A Quick Trip to Wisconsin

This past weekend we did a whirlwind of hops around the Midwest. Starting in Michigan on Friday, we managed to hit up five states before returning again on Monday. Our activities included helping my mom in the QC with a couple things including fixing her phone (sounds super nice of me except the fact that I was the one who broke it in the first place), attend a friends surprise 30th birthday party on the Iowa side, catch up over breakfast with my newly engaged best friend, and attend a wedding in Chicago.

On our way back from the birthday party, Katie got to experience her first spinning drawbridge. It timed out perfectly because the gates for the Arsenal bridge literally closed right after we crossed. I suppose it didn't matter it was perfectly timed since we stopped to watch anyway.

I had never even gotten this view before, so it was a treat for me too. 

We concluded our long weekend with what this post is mostly about...a quick trip to Wisconsin. Well, Wisconsin was quite lovely. The driving force behind the trip was that we wanted to visit New Glarus Brewing Company, a brewery that my uncle had introduced me to a few years back. So that's what we did first. Here's a few pictures of the brewery.

Their newest facility sits atop a hill overlooking the small town of New Glarus.

Their outdoor garden area was made to look like old ruins.

Katie sneaking around exploring the grounds.

Katie enjoying a sample of New Glarus beer in a fancy ruin's archway.

Brandon trying to do the same.

A super cool bar area that we expect gets used for private events.

Katie - "Why do you keep taking pictures of me?"
Brandon - "Because you keep posing in cool spots"

This is where you wash out your glass and/or get some water to drink.

First stop on the self guided brewery tour.

Everything on the tour was so nice and easy to view.

We weren't sure what to expect before going because the brewery was only open from 10 to 4 and didn't have much in terms of food. But as you can tell from the pictures, it was worth the trip. They had 6 of their beers available to sample. And their beer garden/ruins area was really fun to explore, and so was the brewery itself with the self guided tour. I don't know if I'd go out of my way to go back again for just another random visit, but I could easily see how any special events would be super cool to attend.

The rest of our time in Wisconsin was pretty cool too. We set up camp less then a mile down the road at the New Glarus Woods State Park. And we got our tent assembled just before it started raining. We didn't mind the rain though because we were exhausted from the busy weekend and all the driving, so we took a nice long nap. Sleeping in a tent while it's raining is quite lovely assuming your tent isn't leaking or anything. Ours only leaked a little due to poor setup on our part, but it was still nice.

After our nap we went into town and found a local place to grab dinner. I think we found the one place in town that had tacos/burritos and had to ask permission to order them off the lunch menu. Totally worth it though; they were delicious. Sadly I'm already failing on taking pictures of every taco I eat while on sabbatical. Hopefully I won't forget next time. 

While we were eating it started raining again, and we weren't ready to go back and just lie in the tent all night yet, so we decided to just start driving and see where we would end up. This took us into Madison, which was about 45 minutes north of where we were. It timed out perfectly with the rain stopping just as we got into town, so we explored the awesome Madison downtown area. We mainly just wandered up and down State Street and learned quickly that we could easily see ourselves spending more time there because there were about a million restaurants that we wanted to try. We almost got ice cream, but while the lady was in the process of scooping I realized I had left my wallet in the car. So our sweet tooth cravings were stymied, but it was probably for the best.

Camping that night was nice. It rained more, which was nice for sleep, but was very messy and annoying to deal with the next morning. We decided to not really pack up our tent, more just throw it in the trunk so we could clean it up when we got home. Overall our stay at New Glarus Woods State Park was decent, but it does kinda suck that we have to pay over twice the amount we do camping in Kentucky and we get way less. This campground didn't even have showers or sinks. But the park ranger we met was really nice and accommodating, so that made it feel more worth it. 

In general during our short period in Wisconsin, just the driving around in the back country was one of our favorite parts. The Wisconsin countryside is really lovely. Lots of rolling hills and smooth highways. 

On our way into Wisconsin on Sunday we noticed one of the towns we drove through had a Taco Johns. I loved Taco Johns growing up, so we made a point to swing by there on our way back out of town. I'm sure it was more nostalgia, but the tacos were still delicious.

Sadly, not a taco picture, but still evidence we were there.

After our visit to Taco Johns we made two more stops on our way home. First we stopped at the IKEA in Schaumburg since I had never been to one. We didn't buy anything other than one of their famous $1 ice cream cones.  And then for an early dinner we made a stop at Greenbush Brewing in Sawyer, MI. We've been there before, but their beer is so good, it's always a treat to stop when we can. We were really surprised how busy it was even in the middle of the afternoon. I'm glad to see they're doing so well.

Flight of 6. Our favorite was the Strawberry Habanero Ale

And that was our trip. As always it's nice to be home, especially after sleeping on the ground. But I'm sure we'll have another Wisconsin trip in our future.