Holidays on the Rails

We visited the Holidays on the Rails event at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay for a new holiday experience. We had been to the museum before for a Rails & Ales beer tasting event, but did not get to see all the exhibits.  A good opportunity to check it out!

There was a neat photography gallery of black and white shots of trains, and some memorabilia including the drumhead displays for advertising the line on the back of the last car.  The Festival of Trees exhibit included over 40 Christmas trees decorated by local businesses in the indoor train building, which was nice and festive.  Santa was there too- amazingly, no line!  We even were lucky enough to catch the final train ride of the season around the property- it only moved at a creaky 6 mph, but it was still a fun ride.  The driver actually clipped the stairs for boarding on the departure and scratched the side of the passenger cars- whoopsie!

Enjoyable afternoon looking at the exhibits and walking through some of the trains to explore the vintage cars, although we walked a little more quickly through the outdoor train building (brr!).

Green Bay Botanical Garden tree display

Riding the vintage commuter railcar

Union Pacific #4017 Big Boy- the largest steam locomotive ever made!

Snowplow

Pullman passenger car exhibit

Whitefish Point

Our unintentional tradition has been to visit Lake Superior every fall for a weekend getaway.  Partially, fall is a favorite time of year to travel in the late season after the whirlwind summer crowds have been through and the weather is still reasonable.  I also think sometimes it takes that long to make summer plans these days!  Summers are busy times for me at work, and we had some travel arrangements this year in addition to lots of house projects and yard landscaping work.  Nonetheless, fall showed up and Lake Superior was calling...

We took a Friday off of work and headed north along the west shore of Green Bay.  Aside from getting stuck behind trucks and campers (it's a one lane road each way), I love riding the backroad highway with all the bay views.  Makes one realize how huge the bay really is (1,600 square miles, if you were wondering).

We were in the UP in no time and headed for Tahquamenon Falls State Park to view the Upper and Lower Falls and take in some early fall foliage.  Upon arrival and payment for our day pass, we parked and walked the short distance to the Upper Falls views.  It was running quite high due to lots of recent rain, and the leaves were just starting to turn near the river.  It was a pretty cold day with temperatures in the 40s, moderate winds, and sprinkling rain, so the park was not very busy at all.  After viewing the falls, we headed to Tahquamenon Brewing Company right at the end of the trail for some delicious early dinner and beers.

Then it was off to Whitefish Point, another 35 minutes down the road.  We had reservations to stay at the Point at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum's Crews Quarters B&B for the weekend right on site.  A unique opportunity to sleep right next to Superior and a lighthouse?  I'm in!

We arrived at the museum just in time to check in to the B&B and took a cold, windy evening walk on the beach.  Because of the location of the Point, many large freighters and superlakers pass by very closely as they enter or exit Lake Superior via the Soo Locks.  We had fun using binoculars to read the names of the ships as they went by, and later discovered an app that shows all of the shipping traffic (including the Great Lakes, check out marinetracker.com).  It was a cold blustery night, but waves from Superior all night long.

The next day we had continental breakfast at the Crews Quarters and went for a walk again around the grounds.  The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum includes exhibits in several buildings plus the Whitefish Point Light Station, and the US Fish & Wildlife Service Seney National Wildlife Refuge- Whitefish Point Unit is adjacent, along with the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory.  It was really nice to have so many different things to check out all in one place, and be able to stay right there too.

Next we checked out the museum buildings and watched a film about the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sunk just 15 miles northwest of Whitefish Point in Canadian waters the 1970s.  Hard to imagine the force the Lake has to take down a loaded down ore freighter.  The wreck was found in the 1990s and left undisturbed, aside from the bell that was brought to the museum.  It was replaced with a memorial bell with the names of the crew.

The birdwatching at Whitefish Point was phenomenal even though it was late season for migration.  Many warblers, woodpeckers, a couple of peregrine falcons, loons, and others were using the shoreline and the sand dunes, and even walking around in the grass right outside the buildings.  I was scrambling at times to identify many of them, all in winter plumage and some that were entirely new to me.  It was a lot of fun, and despite the cold and got in several rounds of birding throughout the day.  I also joined the waterbird counters from the Observatory for a little bit on the shoreline.

We took at ride to Brown's Fish House in the nearby small town of Paradise for whitefish fish fry dinner- so delicious!  I got a kick out of our server telling everyone after they paid their bill to "have a nice day in Paradise!"  We did.  After dark, we went back to the bird observatory for an owl banding program about their long-term banding and monitoring work.  They even captured a saw-whet owl in the nets while we were there and we had the chance to watch the banding operation.  It was really cool to talk with the researchers and share some of the bird-related things going on in Green Bay.  It's a small world in wildlife, so usually people have heard of other projects or know people working in those areas.  There was a huge difference in wind that night- no waves whatsoever all night long.

The next day was incredibly calm on the lake- almost no waves at all.  We ate breakfast, said goodbye to Superior and headed southwest.  We stopped at Seney National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center & gift shop, voted in their annual photography contest, and took a nice ride around the Wildlife Drive throughout many of the impoundments looking for waterfowl.  Still some tundra swans and ducks (ring-necked ducks, wood ducks, mallards) hanging out for some good views while auto touring.

Next stop on the return trip was Manistique to grab some beers at Mackinaw Trail Winery and Brewery and check out the Manistique lighthouse.  Manistique is located at the north end of the bay of Green Bay, about 120 miles from the City of Green Bay.  Another short ride to Escanaba, and a stop for lunch (mmm..pasties!) and beers at Upper Hand Brewery before the drive down the west shore of Green Bay back home.  Always fun up der in da UP!

April blizzards bring May flowers

We had an unusually snowy April this year after a cold, but not that snowy winter!  We did have snow on the ground from mid-December to about mid-March since it was so cold, but not many big snowstorms until spring.

The first storm in early April provided nearly a foot of snow on spring election day in Wisconsin.  Scott was in China on work travel, so I had to figure out how to operate the snowblower to clear the driveway.  Usually my job for snow removal is the touch up shoveling for the walkway and back deck so Teddy can get out while Scott does the snowblowing, so it was my first time doing everything by myself at the new house.  I cleared the driveway and part of the back deck (for Teddy) twice, and even made it to the polling place to vote despite the rough ride home from work (yes, we always have work regardless of the weather).

About 10 days later, right around the time the election day snow had melted, we had another storm in the mix.  Weather reports kept upping the totals without using the word "blizzard," but it seemed pretty imminent and would include high snow totals and high winds.  It started snowing hard overnight on Friday into Saturday morning.  Warnings went out to stay off the roads since it was snowy so heavily.  Most businesses closed for the weekend, and schools were closed on Monday after the storm. The duration of snow required a number of driveway clearings (at least my snow removal counterpart was back!), and the high winds resulted in some serious blowing and drifting, which didn't help the road situation either.  The one good thing about this storm, dubbed Blizzard Evelyn (I guess we don't do the "Blizzard of 2018" vernacular anymore) was that it ran from Friday through Sunday night, so at least it was over a weekend and was less disruptive than it could have been.   That said, a number of other spring events had to be cancelled over the next several weeks- an Earth Day clean up we were supposed to participate in, trail runs, and even the Suamico community rummage (garage) sales. 

We ended up getting 2 feet of snow over the course of two days- about a foot a day!  Apparently this was the second largest snowstorm on record for Green Bay- the biggest snowstorm was 29 inches back in 1888!!  I realized later that I have been in 2 ft. snowstorms before in all the other places that I have lived (even VA- remember that one, guys?), but it was still neat to witness history in the making (or at least I told myself while I was shoveling).  We are on the western side of the Great Lakes and don't get the lake effect snow that a lot of other areas see, such as in western PA and NY.  So we make fun, but this storm was really crippling.  We even broke daily snowfall records for the 3 days of the storm as well.  There was no way to keep the roads clear and nowhere to put all that snow.  The days after the storm resulted in a lot of heavy equipment movement of snow off roads and parking lots.  Hard to believe it is April!

We didn't leave the house for the weekend until Sunday night when we ventured out to get groceries.  It had stopped snowing but a lot of roads were still not plowed.  Teddy got a few blizzard walks, and aside from clearing snow, it was a relaxing weekend reading, watching the birds at the feeder, and drinking lots of hot chocolate since there was nowhere to go.  I enjoyed watching the frenzy at my bird feeders and kept running out to fill them, but felt bad for some of the birds that have been struggling to find food, especially ground feeders like robins.  I had one robin toughing it out at my feeder all weekend long, but unfortunately I found him dead on Sunday night.  It's a hard life for wildlife sometimes, especially during storms at the wrong time of the year.  A lot of news stations have been running stories on how to help the birds.

Thankfully, temperatures started to warm up a few days after the storm and we have snow melting every day such that we can see grass in spots again!  Robins are doing much better.  I like snow, but I hope that was the last one of the year- I've got lots of yardwork to do this year!

Clearing the driveway at intermission

 St. Francis is buried!

After the storm...

...and one week later! 

The cleared area is my shoveling job so the prince can use the facilities.

Winter projects

Winter is usually a slow time for us (unlike other Wisconsinites, we're not involved in winter sports), but we have been busy this year with smaller home improvement projects, weekend trips to the home improvement stores (and back again!), and attended home maintenance/repair and landscaping and gardening workshops hosted by NeighborWorks Green Bay that provided some useful tips and product recommendations.  We are definitely learning about a lot of different things, and consulting Google and YouTube frequently.  Scott did a great job with the electrical work, and we even had a nice day or two to start on some outdoor projects (lighting and some shed repairs).  It will be a long wait to get into the garden, along with the anticipation of seeing what plants will come up in the yard (it will be a surprise!).  I already identified a few invasive shrubs that I want to remove before they flower in the spring, and some tree branches to trim.  More leaves to rake as well!

Here are a few examples of what we've been up to- I've been trying to remember to take before and after shots- we are bringing the place into the 21st century!

Doorknob upgrade throughout:

Outdoor lighting fixture upgrade:

Hall ceiling light upgrades:

New (used) porch set:

Our snow melted almost completely for a period of about a week in late February, but then it showed up again in early March.  Since we moved in after a snowstorm in December, Teddy had never been in the yard without snowpack, so it was funny watching him discover everything that he hadn't found yet.  Teddy was happy to see the snow again though, and March snows are nice in that they stick to everything and usually melt instead of lingering all winter.  We were snow-free by mid-March this year. Spring will be here eventually!

We also had tickets to see comedian Charlie Berens, the Manitowoc Minute guy, at UW-Green Bay. He has an excentric WI accent and pokes fun at locals.  So funny, der guy!