|
Travel Time
September 2007
Friday September 28, 2007
Posted by: Diane at 9:59AM CST on September 28, 2007
The tradition which started in 1810 as part of a royal wedding celebration in Munich, Germany, continues as Oktoberfest 2007 opened Saturday, Sept. 22, and will end Sunday, Oct. 7. The festival may not start in October, but always ends the first weekend of October. It's a 16-day celebration and attracts over 6 million people each year. How big is that? Compare that to Milwaukee's Summerfest, which lasts 11 days and attracts nearly 1 million people. The largest tent on Munich's festival grounds (known as Theresienwiese), holds about 10,000 people. More than 6.1 million mugs of beer were sold in 2006. Sounds like I should add this event to my 1,000 places to visit before I die. La Crosse hosts the largest Oktoberfest party in Wisconsin. The city's 47th annual event starts today and runs through Oct. 6 at the fairgrounds along the Mississippi River. Parades, live music, carnival rides and great food are highlights of the event. Like me, if you can't be in Germany or La Crosse over the next week, toss a couple of brats on the grill, get out the sauerkraut und drink eine bier. Prost! Monday September 24, 2007
Posted by: Diane at 10:03AM CST on September 24, 2007
Devil's Lake State Park is one of the prettiest areas in the state; fall is my favorite time of year to visit. The campground and lake is usually pretty crowded in the summer (the park averages 1.2 million visitors each year), so we typically plan our visits for late September or early October. With it being only a 2 1/2 hour drive (about 150 miles), it's easy enough to spend just one day out and not tie up the whole weekend. Hiking can be as easy or as difficult as you'd like to make it. Click here here to see trail descriptions. One of the first hikes we took was the West Bluff Trail--a pretty trail along the lake, it takes you on a bluff high above the water. I'm reminded of that trail often as I was not the prepared hiker. I didn't carry any water, snacks, sunscreen or bug spray. (My girls were pretty young then, we hadn't done any research and had no idea how long that trail was--we have since learned from our mistakes.) I'm not into rock climbing, but it's fun to watch area climbing clubs scale the 500-foot limestone cliffs. A little known area, Parfreys Glen, is worth a little side trip. It's located about four miles east of the park and the easy .8-mile trail leads you to a pretty, quiet and cool off-the-beaten-track nature area. The surrounding area is an explosion of color in the fall with so many trees covering the hills and valleys. On your way there, cross the Wisconsin River--forget the highway bridges and take the time to ride the FREE ferry on Highway 113 from Merrimac to Okee. Warning: If you're there during a peak travel time, there's quite a long wait. If there's time, visit the Ski Hi Apple Orchard in Baraboo (west of the park, off Highway 12) for a fresh-baked piece of apple pie or a cup of hot cider. Sit at one of the picnic tables and enjoy the "sky-high" view of the surrounding countryside. What's on your list of things to do when you visit Devil's Lake State Park? Friday September 14, 2007
Posted by: Diane at 1:20PM CST on September 14, 2007
About 870 feet from the base to the summit, being up close to Devils Tower isn't easy to do. It looks different standing at the base of it and looking up than it does from a distance. The tower is located in the northeastern corner of Wyoming, near the border with Montana and South Dakota. Geologists can tell you how they think it came to be--click here for a geological explanation. I didn't know about Devils Tower until I watched Richard Dreyfuss piling mashed potatoes on his dinner plate and saw Devils Tower in the background on his television in the 1977 film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." It's an unusual feature, and worth a visit. Just note that there's not much else around. There are hiking trails in this National Monument with the trail around its base a little over a mile long. One thing that I wish I would have done differently is to plan an evening of camping right outside the Tower at the Devils Tower KOA. They show "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" outdoors nightly (weather permitting). (Yes, I know it's silly, but I kept waiting for those five musical notes to start playing.) When I'm out that way again, I will stay there and do a little more exploring. Have you visited Devils Tower?
Tuesday September 11, 2007
Posted by: Diane at 8:40AM CST on September 11, 2007
On Sept. 11, 2001, my oldest daughter and her classmates were planning their (spring 2002) 8th grade graduation trip to Washington D.C. Their trip was cancelled. A visit to Ground Zero was included this summer on my youngest daughter's first visit to New York City. Click on this link to see plans for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center. So many of our travels have included visits to war memorials, museums and battlegrounds. But all of them had been for events that happened a generation or more ago. Until we stood outside of the Pentagon in April of 2003 and could see where the plane had hit. Click on this link to see plans for The Pentagon Memorial. Have you visited any of the Sept. 11 sites? Friday September 7, 2007
Posted by: Diane at 12:55PM CST on September 7, 2007
Last week I sat in an enclosed private luxury box overlooking the north end of Lambeau Field, home of the professional football team, the Green Bay Packers. Sitting in the front row of a tiered section with 20 other visitors, I wondered what it would be like during game day, not being outside with the crowd. That's about as far as I'll ever get as I don't have thousands of dollars to spend on such a luxury. Heck, I probably won't ever even get to sit in a bleacher seat. We bought the combo ticket ($19 each adult) which included a one-hour tour of Lambeau Field and admission to the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Museum. I could have done without the tour--why do I need to see empty bleacher seats, the bricks that "so many famous Packer cleats" have walked on, run through the "tunnel" and crowd around the door to the locker room? The Hall of Fame Museum was worth the time--probably because we were there on a Wednesday morning and it wasn't crowded. A stroll through the Pro Shop (with everything Packers) featured everything from the typical cheesehead, green and gold clothing, a 3-foot-tall Brett Favre bobble head doll (about $300) to a Packers-Bears checkers game. We ate at Curly's Pub, overlooking the parking lot where the players park their vehicles. The food was great and the beer was cold. Have you taken the tour of Lambeau? What was your experience?
Wednesday September 5, 2007
Posted by: Diane at 2:18PM CST on September 5, 2007
I like to think that I’m capable of traveling on the road by myself…but then along comes car trouble. My college-bound 19-year-old daughter and I were on our way to Iowa Saturday when we stopped at Roelli’s Cheese Store (just west of Monroe—about two hours from here) to buy cheese curds for our morning snack. While backing out of the parking spot, my car began to make lots of noise. Hole-in-the-muffler or the sound of a dozen Harleys-type noise. I looked under the car and seeing nothing unusual took a look under the hood. Nothing caught my attention there and so once more (lying on the ground), looked under the car. That got one of the owners out of the store to see if I needed any help. YES! Soon her husband came out, assessed the situation, advised me to drive the minivan into the large garage next door and proceeded to wire together my exhaust pipe and whatever else was under there so that there would be no chance of anything falling off over the next 300 miles. Nothing did. We made lots of noise down the road, especially trying to climb over those rolling hills in southwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa near the Mississippi River, but the exhaust system stayed together. I thanked the Roellis profusely, offered some money (although the only cash I had on me was a roll of quarters for my daughter's first week of laundry), and he just suggested that I stopped by their store on Highway 11 (just east of Shullsburg) whenever I could. I stopped there on my way home. To show my appreciation, I mailed a note of thanks when I got back into town (along with a special local pastry treat). Are you the stranger on the road who is willing to help someone in need? Or have you received help from someone you didn’t know? Monday September 3, 2007
Posted by: Diane at 2:17PM CST on September 3, 2007
Bodysurfing...in Lake Michigan? You betcha! With four bicycles loaded on our minivan's bike rack, we drove along the Lake Michigan shoreline last week and visited some state parks. After a little riding and a cookout, we put on our simsuits and planned on walking on the beach and wading into the water at But it was hot--90 degrees. Wading into the water wasn't refreshing enough even with the wind coming in off the lake. So, with the wind creating some great waves, we bodysurfed (ride the waves without a surfboard). Most of the other people at the beach were either sunbathing, making sandcastles or just jumping into the waves. One was attempting to windsurf. The water temperature (which I thought was about 70 degrees), was really closer to 60. Brrrr. We splashed in the water for longer than we had planned and it was great. There weren't any rocks on the smooth sandy lake bottom and we ventured about fifty yards from shore. We'd ride in on a wave, try to get up to catch another wave but we'd get knocked down by the next one. It was challenging, tiring, and loads of fun. I had sand everywhere. We shrieked (three girls--shrieking, of course) and we laughed. But at least this wasn't saltwater. My daughters are 19 and 17 and they remember bodysurfing in the ocean when they were younger...and this was just as much fun. What fun adventures have you had in this last week before school starts? |
About This Blog
 0 rating(s)
Older Posts
Latest Entries
Loading...
 |
Leave a Message
Leave a Comment
Request a Friend