by Chris Emeott
LEND A HELPING HAND
My story with Coco’s Heart Dog Rescue (CHDR) starts a little unexpectedly. In 2019, my (now) fiancé and I took an anniversary trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in September. But our adoption story starts months before, when we saw an adorable husky litter that had just been put up for adoption on the CHDR website. We’d been searching for a small breed, but I immediately felt drawn to one particular pup in this litter—Athena, a white husky with her tongue sticking out in her intake photo. Fast forward three months later, she’s still available for adoption—all seven siblings had already been adopted—so we made a promise that, if she was still available after our vacation, we’d put in an application. While
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waiting for our flight home, we decided to apply. Three days later, we’d officially adopted our first pup and renamed her Nova. It felt like fate—we were waiting for the right dog, and she was waiting for her right owners. Now, over two years later, my journey with CHDR continues. Director Ashley Kurtz had a childhood dog named Coco, who died when she was young—it left an impact on Kurtz, who founded CHDR in 2010. Since the inception, when its beginnings were small and dogs were being fostered with a small group, it has grown to a large-scale operation. It opened a facility in Somerset, Wisconsin, where it hosts its own veterinary clinic, office space and, hopefully one day, an animal sanctuary. “It’s so beautiful to us because we’ve been oper-
