"Wisconsin-Happy Festival State", by Eve Phillips. My husband and I love to travel in the state of Wisconsin where we live and get great pictures on the way. My name is Laurie Kutil and photography has become a great passion of mine since 2010. One thing I have learned in researching each town before visiting it is that, "Every town has it's story". When I do uncover those stories by connecting with local residents, our experience becomes so much richer. In turn, sharing the stories with you brings me joy :)
Marinette is a city just across the Menominee River and Menominee, Michigan. It has a population of nearly 11,000. We didn’t have much research for this city, we did know that there is a historic train depot here so we went to see that. Very interesting!
That’s all on Marinette that we have at this time. This video can provide a little more information.
We are fortunate living within 50 miles of this great area of Wisconsin with so much fun and beauty. Here I am going to touch on other parts of the Dells, Broadway being the main focus of our first excursion. We have been to some of the attractions and hope to get to more of them when summer comes back around.
Our first trip together to the Dells was the Dells Boat Tour. We enjoyed this trip on 6-30-02. This is one of the oldest attractions and most popular. It’s two parts, Upper and Lower Dells. You can choose just one or do both in a day. We did both and sure had a lot of fun! This view is where you begin the upper Dells tour. We did the tours again on 6-17-15.
The Lower Dells, this is Kilbourn Dam.
At the top of the landing you get a great view of the boats below.
The boat tours and many other attractions are located on the Wisconsin Dells Parkway. This is one of the Wisconsin Ducks, another tour venue, this time on an amphibious vehicle enabling it to traverse both water and land. There is also an Army Duck tour. We have not taken those tours yet. You can take a selfie by an Army Duck on the Parkway.
Also on the parkway is Paul Bunyan’s Cook Shanty and recently added, the Lumberjack Show. We ate there once (yum!) but not yet seen the new show. The food was great! Open spring through fall.
In 2012 we enjoyed a long-time music venue since the 1970’s, The Wisconsin Opry. If you like Classic Country music with a bit of gospel, you will enjoy coming here. We plan on returning this summer. Before the show, you enjoy a turkey dinner.
There is more to see here than the Wisconsin Opry though. There is also Cindy’s Café (we’ve eaten there), also an antique and craft store. You will have a great time here! The Dickinson Family welcomes you!
———————————————————————
Not far from the Opry is one of the Ho-Chunk Gaming resorts. We don’t gamble, we go there to have a great meal, also entertainment! Something for everyone there, including a hotel. They often have live music performances as well. Summer of 2016 we went back to watch Wasira Ho-Chunk dancing for one hour. It was a free show it was great! Enjoy an excerpt here.
————————————————————————————————————————-
There are many themed hotels in the Dells to give your overnight stay a special touch. Our favorite one on 223 Wisconsin Ave, the Parkway Motel with a train theme. You can stay in the 1966 Soo Line Caboose ($85 per night, $105 weekends), or the main hotel.
Antoni Wolan (owner) passed away on June 20, 2015. We are not sure if the stand or motel will be re-opening.
Take a look inside, very nice!
Spring through fall, you can also get a Vienna Hot Dog and other great food at their Raildog stand, served from a historic 1956 caboose. We plan on coming back in the spring for a great lunch here!
Listen in on their low power radio station, it may not be on the air any more.
———————————————————————————————————————-
You can even get married Las Vegas-style at the Dells Bells Wedding Chapel. Located across from the Amtrak station.
If shopping is your thing, there is plenty to be had here. On Broadway is plenty of shopping, though some stores are closed in the winter. Another store near Broadway is Aunt Jenny’s Got It All Store.
If you like the name-brand stores, stop by Tanger Outlets mall.
We hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the Wisconsin Dells. There is much to see and do here. Wave goodbye to the Sinclair dinosaur in Lake Delton as you leave Tanger Outlets at this nearby Citgo Dino Stop. View more Dinos around the country here.
It has been almost a year since our last trip to Mineral Point, and it was time to go back! On our last visit we took a tour of historic Pendarvis and Shake Rag Alley, very exciting! This time, we returned downtown to see what we missed.
This weekend was their first festival of the season, their big “Clay in May” event. This festival focuses on the many pottery artists in town, it was the 5th year. The artists give visitors a tour of their studios, behind the showroom we see in the front of the store. Four businesses took part in this event:
Roland Sardeson – Pottery and mason, Shake Rag Alley artist.
We took the tour of Howdle studio, what beautiful work! Bruce Howdle was happy to show us his latest creations, including works in progress. Private customers can even commission from him custom pieces of art.
In the back room of his studio his artist friend Roland Sardeson was making beautiful works of art on his potter’s wheel as we watched. On a couple of tables he had small pieces for sale too, I got a tea-cup. His artist skills cover a wide scope of categories. He has even built this Free Little Library, beautiful!
We had lunch at the Red Rooster Cafe again, we loved it the first time we went last June. This time we saved room for their famous Figgy-Hobbin dessert, brought by the Cornwall miners a long time ago. Yum!
Our visit included seeing other historic buildings we missed the last time.
West Bend is a vibrant community of 30,000 in Washington County that is quite beautiful and is quite active in the arts and recreation. It is also the county seat. In fact, the city proudly proclaims themselves to be “Geocaching Capitol of the Midwest”™ We have not at this point taken up that activity, so we explored some of the other fine points of the city. Just outside of the city we found a historic marker explaining an important fact about the rivers in the area. In 2015 Al returned to West Bend to take a look at the new marker that was put up in 2014. This marker is dedicated to their famous West Bend Aluminum Company. Just beyond the sign is the former West Bend building, converted into River Shores Point Luxury Condominiums.
Our first stop upon arrival was the former train depot. Running next to it is The Eisenbahn State Trail which is 5 1/2 miles long. We saw many people using it that morning.
On a bench at the depot there were two cute frogs 🙂
The white building to the left of the depot is the new Museum of Wisconsin Art. All of the art inside has been created by only Wisconsin artists.
Just across the street is the Milwaukee River that once provided power to the community. The river bends to the west here, hence the name “West Bend” was given the community. It was incorporated in 1885.
After crossing the river on a bridge (behind this view, we explored their beautiful historic downtown.
The go-to outdoor store is Mountain Outfitters, they have equipment for a variety of sports for all seasons.
After exploring downtown we headed up the hill to 320 S. 5th Ave to visit the historic Courthouse and Jail. It is the tall spire on the right.
This beautiful courthouse is now a museum, the Washington County Historical Society has worked hard to make this a great place to visit. We took about 90 minutes to tour the courthouse. If you have enough time (45 minutes), you can also tour the equally impressive Jail to the left of the Courthouse.
Here is a marker in front of the courthouse.
After our tour, we looked at the former house across the street from the court house, first owned by James Kneeland. It is now The Popular Inn.
We really enjoyed our visit to West Bend and plan on returning again to tour the jail since we ran out of time. It was time to visit Port Washington!
