Wisconsin

When I knew we’d be passing through Wisconsin, I tapped into the best travel planning resource there is - a local! My friend from college, Erik, had lived in Madison for a long time, and was passionate about the city and the state. I asked him for recommendations and received the greatest essay in return, an excellent sign that we had lots of fun waiting for us in Wisconsin. I love seeing how excited people are about their homes and how delighted they are to share that with others. When we were in Ohio, I was thrilled by every kind Instagram message we received telling us what cool spots to check out and explore. I think it’s so beautiful and charming how much people sincerely love where they’re from and how excited they are to share that with others.

Once I plotted out our to-do list and mapped out the locations throughout the state, I was pretty excited to get out there and see this beautiful place. Alas, our first day in Madison was spent doing chores. Since this is our first real stretch with full-time bus living, we’ve been trying to start things off with a certain level of routine.

But since we were able to get things done efficiently, we were able to treat ourselves to a night in the city! After doing our laundry and shopping and cleaning, we headed into the downtown for an evening on the Memorial Union Terrace. Since this was not pet-friendly, we ended up finding a seat just outside the Terrace and we each took turns exploring this fun little local spot. The Terrace building has lots of snack and drink options, which you can enjoy while sitting in their iconic chairs while overlooking Lake Mendota. We opted for some ice cream with our views and enjoyed this lovely summer evening on the Terrace. Afterwards, we explored a bit more of the University of Wisconsin campus in the area, stopping in the college bookstore and falling in love with Bucky Badger. There’s something I absolutely love about university campuses and college towns. They always feel so hopeful, like just by being there, you can give yourself a fresh start.

After only one day in the city, we decided to venture out to Door County, affectionately referred to by Erik as “the thumb of the mitten that is Wisconsin”. On our way up north, we made a detour in Portage to look for the headstone of my stepdad Ric’s great Uncle Frank. Frank Haskell was a Colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and became notable posthumously due to the publication of his letters to his brother that detailed the Battle of Gettysburg. This was such a fun piece of family history, and we spent a lovely afternoon strolling the cemetery looking for his headstones. We eventually found them, as well as the headstones of his brother Harrison and Harrsion’s wife Maria. I felt like I had succeeded at a historical treasure hunt! Take that, Nicolas Cage!

The next morning we got an early start to explore the Door. We headed over to Sister Bay to see the famous Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik. This spot is known for their grass roof, where they play host to GOATS! Roof goats! It was an even funnier sight to see in person. Unfortunately, the breakfast wait was a little long for us, so we said goodbye to the goats and headed to Peninsula State Park. Here you could really enjoy the views of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, especially from the Eagle Tower overlook. We took a nice stroll through the woods on the Lone Pine Trail and the Minnehaha Trail. We decided to extend our loop onto the Eagle Trail, and I’m glad we did! This was a fun and rocky trail along the shoreline that had a few caves to walk through and explore.

After our morning of hiking, we decided to give Al Johnson’s another shot, and we ended up having absolutely perfect timing. We arrived around 2pm with a 15 minute wait time, and they stopped taking names for seating shortly after. We shopped in the Butik while we waited and were quickly seated. We opted for the most Swedish of the vegetarian options we could find and settled on Swedish pancakes with lingonberry sauce, pickled beet grilled cheese on Limpa bread, and coffee cake and we washed it all down with lingonberry iced tea. It was a truly delicious lunch! I left with such a happy and full belly, I wasn’t even that disappointed to learn we were just a bit late for Door County cherry season. But as a little dessert, we found and sipped on some local tart cherry juice. A sincerely perfect day of outdoor time and foodie tourism.

The next day we needed to head back towards Madison, and decided to take a route that first took us to Devil’s Lake State Park. But before we could really hit the road, I needed to make sure I had a good spot for my every-other-day run. My mom and I have been doing the Couch To 5K program together with phone calls while I’m on the road - we call each other up and each set the app to start our running program at the same time. We decided to aim for every other day as a way to keep each other motivated and to catch up on life. For me, it’s also been a wonderful way to keep an exercise routine while traveling (which also helps me keep my sanity), as well as a super fun way to explore local parks! I’ve found a few beautiful spots as a result of our runs, and the one I found in Wisconsin gets added to the list. Not far from our Harvest Host was Jefferson Park in Menasha, WI. This park had nice trails along Lake Winnebago, as well as charming little swinging benches and lovely little bridges over channels off the lake. Finding these beautiful little spots makes running more palatable and is an exciting element to planning out our trips.

We planned for a full day of hiking at Devil’s Lake State Park. Well, we didn’t entirely know what we were planning, since the trail maps from the website didn’t indicate elevation! We started out on the relatively easy East Bluff Trail, which allowed us to see our first cool rock formation, Elephant Rock. We continued upward on this path until it branched out for us to see Balanced Rock, and then we ended up descending on the Balanced Rock Trail. This was such a fun trail, they had carved and shaped a wonderful little staircase out of the tumbled rocks off the side of the mountain. Once we reached the bottom, it dawned on us that the loop we planned to next pass Devil’s Doorway led us all the way back up the mountainside! So we took it easy on the Grotto’s Trail before trekking straight back up on the Pothole’s Trail. I had been missing some elevation gains on our hikes and Devil’s Lake really dished some up for us! It was all worth it to see all the incredible rock formations and potholes, as well as the stunning lake views. After our down-and-up, we took the more relaxed East Bluff Woods Trail to complete our loop and head back to Charlotte. Where we both immediately needed parking lot showers! A funny little perk of bus life.

After our lovely day at Devil’s Lake, we headed back to Madison for a celebratory local feast. Erik pointed us in the direction of the best local eats, so we grabbed an outdoor table at The Old Fashioned in downtown Madison so we could eat like a true Wisconsiner. The fried cheese curds were absolutely delicious, I really loved that the structure of the cheese curd meant it didn’t go completely melty and the cheese still had a bite even after frying. Due to the name, we also HAD to try the old fashioned, done the Wisconsin way. I was even able to get a salad with some Door County cherries!! It’s always fun when a state or city has specialty local foods. I love exploring what new places have to offer that make them cherished and unique. And we weren’t done with our food tourism yet!

The next morning, we stopped by the Dane County Farmers’ Market bright and early. They claim to be the largest produce-only farmers’ market in the nation, and the beautiful location in the plaza surrounding the state capital building was just a little bonus. Another local foodie favorite is hot cheesy bread, so when we passed by Stella’s, we knew we just had to get a loaf. And then we found some Door County cherries! I absolutely love cherries, and was so excited to try this different variety, especially since it had such local popularity and acclaim. I’m glad I was able to find some fresh ones, since the taste and texture were so different from a regular cherry. They were much softer and the tart flavor was enriched by a cinnamon-like spice that seemed to settle in with every bite. Once we had our bread and fruit feast, we said goodbye to Madison and headed out west towards the Driftless Region.

On our route fell a Wisconsin and Americana wonder - The House on the Rock. I love the oddities of roadside America, and this one stood out to me because of the way that exact Americana is honored in the Neil Gaiman novel ‘American Gods’ at this strange Wisconsin attraction! Due to the length of the tour and the humidity of the day, we didn’t feel comfortable leaving the pups on their own. So Craig graciously volunteered to stay with the dogs while I took the full tour. What started as a weekend retreat and space for owner Alex Jordan’s fascination with collections, soon became a popular attraction as people flocked to see this wonder that had been built on the rock. Over time, it grew into a sprawling multi-building attraction that takes hours to walk through and displays a wide variety of collections and exhibitions. Words (or pictures) can’t do this place justice - and it was at times a little overwhelming to be surrounded by such a large amount of things or one amount of a very large thing (be sure to check out all the levels of the Heritage of the Sea room). My favorite part of the tour was the tokens we were given as part of our ticket. These can be used to play any of the automated music machines throughout the exhibit, and I loved starting up the music in The Red Room - a delightful automated performance of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Oh, and be sure to soak in the World’s Largest Indoor Carousel! You might even see an American God twirling around on there, but even if you don’t, you’ll definitely be immersed in the oddities of Americana.

After my tour, we continued out towards the Driftless Region, an area of Wisconsin and the surrounding states noted for its unique geography in the American Midwest due escaping the flattening effects of glaciation during the last ice age. Driving through this region definitely showed off different views than elsewhere in the state. The rolling hills and pastures reminded us both of parts of Vermont. We didn’t do much outdoor exploring here, so it’s hard to say what other unique elements might be seen in this region. Instead, we explored the cute downtown of Viroqua, enjoyed a stormy and peaceful evening at our Harvest Host stop, Nordic Creamery, and had an afternoon of wine at Vernon Vineyards. The wine and the views here were delightful, especially watching the storms roll in over the fields and the hilly landscapes.

As we wrapped up our time in Wisconsin, we decided to make a stop in Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells, as the advertisements we’d seen for the towns sounded fun and charming and worth a daytrip. Baraboo had a charming little downtown for shopping and strolling, as well as many circus-based attractions. In Baraboo, we also paid a visit to the International Crane Foundation! They work worldwide to conserve cranes and the ecosystems they rely on, as well as have an informational tour where you can see all 15 species of cranes from throughout the world! This was a lovely spot, a well crafted preserve with tons of information and interactive displays to learn all about cranes. From their headquarters here in Baraboo, they spearhead a global conservation effort with a network of hundreds of specialists over 50 countries to protect cranes and the watersheds and flyways they need to live and thrive.

Wisconsin Dells was a wonder for us. It had so many of the vibes of an East Coast beach town, but with no beach! Instead, they opted for waterpark after waterpark, making this town the Waterpark Capital of the World. We found a cute little trail that led to a little beach on the Wisconsin River, where we enjoyed a lazy afternoon reading and sunning by the river. Once we headed back downtown, we decided to walk the streets for a bit to enjoy the beachtown vibes and shop for souvenirs. And to top it all off, we relaxed again by the Wisconsin River with some evening beers.

Our last day in Wisconsin, we decided to return to Devil’s Lake for some hiking and outdoor relaxing. As part of our general planning process, we like to factor in when we will be doing a lot of driving or when we’ll be visiting larger cities and balance that out with hikes and restorative time in nature. So we spent the morning doing a little hiking and a lot of swimming and splashing at Devil’s Lake! There were 3 dog-friendly beaches around the lake, and since it had been a hot day, everyone enjoyed their dip in the cool lake waters. It’s one hard part of traveling more efficiently like we usually enjoy - sometimes we fall in love with a place and don’t get another chance to go back and spend more time exploring. So I was delighted that we got to spend another day enjoying this gorgeous Wisconsin state park.

As we said our goodbyes to Wisconsin and headed south toward Illinois, we got caught in some absolutely crazy weather we later realized was the edges of a storm system that led to a small tornado in Illinois. So we let ourselves be swept to the nearest Walmart for the night before Wisconsin’s wild storms could take us to Oz!

I guess Wisconsin was sad to see us go, but we’ll be back! Sooner rather than later, since we’ll eventually need to backtrack this way, and we did recently learn the Wisconsin Dells Duck Tours are pet-friendly…

See you soon Wisconsin!!