We had spent several days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, back in 2011, and really enjoyed our time there, so we were looking forward to seeing more of the state on this trip. Because we were passing through on a Saturday and Sunday, we picked our overnight location based on where there was a church congregation we could worship with, and built the rest of Saturday and Sunday's itinerary around that.
As we entered the Mississippi River Valley while still in Minnesota, we stopped at a rest area that had beautiful vista overlooks of the changing geologic scene. Everything was so lush and green! And they had some flowers, too, of course!
Our first stop in Wisconsin was La Crosse. This is a cute older town on the banks of the Mississippi River, and they, like many towns along the Mighty MIssissip, have a riverboat tour. We had originally planned to do one in Winona, Wisconsin, but their season didn't start for a few more days, so we routed ourselves through La Crosse.
La Crosse has a beautiful riverfront recreational area that was busy with people enjoying the fresh air and sunshine, walking, biking, just being outdoors. We had an 11:00 tour on the La Crosse Queen riverboat on the Mississippi River. We had pre-purchased our tickets which turned out to be a good thing since it was pretty full. The weather was chilly, so we were glad we had jackets.
The riverboat tour goes about half an hour up river while the captain narrates what you're seeing and talks about navigating the waters. There is also a train bridge that has a swing section that has to be opened for the river traffic. That was pretty neat to see. Trains have to stop for it unless they belong to the railroad that owns the track, and then the trains get priority.
Here are some pictures from the tour.
Once the riverboat tour was over, we continued driving to Waupaca, Wisconsin, where were were spending the night at the Comfort Suites at their local golf course. We ate dinner at Culvers because even though we can eat at Culvers at home, Culvers was started in Wisconsin - and the first time we had Culvers was on our Milwaukee trip.
It was also the weekend when the northern lights were visible in more southern parts of the country than usual. We weren't able to get any pictures the night before in Rochester because there was so much light, but we thought we might get a few shots at Waupaca. We didn't get any good shots but we did dimly see the changing colors when we walked out away from the light of the hotel onto the golf cart path. We did get a nice late afternoon shot of the golf course view from our hotel room!
We went to church on Sunday morning and met the nicest group of people. We stayed around talking with them for quite a while after church. I love when we have visitors at our local congregation and have a chance to meet other people who are like-minded in their faith. They also have these beautiful trees planted along the sidewalk that were flowering, so of course #flowersmakemehappy!
We continued through Wisconsin and as we were nearing the Michigan state line, I saw a billboard on the side of a barn for Klema's Cheese shop, so when we got to it, we stopped for cheese and summer sausage! Because Wisconsin!!
Here are a few farmland pictures representative of what we saw while driving across this part of Wisconsin.
When we left Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon, it wasn't "Goodbye" but "See ya later" as we would be back in the state again on Saturday.
~ Cindy D.
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