Wisconsin Wanderings

            My Dad is on a journey to visit all fifty states, and before this weekend, he only had two left, Alaska and Wisconsin. So we took a long weekend to check Wisconsin off the list. What is there to do in Wisconsin besides eating cheese curds you may wonder, but fear not, there are many options that are all fun!

            We had an early flight out of Syracuse Wednesday morning, and we had first class tickets on Delta, which means a choice from the better snack tray and free drinks with alcohol in them. So to start out the trip, I had a coffee with their Irish cream in it, and it was delicious. Also being able to get off the plane first is a nice perk. Thankfully our flight was direct, but it went to Minneapolis, so once we landed, we had a four drive.

            The first two nights, we were staying in Green Bay, and about half way through our drive there, we stopped in Wausau, and we went to lunch at a place called Red Eye Brewing, and although our flight was not a red eye, it was early enough that it still seemed fitting. Despite it being the middle of the day on a Wednesday, the brewery was surprisingly filled, which I took a good sign. Our waitress said that it was their chefs last day, so they had a whole list of specials. A burger was really calling my name, but I went with the special pizza instead.

            It was a Mexican Street Corn Pizza, and it packed some serious flavor. Of course, there was corn on it, but there were also tomatoes and peppers a plenty. Instead of pepperoni, it had chorizo, and they were not chorizo crumbles, but it was chorizo turned into the shape of a pepperoni. The cheese was all sourced locally as well, and there was chipotle sauce drizzled all over. There was also a lime on it, so I squeezed that on top of the whole thing. When I took a bite, my mouth was absorbing so much at once, but it all blended together so perfectly. Spicy from the sauce, the freshness of the peppers, tanginess from the lime, and salty form the cheese. It was amazing. It was not easy to eat it all because of its size, and I paid for it later, but I have no regrets demolishing the whole thing.

            The rest of the drive felt more like a slog because my stomach was now bulging and the early wake up was starting to weigh on me. The two lunch beers did not help either, but eventually we made it. Our first stay was in a VRBO, and it was in a cute little downtown area, but the staircase to get up to it was not cute. It was incredibly steep, and longer than a normal staircase to get to a second floor. It was nothing too wild, but it was not the easiest to transport luggage up and down.

            Shortly after arriving, I went for a run. We were right on the river, and they had a river walk that was at least eight miles long from the markers I saw. I only did 6 miles this day, but it was nice to be along the Fox River in the cool weather. The path went behind quite a few mansions, including one with a tennis court in their backyard, and another had a guest house in the back that is probably bigger than my house is now! There was also a solid blend of modern architecture and brick mansions.

            The next morning on my run, I did a workout over the course of my eight miles. The river walk is a perfect place for this, because it is basically all flat, and the foot traffic is minimal. I started out going the same way as the previous day, but I had to turn around and go to the park to use the bathroom, so then I ended up going in the other direction. It was more wooded and not right on the river, but it was still nice, and I appreciated all the trees. It almost felt like a trail. The workout went well too, except for the bathroom break, that kind of ruined momentum.

            For breakfast, we walked to a place .8 away from where we were staying called the Black Honey Hashery. I had the biscuits and gravy, which came with a hefty pile of potatoes and two scrambled eggs. The price was right, and so was the portion. I was filled to the brim yet again. Biscuits and gravy are not something I see often, so I jumped on it, and the biscuits were cheddar and freshly made. I ended up cutting up the biscuits and adding the eggs and potatoes to the plate to make one big mush, which is what I would do in college, and it was tasty! Great post run fuel.

            After we walked back, there was a park close by, and they have a house out on a peninsula and a boardwalk that goes out into the middle of the river. They have a dam that slows the flow of the water, and at different spots it is flowing through the open slots that they chose for the day. It is nice and relaxing to just stand out there and hear the water rushing past. It does not sound that exciting writing about it, but the visual is pretty odd in person.  

            For the Packers game later, we wanted to make sure that we had a plan for pregame, so we drove down to the stadium and picked out where we were going to park, and where we were going to hang out (more on that later), then we headed to actual Green Bay. We found a little park, so that we could get to the water and walk around for a little bit. After, we decided we needed a wider look at Lake Michigan, so we drove to another lakeside town randomly selected on the map. Luckily enough, this town had a lighthouse!

            There was a long dock for us to walk out on to see the lighthouse. It really leaned into the house part of it. It was like a little red cottage with a tall light sticking out of the top. The 180 degree view was basically all water. Where we came from there was a small beach that the locals probably flock to in the summer. Also there were hills in the surrounding area with the farmland, so it was not the largely flat land we had become accustomed to on the first day or so driving through the state.

            Now the pregame! So outside of Lambeau Field, there is a great bar scene. They have these mega two-story bars that become packed with people, and they even have live rock bands blaring out music. It is truly a great atmosphere. The first place we went to was literally called The Bar. Their beer selection was massive and great! It is Oktoberfest season, and their menu was filled with different local Oktoberfests.

But if you know anything about the Wisconsin beer scene, you have heard of Spotted Cow. The Holy grail of Wisconsin beer, that is widely available there, but it is not available outside of the state. So that is what we started with, and it was a great beer. I would even say it lived up to the hype. Over the course of our days there, I had at least three of them! It was a solid blend of being light and flavorful. It was a beautiful yellowish gold, not completely see through, and it had a great soft mouthfeel with the perfect tinge of sweetness. We also had a pretzel there, which came with mustard and cheese, which I think might be one of the best bar pretzels I have had and the cheese was incredible too.

After that, we headed across the street to Anduzzi’s. We went to the second floor to eat on the deck. Their beer selection lacked luster. It included maybe five taps, and most were not even local options, just your run of the mill domestics. We ordered our food here anyways, and I ordered a cheese curd burger. I knew I had to have cheese curds at one point, and I might as well have them on a burger. Sadly, they brought out the wrong burger the first time, and normally, I would not care, because I will eat whatever, but I really wanted the cheese curds, so I said something, and got the right food. I do not know if the cheese curds were worth it, but the burger tasted good. It was think and juicy.

Once we finished eating, we headed toward the stadium. We poked our heads in a couple of the other bars along the way, and we grabbed one last beer at the Johnsville pregame party, and we stood outside of the stadium and drank our beer, then we headed in to find our seats.

The seating is cool. It really is like one giant bowl. It seems like every seat is in the 100 sections, with a small upper section and then a lot of boxes. The seating is steep, and it is a bleacher set up, so on a sold-out game like their opener, we were packed in there with others like sardines. If this were an airplane it would have sucked, but it was for a sporting event, so it was awesome to be packed in there with other people excited to watch some football.

Sadly, the excitement for the home crowd was short lived. Despite an absolutely horrendous start to the year, the Falcons had their starting quarterback back, and they looked like a new team. Their running game was unstoppable, and they also looked great passing too besides the opening interception. The Packers on the other hand scored an early touchdown and struggled to get anything going after that. By the end of the game, the crowd had really thinned down, and the excited chants had largely turned towards boos and people yelling out to fire Lafluer. Thankfully, once the game was over, we were able to make it to our car quickly and we got back to the VRBO in no time. It was the easiest escape of a sports event ever.

The next morning, it was time to leave Green Bay. I went for a quick run on the other side of the river this time, and I did four easy miles before we departed. Our trek for the day was a two-hour drive to Devil’s Lake State Park, and then two more hours to La Crosse for their Oktoberfest.

Devil’s Lake felt like it was a part of different region. It was no longer flat farmland, now it was a rocky avalanche into a beautiful lake. There was also a sandy beach on each side. So the North and South ends were beaches, but the East and West flanks were both the crumbling giant rocks. The giant boulders reminded me of places along the Appalachian Trail in Virginia and a hike I went on in New Jersey but paired with the glacial lake and all of the pine trees, it reminded me of a place more from the west coast. Basically, it was a beautiful mash up of two great places and not what I was expecting.

It has a few key landmarks that we hiked to see. The first one was Balance Rock, and it was the hardest one to get to, because after climbing up to the top rim, we then had to descend back down these giant rock steps to get to the ledge where Balance Rock sat. It almost looked like a big thumb. It had a skinnier base than its top, and it was just sitting there perfectly right on the edge.

We climbed out of that ledge, and it was dizzying. There was a wall of fallen earthen red rocks, and in the middle, there was a swaying staircase cut out of these rocks, and it was like an optical illusion when I looked right at it. All the various flats and edges just made my eyes go fuzzy. Once we were out, it was a simple hike to the next spot, but while on the way over there, I almost stepped on a snake, and my dad was behind me, and he stood still, and the snake just slithered right up onto his boot, hung out for a few seconds, and then it continued on its way!

The next spot was called the Devil’s Doorway. It lives up to its name. It is made from red streaked rocks, and although it is called a doorway, to me it is more of a window, it is just composed of massive boulders instead of a wood frame. The rocks are about three feet wide, and they are precariously stacked. One of the rocks on the base looks like a Jenga piece precariously placed, and like if it was pushed too hard, it might just topple over. I love arches though, and although this was not an arch in a traditional sense, it was close enough.

 Our final landmark was called Elephant Rock, which we had walked past on the way to the other spots and just not realized it. There was a small cave there, and I stopped to look at that, and my dad noticed on the map that it was Elephant Rock, and when we stood back and looked at it, it did resemble the face of an elephant. The rock formation resembled the trunk and the big ears of an elephant’s face.

            The next step of our trip was to La Crosse. My dad got into Oktoberfest for free because he is a veteran, and I had to pay $25, but it was worth it because it was a serious party! They had beer tents set up throughout, and just like the real Oktoberfest, they had different areas where you could go to listen to music and drink beer. The main drag had the most beer options next to each other, and then they had a concession stand, which we ate brats at and got a giant pretzel as well. The food was pretty good, and the pretzel was undoubtedly better than the actual Oktoberfest pretzels in Germany, those were so bad, and I was not impressed with the food at German Oktoberfest either, so this did have some advantages compared to the real Oktoberfest.

            The band playing on the main stage outside was great! They played all sorts of well-known anthems from classic rock to more modern music as well, but they had the crowd singing and swaying along. They had some serious range, and they did it well. They also played basically the whole time we were there from 5:30 to 8. We went to a couple of the other tents as well, but that one band was the best! I felt like I was at a concert just as much as Oktoberfest, which was awesome.  

            The next morning, I dragged myself out of bed at 7 and did a long run along the Mississippi River. It started out on this nice wide sidewalk next to the river and the road, but then after two miles, I found the Wisconsin State Trail, and it was literally a trail. It was a wide gravel path that goes on for many miles, so it was more than enough to get my long run done, and it came with some good views along the way, and when the views dissipated, then I was in the woods, and it was so peaceful.

            To finish our last day, we drove the last of the two hours to Minneapolis and watched college football at Tom’s Watch Bar which had a million TVs. We were there for a while, almost a whole games worth of time. We had some beers, an appetizer, and a prime rib sandwich. The prime rib sandwich was amazing! It was thick and juicy. It also came with horseradish, which is my favorite add on, and the au jus was thick. It was closer to gravy. It was delightfully salty. Even the bun was nice and fluffy, so it did a good job of soaking up the liquids.

            Finally, we got up early the next morning to head hope. It was 3:50 central time, but the Minneapolis airport proved to be a formidable foe. We dropped our car off, and then we went to the wrong terminal, and it was a whole maze to get to the correct terminal, it contained multiple turns and a train. Then the first delta area we came across was closed, so we had to go to another one. We got selected randomly for TSA and had to have our stuff wiped down, and then we had another marathon of a walk to get to our gate. It winded through a construction area that felt like it was never going to end, so we got there just before they called us to board. Thankfully we made it to Detroit, had a great breakfast/lunch at the Delta Sky Club, and then we made it home safely. 49 states down for my dad, Alaska to go!