Ahoy Manitowoc!

It's too easy to forget that worldly treasures exist right here in the midwest. While cheese curds, beer, and brats are the epicenter of our unique culture, we have far more to offer than those delectable treats (says the lactose intolerant, wine drinking vegetarian). Need proof? Then head to Manitowoc.

Manitowoc is home of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, which celebrates Wisconsin's role in the shipbuilding industry. Appropriately located on the shore of Lake Michigan, this museum showcases artifacts from recent history. The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company built 28 submarines during World War II for the US Navy, 25 of those served in the war.

A short jaunt from the Maritime Museum, but a far cry from the utilitarian nature of submarines, luxury yachts are produced at Burger Boat Company. I had the fortune of getting to see a yacht in the construction phase there several years back while working for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. Coming back to Manitowoc, I found myself driving past this facility, which has managed to survive the recession.

Manitowoc is divided by the Manitowoc River, which feeds into Lake Michigan and gives character to Manitowoc's downtown. This downtown features restaurants, cafes, museums, and shops. Not far from the downtown is a trail which leads from Manitowoc to its northern neighbor, Two River (in the midwest, it's often pronounced "Trivers". My theory is that our mouths are usually stuffed with cheese and beer, making it difficult to appropriately enunciate the words.) This trail follows the Lake Michigan shoreline, with much of the vista open to the public, thanks to Manitowoc County owning a significant portion of land along the six-mile paved trail. If you're an early bird, I highly recommend catching this trail before sunrise to experience the breathtaking transformation that occurs to the lake when the sun rises.

Manitowoc is a community that embodies its history, recognizes its fortune for being on the shore of a Great Lake, and provides a unique experience for its visitors. This city is definitely worth a visit!

The Best of 2011-ish

Madison

I hesitated to consider this as part of the "Best of 2011-ish". No, I'm not referring to Madison itself when I talk about my reluctancy. Madison is a great city; I just hate the reason why we went to Madison. We went to protest our governor and certain members of the state legislature making a horrible decision, the decision to try to use public employees as a scapegoat and to try to offset years' worth of financial mismanagement on the backs of public employees. Compound that decision with a proposed budget that would cut critical programs and people got pretty riled up. Angry, in fact. Turning that anger into empowerment, thousands of people took to the Capitol to be heard. Politicking, however, trumps democracy. Some pretty bad legislation was passed, programs were cut, and scores of people are disenfranchised; however, the spirit of what made Wisconsin the great state it is refuses to fizzle. Oh, and the fact that over a million signatures (to this date, they need to be verified) have been collected to recall our dear governor. Therefore, my travels to Madison made the ranks of the "Best-ish of 2011".

I Wanna Be a Cowgirl, Baby

Themes are a very important part of a bachelor or bachelorette party. For my best friend, we celebrated the coming of her special day cowgirl style!

Sommerhalder-Meyer Wedding

When I was six, I wanted nothing more than to be a ballerina. Or a real life princess. Seeing that it was a tad more feasible for my parents to get me to ballet lessons than to try to establish royal blood, I decided it was okay to commit myself to being a ballerina. After all, I was only six. I had time to become a princess. During my first ballet lesson, I was introduced to a bevy of tutu-clad ballerina-wannabes. That was my first introduction to Megan. Little did I know that our first unofficial encounter would lead to a lifelong friendship.

While almost every little girl wants to be a princess at some point, mostly thanks to the world of Disney falsely convincing all of us that it's possible, most of us get our chance...even if it's just for a day. June 11, 2011 was Megan's day.

My First Muslim Wedding

I first met Fouda when I agreed to mentor an Egyptian student who would be studying at the Fox Valley Technical College campus in Appleton, Wisconsin. Fouda, who had no family here, certainly had no problems making friends with his fellowstudents, and he was quickly "adopted" by my family as a fellow family member. Almost two years after meeting Fouda, I was happy to see him marry a beautiful woman named Kaylah.

All Dressed Up and Everywhere to Go!

As mentioned before, themes are VERY important for bachelorette parties. Heather's bachelorette party was certainly no exception, nor was it to be "average". Heather's bachelorette party entailed a night of of fully-painted, winged fairies tearing up Chicago.

Lichtfuss-Stinson Wedding

Chalk it up to destiny. That's probably the best way I can describe how I met Heather and Paul. Aaron and Heather first met when Aaron was working his first summer at Outdoor Outlet in Appleton. Shopping with a friend, Heather was looking for bike jerseys, which Aaron was more than happy to help with. After helping Heather and Trish for a while, they got on the topic of how Aaron and I had recently moved back to Wisconsin and that I was looking for girls to ride with. Long story short, I rode with Heather one day and we became fast friends. Not only did Heather and I become fast friends, we eventually met Paul and many of their other friends. Almost three years to the date of our first bike ride, I was happy to be part of this beautiful wedding party.

Boise-Bound

"Idaho? What's in Idaho?" I was asked this question quite a few times when I would excitedly tell folks of my pending travel plans to go to Boise. "A friend's wedding. I've never been to Boise and I think it'll be fun." Yes, a generic response, but I really had nothing to go off of. I had never been to Boise and I really didn't know what to expect. Yes, a friend from grad school was getting married, which also meant that I would get to see friends who I have not seen in a long time.

As it turns out, Boise was spectacular! A historic downtown offset by a beautiful mountain vista. Endless hiking options. Amazing food. Ice cream shaped like a potato. Really, what isn't there to like about Boise?

Wedding in Idaho

Liz is a nature girl. That's why her decision to have a purely outdoor wedding, including reception, was not surprise to me. From a wedding cake topped with a bird's nest to local honey as a party-favor, Liz's and Aaron's wedding was a perfect reflection of who they are as both individuals and as a couple.

Quick Trip to Minnesota

While I'm sure there's more to say about our trip to visit Aaron's brother Michael in Minnesota, I'm goingto leave it at this: I learned to wakeboard!

White-Sprague Wedding

(Note: I have pictures from our trip to Lake Geneva, but my duties as wife of the best man prevented me from taking pictures of the actual wedding. I will do my best to find said pictures of Lake Geneva so I have some way to show this beautiful city. With that said, it would be almost taboo for me to miss one of Aaron's and my best friend's wedding as a "Best of 2011-ish" just because I'm not responsible enough to keep track of all of my pictures!)

Ortiz-Rucci Wedding

Adam and I first met my freshman year of high school. Our first encounter reminded me of a scene out of Napoleon Dynamite. Sitting behind this black-haired junior, I couldn't help but notice that he was more preoccupied drawing an imaginary creature than listening to our math teacher. He turned around and introduced me to his version of what Napoleon Dynamite would call a liger. While I cannot remember his name for his hybrid creature, I do remember this being the conversation that sparked our friendship.

As with every friendship, there are major milestones that you reach and celebrate. One such occasion was celebrating Adam's and Carmen's wedding in November of 2011.

Mountain Biking on New Year's Eve Day

2011 left us with unseasonable weather. So unseasonable that Aaron and I were able to actually go mountain biking. Normally this time of year, we're on our skis, not our bikes. Thus, my first time mountain biking in the winter. That's noteworthy for me :)

The Need to Stop Slacking

It's taken me 30 years, but I think I'm finally starting to learn my lesson. Putting things off only means that it will usually take twice as long to do a task if your procrastinate than if you would have done it right away. While at work, I'm usually prompt, responsive, and get things done, I'm not quite that way in my personal life. I tend to let mail pile, dishes set, and leave written cards unmailed. What this means, in addition to my mail not going out in a timely fashion, is a frustrated night spent cleaning crusted food off dishes and determining which mail is relevant and which can get shredded. The same applies to this blog

When I first started this blog, I did so to keep family and friends informed of our honeymoon (sans salacious details, of course). Once I got into the blogging habit, I thought this was surely something to stay. Wrong! Life gets in the way, I was uninspired to blog, I didn't have exciting trips to write about, and the excuses continued. Then I realized that I haven't been living in a cave since our honeymoon and that I, in fact, had plenty of exciting adventures to write about. However, summing up a year-and-a-half's worth of travels, excursions and excitement would take quite some time. Yet, I don't want them to go unblogged. That said, I'll do the best I can to honor the past 18 months by my "Best of 2011-ish" blog.

Guster

I would be remiss not to mention an important part of Aaron's and my life together--Guster.

Last spring, when Aaron walked in with a 40 pound wriggly black lab/golden retriever mix, I wish I could say I was immediately in love. While I adored his big, black floppy ears, his huge eyes, and his wet snout, I was hesitant to say the least. Call it timing, perhaps. The exact same day I was introduced to the dog that we would later name Guster, I had resigned myself to the fact that we would never be dog owners. To affirm that fact, and to make it okay in my head, I had even gone so far to declare to a woman that I was meeting for lunch that our lifestyle was just not conducive for a puppy. After all, it's a huge responsibility. HUGE. Aaron and I are get-up-and-go sort of people. We fly by the seats of our pants. That just simply doesn't work if you have a dog. Timing as it was, my affirmation was contradicted and our lives as we knew them were forever changed when Guster literally wriggled his way into our front door and, eventually, our hearts.

I only say eventually because he kept us on our toes as we had to learn just how our house wasn't puppy-proofed. With Gus, there was no way to properly prepare our house because we never knew what we was going to get into. So, he let us know, usually in the form of a chewed up, wet, slobbery item that, post-Gus encounter, was only useful in our trash can. Then there was his habit of making our yard extra big by Gus trying to annex our neighbors' yards. Okay, so neither problem is completely abated, but improvement has been made. Now, nearly a year later, we've learned to cope with (and, if needed, correct) the subtleties and oddities that make Gus the little dude that he is.

Snow, Black Ice, Waterfalls and the Inevitable (but Unexpected)Phantom Tick

Just uttering the words "spring break", people are often inclined to think of white sand beaches, margaritas, tropical music and a week away from everyday stressors. Aaron really isn't suited for that type of lifestyle nor am I the kind who could spend an entire week just bumming along beaches (although a day or two of total uninhibited relaxation would be welcomed at this juncture in my life). No. That's just too simple for the two of us...not to mention it would require a bit more planning than Aaron and I are suited to.

For this spring break/mini-vacation, Aaron and I opted to head to our usual go-to destination, the cabin up north. Its easy, simple, no-planning-required demeanor is an easy option for the two of us when we want to get away but don't want to put the effort (and not to mention monetary commitment) into a longer, more extravagant retreat.

Departing late Saturday afternoon, we knew that there would be a bit of snow along the drive; however, we didn't quite anticipate that it would involve a steady stream of snow that appeared to have been torpedoing at the car--and that patch of black ice that I hit was certainly not factored into the plans for the drive. Thankfully in that moment of panic that one feels when the car starts to go out of control, I was able to find an inner peace that helped keep the car on the road. With essentially zero visibility in that mid-April drive, I surrendered the steering wheel over to Aaron.

We decided on just doing some day trips during this four and a half day vacation, but our Sunday of watching our new dog, Guster, play with his parents' other three dogs, helping move furniture and taking a walk isn't much to note.

On Monday, we departed to see some waterfalls in the vicinity. I have been inspired to see the waterfalls in Wisconsin after a discussion I had several years back with a woman I knew who loved to visit the waterfalls of Wisconsin. Our first stop was to Potato River Falls. I'll admit that for some reason, the name seems a little off-putting, as if I would almost expect to see murky water with the occasional potato launching over the edge of the fall. Yet, I knew from seeing pictures that this would not be the case. Given the lack of adequate signage, the dirt road the lead the way to the fall and the vintage outhouse, we weren't quite sure if the community put much stock in the waterfall, either. Getting out of the car, stretching our legs and taking Guster on his obligatory potty walk, we could hear the falls in full force.

Getting down the falls was a steep hike down wooden steps. The first landing was an observation deck, which didn't offer much a view of the falls, so we continued on all the way down to where we were able to see a full, up close view of the falls. While we were able to get down to the falls, we had planned more on being able to do hiking around them, but there weren't really any trails to follow so we trekked back up the stairs to our car so we could grab some lunch.

After lunch, we were ready to leave for our second destination when we saw another trail. Hiking this second trail, we came across a second set of stairs that led us down to an up close vista of the Potato River Falls, which were thunderously roaring. We took advantage of the smooth rocks, the sunshine and the view for a while before deciding that we still had another park to visit.

Copper Falls State Park is located in Mellen, Wisconsin, which is about thirty miles from Park Falls. Our drive from Potato River Falls to Copper Falls involved a winding, hilly route in which we passed maybe ten houses and one car on that thirty minute drive. Middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin is certainly breathtaking, but lonely.

After purchasing our 2011 park pass, we drove to find the namesake of this park. Once we arrived, one teeny, tiny problem stood in our way of seeing Copper Falls--a "No Dogs Allowed" sign. Worse off, it didn't even say "No Dogs Allowed", there was just a red picture of a pointer dog's silhouette encased by a circle and a line going through it. As if to say, "Dogs Aren't Only Allowed, We Simply Do Not Accept them in these Parts so Take THAT." Okay, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but it did seem quite sad that we drove all that way to see Copper Falls and found that we couldn't even take a dog-friendly trail to see them.

Navigating back toward the park entrance, we found a trail to see Red Granite Falls, which clearly indicated that dogs were allowed on leash. No pictorial inference had to be made. Nope, just a clearly stated, simple sign granting us permission to take Guster on his much anticipated hike.

Meandering our way down a murky trail, we slid, sank and trudged a mile and a half before even hearing the roars of the waterfall. Although smaller than Potato River Falls, Red Granite Falls offered a unique beauty as we saw various levels of cascades that led into the eventual larger, rushing red-tinted falls. With patches of snow and ice still evident, it was a nice winter-to-spring transition as we lapped up the sun's warmth on the edge of the falls.

Heading back to the parking lot, we took a trip over to the lake abutting the parking lot. The tranquility of the scenery was quickly diminished by Guster, who was taking his first trip into a lake, diving right in and swimming around. Aaron and I had been pondering if he would like swimming or not--turns out we didn't even have to try to get him into the water!

After dropping Guster back off to the cabin, we headed out for some fantastic Kobe Sushi in downtown Minocqua. Well fed and back at the cabin, Aaron made the discovery of the night--a lousy tick lurking along the bathroom floor. After several tick checks, we headed to bed with the worst case of phantom tick, the feeling where you have a tick crawling all over your body. An amazing day, ended by a night of mystery phantom tick.

Yellowstone!

This blog is actually being posted in real time...no need to play catch up on this one!

Initially, we had planned on camping in or near Yellowstone; however, Wednesday's news about the fatal bear attack at a local campground made us change our idea of lodging at Yellowstone. With Aaron needing to keep his tester and sugar in the tent, we didn't want to risk anything...especially since they are still working on identifying the attacker. We realize that bear attacks are extremely uncommon; however, we did not want to take the risk.

After enjoying a picnic, we headed into the historic park. I had not been to Yellowstone in ages and never realized how it really is its own entity, complete with gas stations, restaurants and shopping centers.

While Aaron and I were enjoying a serene moment by the river, our attention was brought to 'alert' mode when two guys drove buy screaming that a bear was heading right toward us. Not knowing where the bear was, Aaron and I headed back to the car. We headed up the road and were greeted soon after by cars stopped and people running along the roadside with cameras.

We joined the madness and pulled off to see one of the greatest views ever--a grizzly bear strolling along the river, searching for grub. Although I was a little disappointed to not see one while out on a hike, I'm also relieved to know that this encounter was nearby, but we had the relative safety of a river as a buffer.

We arrived to see Old Faithful almost right on time, since it was about ready to erupt. We were surrounded by tourists eager to see one of the most popular features of the park. As it was finishing its show, the woman to the right of me commented how "amazing" Old Faithful was while the woman to my left remarked how "disappointing" it was. To me, it's somewhere in the middle, although I would not ever use "disappointing" to describe it. I would say, its a magnificent feature, but not the most spectacular.

After watching Old Faithful, we headed back to West Yellowstone to check into our hotel and grab dinner. We ate at a 1950s style diner, where I found out how difficult it is to find a restroom in a tourist town. There was one bathroom, with a code (which I didn't realize I needed to have a code to get in). After impatiently waiting, I finally decided to see if I needed a key or a code to get in. Sure enough I did need a code, but someone else beat me to it. Someone who decided to clog the toilet. The restaurant wouldn't give me the code to use the employee restroom, so across the street I went. No luck...the man just spread disinfectant all over the floor. Down the street I went, finally, a restroom. I just had to maneuver around the tourists shopping in the crowded aisles of the store. Ah...the wonders of tourist towns!

Since I'm on the note of tourist towns, another wonder is how their merchandise can be so full of (for lack of better words) stuff made in China. Another wonder is how people can feel so compelled to buy it! There are some things that do look nice, but I would much rather prefer to buy a picture taken by a local artist or a piece of jewelry made by a local jeweler.

Today, we are heading out to see more of Yellowstone and then we will slowly start meandering our way back to Wisco!

Back We Go...Sort Of!

While we initially planned on heading up to Washington, we opted last minute to head to Yellowstone National Park since it was a more direct route back to Wisconsin.

Our route to get to Yellowstone involved a trip back through Las Vegas, through Utah (including the beautiful Salt Lake City) and to the east portion of Idaho. With mountains surrounding our view the entire time, we could not complain about the drive. Plus, there's always interesting things to see on the road. Perhaps the most memorable sight was a burly man on a Harley with a fifteen pound mutt in tow on his back seat. The little pup was decked out in biker gear, including a little black bad a** bandana around its neck. With its fur whipping in the wind, the dog seemed carefree despite the fact that it seemed precariously perched on the backseat of the Harley. I tried getting a picture, but the one I was able to capture (since I accidentally had the camera on the timer) was a far off view of the bike. We'll forgo posting that pic!