My literary travels didn’t end when I left Green Gables, Anne Shirley’s home on Prince Edward Island’s North Shore.

About three weeks ago, I packed up my Vibe and headed west to visit the museum of another children’s lit favorite–Laura Ingalls Wilder.

After a childhood of moving with Pa and Ma from little houses in the Big Woods, on the prairie, at Plum Creek, and Silver Lake, Laura married Almanzo Wilder.

The couple also moved from place to place but eventually settled near Mansfield, Missouri with their young daughter Rose. They bought forty acres which Laura named Rocky Ridge Farm.

As the years went by, they added acreage and added on to their home.

Rose became a successful journalist, earning enough money to build her parents another home on their property.

It was here, at Rock House, that Laura first wrote her popular children’s books.

Much of the furniture and dishes inside the house belonged to the Wilders, but we weren’t allowed to take interior photographs.

The plans came from a Sears catalog, but Rose hired an architect and added her own touches influenced by her time in England and California.

Take a “photo” walk with me around the outside of Rock House. Be sure to come back next week for the exterior of the house Almanzo built.