Muddy Mississippi

We were looking for a quick summer weekend trip to a new place and settled on a visit to the southwestern part of Wisconsin.  There were a few parks in the area that we wanted to see and thought it would be a nice change of scenery to visit the Mississippi River region.  We took the day off and headed out on Friday morning making our way through a heavy downpour to the southwest.  By the time we reached our lunch rest stop at Vintage Brewing in Sauk City, the rain had slowed to a drizzle.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and beers and stopped at a park alongside the Wisconsin River in neighboring Prairie du Sac.  From there, we followed a winding country highway alongside the river heading downstream.  Just in time, the sun finally started to come out.  Upon arrival at Prairie du Chien (chien is French for dog), where the Wisconsin River empties into the Mississippi River, we stopped at the Fort Crawford Museum to tour the exhibits at the former site of a pre-Civil War fort established by Colonial settlers.  Much of the fort is no longer there, but there were some interesting exhibits about the history of the site and region, including many on medical advancements since a famous military surgeon, Dr. William Beaumont, was stationed at the fort and conducted many long-term medical research projects (and also he interestingly did a stint at Fort Howard in Green Bay).

Fort Crawford Museum, Prairie du Chien

After the museum, we headed to Wyalusing State Park to do some hiking and check out some scenic views or the river.  The weather was pretty hot so we kept our hikes short, but enjoyed the views (and some trains passing by down along the river) and also stopped to see the monument to the passenger pigeon.  I was excited to see it as recognition of the human caused demise (extinction) of a species that used to be extremely common throughout the Midwest.  Conservationist Aldo Leopold was present at the dedication of this monument and offered his words at the unveiling, now captured in his essay On a Monument to the Pigeon.  Dr. Stan Temple gave some moving words at the rededication of the monument in 2014 for some more context (read more here).  We were surprised that despite the Friday late afternoon visit that we pretty much had the place to ourselves and rarely saw anyone else.

Passenger pigeon monument at Wyalusing State Park

Views from Wyalusing State Park- Wisconsin River delta as it flows into the Upper Mississippi River

After refueling and stopping for some snacks, we headed across the bridge over the Mississippi River to Marquette, Iowa and to our hotel for the weekend.  Marquette was a pretty small, quaint riverside fishing and waterway shipping village where most attractions were really close by. Including a paddleboat casino!

Casino Queen riverboat, Marquette, Iowa

The next morning, we took a short walk along the river and saw a huge purple martin colony.  Next we drove up the road a few miles to Effigy Mounds National Monument.  We enjoyed a nice hike along the North Unit of the property and learned about effigy mounds that were built by Woodland Indians (hunter-gatherer tribes) who relied on these lands from around 800-1,400 years ago.  The mounds are a few feet tall- earlier versions were conical and later developed to formation in the likeness of an animal- often bears.  These mounds were very common in southern Wisconsin and neighboring states, and were believed to be related to spiritual ceremonies and group identification, as well as burial structures. Unfortunately a lot of them have been destroyed as a result of development and land use practices. The park had some areas mowed around the mounds to get a good view, but it was easy to see how they could be missed if not clearly defined.  Definitely a good learning (and nature) experience.

Effigy Mounds National Monument, Harper's Ferry, Iowa

After the hike, we stopped at Old Man River Restaurant and Brewery in neighboring McGregor, Iowa.  It turns out there was a car show going on so the touristy town was bustling, but we had no problem getting a patio seat and enjoyed a nice lunch and beers.  Later, we stopped in a couple of antique shops back in Marquette and visited Eagles Landing Winery for some wine and music (excellent peach wine slushy!).  Later that evening, we had a very nice sunset boat ride with live bluegrass music on the river with Maiden Voyage Tours.  We saw several sites from the water, learned about shipping of cargo (mostly grain) on the river, and lots of bald eagles and other birds.  The sunset was pretty awesome too.

Pontoon sunset cruise on the Upper Mississippi River- Wisconsin/Iowa border

So many bald eagles! And a beautiful sunset.

On Sunday morning, we opted for a hike on the South Unit of Effigy Mounds National Monument to the Marching Bear Group of mounds (for an aerial view).  This unit is less often visited as compared to the North Unit, but was an enjoyable hike up the hill and we got to see some bird-shaped mounds as part of that larger complex of bears.  Not many other people around  After the hike, we started making our way back northwest, stopping in Madison (Wisconsin's state capital) for beers at Youngblood Beer Company right downtown and lunch at Scott's favorite Chinese place Ichiban Sichuan Restaurant.  Nice weekend trip- the ol' Upper Mississippi did not disappoint!

Marching Bear Group on the South Unit at Effigy Mounds National Monument

Drinks on the patio checking out the State Capitol, Madison

Soo-perior September

Year 8(!) of the Superior September tradition rolled around again and it was time to get back to The Big Lake (on Twitter, Lake Superior is the GLOAT- Greatest Lake of All Time).  Every year since we have lived in Wisconsin, we take a fall weekend trip to explore the Lake Superior shoreline at a different spot.  This year, it was time for the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan to visit Sault (pronounced SOO) St. Marie and Whitefish Bay.  We even saw Canada (socially distanced!).

We got ourselves together and headed up to the UP on the first Friday of October.  It was a nice fall day and we had to stop for some patio drinks at Upper Hand Brewery in Escanaba, MI.  The drive north takes us up the full length of the bay of Green Bay, then east along the north shore of Lake Michigan proper, and then north across the peninsula to the town of Brimley where we would be staying on the Superior shoreline.  We arrived to our rental just as it was getting dark to check in.  Next was a whitefish Friday night fish fry at a bar across the street called the Cozy Inn.  Food was great and we caught it just in time before the kitchen closed.  Time to rest up for touristy fun and adjust to the temporary return to the Eastern Time Zone.

Saturday morning, we headed east about 20 minutes to the city of Sault St. Marie, MI.  Here, the St. Mary's River separates Michigan from Ontario, Canada, and is the only route for ships (Great Lakes ships are called "Lakers" whereas rarer ships coming from sea are called "Salties") to enter or depart the waters of Lake Superior.  We started with Original Soo Locks Boat Tours to experience the Soo Locks, the engineering marvel that allows these ships to traverse around the St. Mary's Rapids.  Ships have to rise or drop about 20 ft. while in the lock depending on the direction they are heading all based on a gate system and gravity/natural movement of water.  Smaller vessels can traverse the locks (including our tour boat), but the big draw are the hundreds to thousand-foot freighters and superlakers that come through the locks, sometimes with only 2 ft. of clearance between the vessel and walls of the lock.  The US Army Corps of Engineers has a visitor center and observation platform there where people can watch the ships pass though up close. 

Our boat tour moved upbound through the Locks and took a big loop around the Upper St. Mary's River looking at some landmarks including a historic hydroelectric power plant, a new, bigger lock under construction, and Algoma Steel production industrial site on the Canadian side.  We then returned downbound through the locks and toured the Canadian side of the river, which Scott commented looked a lot like Europe.  Due to COVID travel restrictions, we were not allowed to enter Canada (there is a vehicle bridge over the St. Mary's) without producing a negative test, so we had to settle for a distant view and a few waves to (presumably) Canadians while the tour passed by the sister city of Sault St. Marie, ON.  We also had to scramble a couple of times to turn our phones off since we were close enough to ping off Canadian cell towers!

Original Soo Locks Boat Tour dock

St Mary's Falls Hydroelectric Power Plant

Traversing the Soo Locks upbound (up to Lake Superior)

Algoma Steel in Ontario

Lock gates closing while traversing downbound to St. Mary's River level

The Soo Locks staff has the logistical challenge to manage both up and downbound traffic through the same locks and which lock a ship uses depending on availability and total length of the ship.  In the upper photo, the Laker in the background is in the Poe Lock and the tour boat in the foreground is in the shorter MacArthur Lock.

After the boat tour, we had to have lunch at Soo Locks Brewing Company of course and enjoyed sandwiches and brews on the patio.  Next we checked out the Soo Locks Visitor Center and watched some ships using the Locks.  It was kind of addicting at times to just "wait for one more."  It took each ship about 30 minutes or so to navigate through, but it was cool to watch them rise and fall and see the crews working.  Rain was in the forecast so we headed to the Museum Ship Valley Camp, a floating museum located right on a retired freighter.  Several floors of Great Lakes maritime exhibits kept us busy while it rained pretty hard.  A stop at Superior Coast Brewery for drinks rounded out the day in Sault St. Marie.  We swung by Superior Pizza and Subs in Brimley on the way back to the rental to take out a pizza for dinner, which was incredible!  Turns out it was their last weekend open for the season, so we lucked out.

Museum Ship Valley Camp

It rained most of the night and was expected to continue off and on through Sunday.  In the morning, we took an auto tour to the west along the Whitefish Bay National Forest Scenic Byway along Lake Superior and through and the Bay Mills Indian Community.  We stopped by Point Iroquois Lighthouse, several overlooks and beaches along Lake Superior, and at Mission Hill Cemetery and Overlook above Spectacle and Monocle Lakes.  Next was a short walk around part of Monocle Lake and through the campground which was closed for the season.  The weather was still iffy so we didn't want to start a longer hike as originally planned.  We went back to Superior Pizza for a quick ice cream snack and then back to Sault St. Marie in the afternoon to watch some more ships at the visitor center.  I didn't realize there is a fairly large Amish community also in that area of the UP and the drive was scenic through many farms.  We took a spin through some gift shops and had dinner at Maloney's Alley Irish Pub before calling it a night.

Point Iroquois Lighthouse

Whitefish Bay, Hiawatha National Forest

Spectacle Lake, from Mission Point Cemetery & Overlook, Bay Mills Indian Community

Monday morning was cloudy but at least the rain had stopped.  We packed up and hit the road to start making our way back.  Our waylay on the return trip was a couple of stops near Manistique, MI on Lake Michigan- Seul Choix Point Lighthouse (pronounced "Sis-shwa" or "Only Choice" in French) and Kitch-iti-kipi or Big Spring located at Palms Book State Park.  The lighthouse, said to be haunted, had closed to the public for the seasonal tours but had some decorations outside for their big Halloween haunted tours later in the month.  Very cool (and windy!) spot that we had entirely to ourselves.  Big Spring is an extremely clear and consistent temperature pool with a raft (including a glass window on the bottom) that visitors can pull along the surface to check out the springs and the fish and wildlife.  Luckily we caught it an off time since it was mid-morning on Monday- it was definitely really unique and worth seeing, but I imagine the lines get very long to load the packed raft with tourists.  We even had a few dogs that rode the raft with their people and of course didn't get along with each other in those cramped quarters.  We stopped in Escanaba and picked up Dobber's Pasties (pronounced PAST ees- think portable chicken pot pie) for lunch, which we ate at a roadside picnic area on the bay of Green Bay enjoying a more little beach time.

Seul Choix Point Lighthouse

Kitch-iti-kipi. Palms Book State Park

 

Another great trip to the Yoop and successful Soo-perior September adventure. 

*On the lands of the Bay Mills Indian Community, and Odawa and Anishinaabe peoples:  https://native-land.ca/ 

Leopold Week 2020

The first week/weekend of March is set aside each year in Iowa/Wisconsin respectively to honor conservationist Aldo Leopold.  Thanks to my previous training as a Land Ethic Leader through the Aldo Leopold Foundation, I usually host a community reading of essays from his book A Sand County Almanac and public screening of the documentary film of Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time in honor of the occasion.  This was my fourth year hosting at the Brown County Library, and I had the crazy idea this year to add a conservation fair for local conservation groups to share their work, membership details, and educational information with the community. We had 12 local groups sign up to attend, and around 60 people came out to the event!  A great turnout for hopefully the FIRST annual Leopold Conservation Fair in Green Bay!

 Leopold Weekend 2020 at the Brown County Library.  Photos by Scott.

The weekend prior, Scott and I kicked off Aldo Leopold Week by taking a day trip down to  Milwaukee to see a free art exhibit called Sand County Reflections, featuring the work of Wisconsin artists inspired by Leopold's writings.  It was a nice Sunday in early March, so we had to take advantage and get out and about.  We stopped in Mequon (pronounced: MECK wahn) on the way down for lunch at Foxtown Brewery, a recently opened brewery established in a historic building that has been a brewery since 1857.  Delicious food and a cool atmosphere with the historic stone building.  Missed photo opportunity!

Next stop was the Sand County Reflections exhibit at the Schlueter Art Gallery at Wisconsin Lutheran College.  Took a little investigation to find the exhibit location (we actually almost walked into the piano teacher try outs...whoops!), but it was really well done.  Reading the quotes and some comments from the artist about Leopold was a great way to get in the spirit of A Sand County Alamanac.

Sand County Reflections Exhibit at Schluester Art Gallery at Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee

After the exhibit, it was time to continue the brewery tour in nearby Wauwautosa (pronounced just as it looks: WAH WAH toe sah), a suburb of Milwaukee, at Stock House Brewing Company, Fermentorium Barrel House, and Vennture Brew Co.  Fermentorium was also interesting as they had a lot of beers on the menu and some weird combinations.  I took a chance on a hefeweizen that had a coffee flavor to it, even though I'm not a coffee fan at all.  Hmm.  I especially liked Vennture because I realized when we walked in that it's a beer and coffee brewhouse.  I ordered a chai tea latte to round out the beer tour before heading back to Green Bay, which was perfect! 

A fun late winter weekend getaway for a day!

Located in East Tosa for those in the know.  Now we know!

Yay, brewery that makes chai tea lattes!  

Winter escape that went south

I was feeling the pressure/impending doom from the annual approach of winter (this is our 6th WI winter already, in case you were counting) and suggested that we plan a short trip to warmer climes for a few days as a winter weather getaway.  The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday presented a long weekend option and so I started booking a trip to San Antonio, Texas.  It offered everything needed for a fun vacation: warmer temps, historical sites, a national historic site, and lots of microbreweries.

As our departure date approached, the weather forecasters were predicting a winter storm nearly a week in advance (later became Winter Storm Dean) for right when we would be traveling.  This had me worried, but the weather reports often change, so maybe it would be fine.  Just the weekend before we were supposed to get significant snow and had none at all.  So, we headed to the Green Bay airport on Friday evening to get a ride to Chicago to make our next flight to San Antonio.  Despite okay conditions in Green Bay at the departure time, Chicago was already wrecked with weather issues and delays thanks to the storm.  As a result, our original flight was canceled and we were rebooked for the next afternoon.  The storm had started while we were waiting in the airport and road conditions were deteriorating, so we stopped for pizza on the way home to commiserate. Winter Storm Dean foiled our plans for now.

By midday on Saturday, there was at least 6 inches of snow on the ground.  We diligently cleared our driveway and got our things ready again to finally leave for Texas.  The flight from Green Bay to Chicago was delayed a few times that afternoon into the evening, but I figured it would be okay as long as we made our connecting flight in Chicago.  We again arrived at the airport, went through security, etc.  In fact, the TSA agent said, "Nice to see you again!  If we don't get you out of here today we'll have to get you a job application." Ha! Probably what he says to all the cranky delayed travelers.  And then more delays.  Then the gate agent makes an announcement that we are short a flight attendant and even though our plane is there and we are clear to fly to Chicago, we won't be able to leave.  Chaos, rebookings, and more delays.  We finally acquired a complete crew and made it to Chicago around 9:30 PM on Saturday night after missing both our connecting flight and dinner (Green Bay only has one restaurant with limited hours-it closed while we were there).  Despite the fact that O'Hare is the busiest airport in the US, apparently none of the restaurants were open at 9:45 PM.  Interesting.  We ate day old Starbucks sandwiches and wandered around to find a place to camp out.  Then I had my first restless experience sleeping in an airport!  At least they give you a little pillow and blanket (sarcasm).

(Not) sleeping at Chicago O'Hare

We were "up" at 4 AM on Sunday to catch our flight to Dallas (now we were going to Dallas for an additional layover and then San Antonio).  Flights to Dallas and San Antonio proceeded without incident (fun ride on the monorail in Dallas!) and we finally made it to San Antonio at 10 AM, almost a day and half later than planned.  Our car rental was cancelled since we did not pick it up within 24 hours of the rental time, so we decided since we had just a short visit anyway that we would use Uber.  It was fantastic- everyone was so nice and gave us great tips on what to do and where to eat.

Despite the challenges getting there and with only 46 hours to enjoy the trip before heading home on Tuesday, we had a great time in San Antonio.  On Sunday we visited the historic revitalized Pearl Brewery and ate lunch at Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery, walked around the farmers market (surprised to see lots of dogs in sweaters despite weather in the 50s F!), visited Roadmap Brewing Co., and toured The Alamo.  You probably know that the Alamo, a Spanish mission, marks the site of a 13 day siege to defend Texas from Mexican advances  in 1836.  The Texian forces, few in number, were defeated and nearly everyone was killed or executed, Davy Crockett and James Bowie among them.  The "Remember The Alamo!" phrase was actually used later during the Mexican War to remind soldiers of the fighters' great sacrifice in the Texas revolution.  The Alamo was neat to see, but also very commercialized.  For example, you lined up to go into the building and a group of workers were there to take your photo and convince you to buy it later.  We were originally planning on a guided tour, but decided to just go through on our own.  Later, we walked the San Antonio Riverwalk, had an excellent dinner at Rosario's for delicious Mexican food, and went to bed early to address the lack of sleep the night before.  We stayed at the Inn on the Riverwalk B&B, which was excellent and a great location to see the local sites.

Inn on the Riverwalk B&B 

 Southerleigh Brewing Company

 "Remember the Alamo!"

 San Antonio Riverwalk

On Monday, we had a delicious breakfast at our B&B and made our way to the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park, stopping at the Visitor Center and Mission San Jose first.  The historic park includes a network of 4 missions, which along with the addition of the Alamo and another location, are recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We had a great tour by a NPS historian of the grounds and learned a lot about the missions of the 1700s in south Texas.  Missions were established to recruit/create/manipulate native peoples of Texas into Spanish citizens in exchange for the semblance of protection, and all the people had to do in exchange was change their religion, language, and way of life.  Each of the missions' residents built a Catholic church, all of which are still active churches today serving the descendants of the mission residents from the 1700s.  The structures experienced significant wear and vandalism over the years, but I was surprised at the attention to detail and how extensive the renovations were to make them look similar as they did back then.  San Jose celebrates its 300th anniversary this February.  Wow.

 Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Mission San Francisco de la Espada

We opted for lunch outside on the patio at Blue Star Brewing Company (where I was excited to see a rufous hummingbird!) and then headed to 2 more uniquely designed missions- Mission San Juan and Mission Espada.  Afterwards, we went for a long walk on the Mission Reach Hike & Bike Trail along the San Antonio River- an extensive green space and river restoration project to help address flashiness of the river and return some of the floodplain to more natural riparian shrubland following a history of river channelization and diversion (read more about the restoration here).  Next it was beers at Kunstler Brewing Company, a German brewery (Scott's favorite of the trip), and dinner at Stella's Public House before the walk back to the B&B.

Up early the next morning and back to the airport to do it all over again!  Luckily, travel back to WI was uneventful.  It was such a quick trip but I really enjoyed San Antonio.  It was so nice to see green plants all over and to get a break from winter coats.  Plus the trip makes for a good story and this speed vacation just might be funny someday.  Until the next winter getaway!