Wisconsin!

The land of beer, cheese, supper clubs and brats!

Tim and I just got back from Wisconsin, which by the way makes state No. 40 for me! (I just need North Dakota, the Carolinas, the states of New England and Alaska!)

We started out with a stop in Chicago to visit my sister and brother-in-law. We had to get in a stop to Ikea, do a little shopping and have a deep-dish pizza before venturing into American’s Dairyland. Little did I know cheese, super clubs and beer would become such a big part of our trip!

We drove up to Milwaukee Friday morning, with a stop along the way to Marz Cheese Castle. Not only did this place sell lots of Wisconsin cheese, but was in a building in the shape of a castle. We were soon to discover the castle is a popular architecture motif in Wisconsin.

We stayed downtown and ventured out to the Water Street Brewing Company. I tried my first ever Scotch egg and some local brew. Next up it was Mader’s – Home of the Giant Pretzel – where, yes, we had a giant pretzel! It was huge! This was spilt between four people.

Its glasses of wine and drinks were also huge! I enjoyed some strawberry wine and Tim had a giant old fashioned. In addition to beer, Wisconsin also makes a mean old fashioned – sweet or sour OR press or water.

The highlight of the evening was our visit to the Five O’clock Supper Club. It was our first trip to this great Wisconsin tradition, which includes fish frys every Friday, relish trays at the table, brandy old fashioned sweets at the bar, huge steaks, seafood and game.  I must say my filet was the best I’d ever had, and I am a Nebraska girl! (Sorry Husker House and Misty’s!) First of all, I LOVE getting a relish tray at my table. There was a restaurant in Columbus that used to do this – Johnny’s Steakhouse. Their liver pate was my favorite as were its crab legs with drawn butter. I miss that place. Anyways…at the Five O’clock Supper Club, you put in your order at the bar, and when you are seated at your table, the relish tray, salad and bread is waiting for you. I was full already after all this, but then came my fillet with mushrooms – yum!  The steak was done a perfect medium rare with a nice char on the outside. We also added a shrimp cocktail and crab mac and cheese to our table. It was the best! We were all so full afterwards! We learned about this place from a friend of my sister’s whose Mom owns the place. What a great find!

On day four, we ventured to my brother-in-law’s parents’ lake house, where we spent a rainy afternoon on Lake Puckaway, visiting some of the local establishments, including Good Old Days which had the best burgers ever, and getting in a little shopping.

The next day we said our goodbyes and headed up to Baraboo, Wis., where we toured Circus World – yes, who knew the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey used to winter here each year with its circus?

Next up it was a bloody mary, which included a delicious slice of Nueske’s bacon in it – yum — at Driftless Glen Distillery. We sat along the river, taste-tested some of its spirits and olive oil and vinegar. It was truly a great find!

After this we ventured to find Frank Lloyd Wright’s summer home – Taliesin. I have now been to all three of his residences – Taliesin West in Phoenix, his home in Oak Park, Ill., and this one in Spring Green, Wis.

The last stop of the day was The House on the Rock. First of all, we had no idea what a complex this place was. It also was the weirdest place I think I have ever visited! The house, built on a rock, is room after room built around nature, with an Infinity Room that juts off the rock and into the air. Just walking out on it gave me the creeps! The man that built the house – Alex Jordan – also was a collector of many things from dolls to Asian art, Tiffany lamps and more. We just toured the house and called it a day. We spent about an hour in the house. The entire complex takes four to five hours, we were told.

Our fifth night of vacation was spent in Madison. We drove through the University of Wisconsin campus and enjoyed dinner at Cooper’s Tavern on Capitol Square. The UW lakeside campus was very picturesque. At Cooper’s we both had to have salads after splurging on pizza, steak and burgers the days before!

Day six was one of my favorites with a stop at New Glarus Brewing Co. I have never visited a brewery that was so pleasant. It not only had a tasting room, but a beautiful outdoor beer garden where you can imbibe. The brewery is built on a rocky bluff, made to look like a Swiss village, as is the rest of the town of New Glarus. We enjoyed another stop at the Maple Leaf Cheese and Chocolate Haus, where we first picked up cheese and crackers to have with our beer tasting picnic at the brewery.

 

After New Glarus we made our way to Galena, Ill., for the night. Galena is a picturesque small town with a beautiful Main Street that includes numerous shops, restaurants and wine tasting rooms.

Our favorite is Galena Cellars, where I had to stock up on a few of my favorites. We definitely plan to enjoy the wine from Galena and beer from New Glarus this summer.

And that is our trip in a nutshell. Summer road trips are one of my favorites. Our next trip will be another road trip later this summer to California. What are some of your favorite road trips?

Holiday Trip 2014 — The Virgin Islands

Blue blue water.

That is often what I say when I see things like this:

The Baths, Virgin Gorda

And this:

Trunk Bay, St. John

There is nothing I love to see more than that blue blue water.

Tim and I just got back last week from our first visit to the Virgin Islands, where we enjoyed several beaches, boating, snorkeling, drinking painkillers and just plain relaxing.

The Virgin Islands are a unique place in the Caribbean in that it is super easy to visit more than one island via boat and/or ferry. The idea of island hopping really appealed to Tim and I as we often can’t stay in one place when we are on vacation. We typically have to see everything that we can see. So, when we were trying to decide where to go, this aspect definitely appealed to us.

We started off our trip flying into St. Thomas, the gateway to the Virgin Islands. This is also where we set up our base camp, staying at the Frenchman’s Reef Marriott. The hotel had great service, beautiful Morning Star beach and plenty of restaurants and activities to choose from. While it was a big resort, it didn’t feel crowded. We were always able to find a lawn chair by the pool or the beach.

After finding our way from the airport to the rental car office and then to the hotel in our rental car (more on driving on St. Thomas in a bit), we were ready to relax. Tim had made us reservations at Havana Blue. One of the best restaurants at the hotel, if not the entire islands. Right by the ocean, you could hear the waves hit as you enjoyed your meal. We enjoyed tapas at the Cuban-inspired, tropical restaurant, both times we ate there — on our first and on our last nights. From sticky shrimp to fillet tacos and passion fruit ceviche with plantains to the mango pain killas, it was really yummy.

On our first full day on the island, we decided to go out exploring. We had rented a car after all. Driving in St. Thomas is not for everyone. The roads are narrow and at times reminded me of being on a roller coaster. However, we often like to get out and beach hop and snorkel. Our first stop was Coki Beach, known for its snorkeling. However, to get there you have to get off the main road and take a less-traveled road to the beach. While it was a less-traveled road, we didn’t think there would be water running across it! After waiting a bit to see other cars go over it, we did it too and came upon a gorgeous beach. At Coki Beach, you’ll meet several locals who will want to do everything for you from finding you a parking spot to renting you a lawn chair and selling you a drink. We were just there for the snorkeling and really enjoyed it. There are tons of fish and on the right side of the beach, there are some rocks that offer some great corals. After leaving and getting on the main road, we enjoyed lunch at Duffy’s Love Shack. This is a must stop for your visit in the Virgin Islands. If we would of been there longer we would of also visited again for happy hour and later into the night for dancing. We had the best conch fritters we’ve ever eaten. Conch fitters are our favorite thing to eat in the Caribbean. After finishing up there, we went back to the hotel for beach and pool time.

Day 3 was my favorite day (although it is a close tie with Day 5). On this day, we did our excursion to the British Virgin Islands. We hoped on our boat early at 7 a.m. and made our way to Virgin Gorda, home of The Baths. Pictures do not do these large rocks justice (see above). Nor do pictures show the crazy trail we hiked to get to this beach. Absolutely beautiful! After this stop, we had lunch at Marina Cay, home of Pusser’s Restaurant. Tim enjoyed a cuban sandwich and I a mahi mahi sandwich, and of course, we had painkillers! After lunch it started to rain, but that didn’t stop us from snorkeling Diamond Reef. After snorkeling we continued on to Jost Van Dyke, where we enjoyed swimming into the famous Soggy Dollar Bar, our last stop in the British Virgin Islands.

Soggy Dollar Bar, Jost Van Dyke

After clearing customs in St. John (and getting our passports stamped — yay!) we were back to St. Thomas for sunset.

On Day 4, we started out with beach boot camp and then decided to do some more exploring as it started to rain. We drove to Mountain Top, where we got a beautiful view of Magen’s Bay, before driving back down to that beach. However, little did I know that sand flies love rainy weather. After spending the afternoon at Magen’s Bay, I woke up the next day covered in sand fly bites! Ouch! Remember to wear your bug repellent here!

On our last full day, we took the car barge to St. John. We instantly fell in love with St. John. If we ever return, we would get on the ferry to St. John straightaway after landing at the St. Thomas airport.

On St. John, we started out at Trunk Bay (pictured above) in the morning, before the cruise ships dropped off all of their passengers. We darn near had the entire beach to ourselves. We did the underwater snorkel trail, where Tim had yellow-stripped snappers try to eat his Go-Pro! After that we hit Maho Bay where while snorkeling we spotted a huge sting ray! It happened so fast we didn’t even get a picture! Then we made our way round the island to Leinster Bay, stopping at Skinny Legs for lunch. The grand finale was snorkeling Haulover Bay before making our way back to Cruz bay for the 4 p.m. ferry back to St. Thomas.

As you can see, it was beautiful. While the rocky beach could deter some, the snorkeling is totally worth it.

We got back to St. Thomas just in time for sunset:

This had to of been the best sunset all week. To top it off, we enjoyed dinner at Havana Blue again.

To end our trip, we spent the next and final morning before having to catch our flight at 3 p.m., sitting on Morning Star Beach and enjoying the pool. We had pool all to ourselves, which was awesome.

And that was our trip in a nutshell. I would definitely recommend the Virgin Islands to anyone looking for adventure, island hopping and beautiful white sand beaches with that blue blue water.

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.