A Quick, Mini Vacation

This last Thursday, Friday and Saturday I went with my sister Cindy and her husband and daughter to their cottage in Crivitz, Wisconsin. It's about a 3 hour drive straight north from Waukesha, where we live. Cindy's husband wanted to get an early start so we left at 5:30 in the morning! That is truly an ungodly hour for me! I went straight from work to her house (remember I work 2nd shift) and tried to get a little sleep. You know how it is -- when you know you HAVE to get up, you just can't sleep. I may have dozed for an hour and a half and then got up at 3:30 and waited for the rest to wake up. I must have had a flu virus, 'cause I felt like crap all the way up. But I did manage a few pictures between bouts of nausea.

Beautiful sunrise. I sometimes see this when I'm going to sleep!!

Sort of looks like a calendar photo. Not bad taken through a car window.

This is Green Bay. An oil refinery is right on Lake Michigan and look at the smoke spewing out into the air! Below are oil tanks and some kind of retention ponds. I don't know what the hell they are retaining, but the water was a strange intense chartreuse color! Doesn't it look like some sort of ugly, futuristic, environmental nightmare. It smelled awful and Cindy is sure that there are higher than normal rates of cancer in that unfortunate city. Glad it didn't take long to leave that behind.

As we got farther north, I could see that there must have been a hard frost.

Here's the cottage nestled in what's left of a pine plantation. This is a back view.

A closer look at the deck and back of the A-frame. It is very nice and as you can see, Cindy insisted that the area surrounding the house be left pretty much untouched. Kris didn't mind at all not having a lawn to mow. The soil is primarily sand so it would have been an expensive chore to keep a lawn going.

I thought this was funny. Kris is trying to put together some sliding cabinet racks. You can kind of see on the box what it is. He wasn't reading the directions and the contraption kept falling apart as he put new pieces on. Doesn't it look like sort of a weird Tinker Toy play set?? He never got it put together . . .

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After laying around all of Thursday and drinking as much fresh water as I was able to choke down (Cindy insists that lots of water, in glass bottles that is, is the key to feeling well and getting over illnesses fast), I went to bed early. The next day I felt pretty good so we went to "The 14 Acres" that they also own. (They speak of the land like it is capitalized. ) It was once a Christmas tree farm and they had someone come and replant it with pines. Then ,primarily Cindy ,planted all kinds of varieties of seedlings she'd gotten from the DNR over the past years. They aren't going to do anything with the land but wanted trees put back on it. It is a labor of pure love for Cindy - that's why it is in capital letters.

Cindy surveying the growth of the White pines.

There is a ridge that is at the far north end of the land that is beautiful. It wasn't farmed so, as you can see, there are lots of lovely mature Oaks, Birch, Maples and Aspen.

Here is a little hunting shack that is on the top of the ridge. Notice that the front of it has been clawed by a black bear. They do that to mark their territories.

The bear also left this behind. It is also used to mark territory.

A neat view from inside the shack. A neighbor is allowed to use it during the hunting season and he gets a deer from it every year. I'm not sure how many deer will be coming past this year with that bear hanging around and pooping all over the place!

Cindy admiring a fantastic Blue Spruce specimen on the property.

Isn't this a very picturesque old barn. Those are green shingles on the roof, not moss like we first thought. It's a shame that this stately building hasn't been kept up. We saw this on our way to a fishing spot of Kris' that they wanted to show me.

This was so nice and notice how the bridge railing details mimic the windows in the power plant.

It just proves that something can be utilitarian and pleasing at the same time. As an aside, whenever I take trips I take pictures of power plants with transformers. That's because I work for a company that makes electrical transformers and I like to see them in action.

Here is a view down the river away from the dam. Kris has caught some big bass just under the dam.

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From the river we were on our way to the obligatory Wisconsin Friday Fish Fry. The fish fry was at a resort called The Four Seasons on a 100 acre island called Miscauno Island in the Menominee River. In 1905 a luxury get-away for the rich was built here. A one way rail bridge is the only way to get to the island . After the entire place burned down in 1923 it was rebuilt, with a very posh club house, golf course and resort rooms. It is said to have entertained Al Capone and other shady characters of that time as well as celebrities and distinguished guests. The past 4 years they've added a 55 unit hotel to the resort without taking away too much of the charm.

As we walked up to the original clubhouse, now the restaurant.

This is pretty imposing for an "up north" place. I wish they had one of the grounds keepers straighten up those corn shocks though.

Cindy and family checking out the old photos of visitors to the resort in the dining room where we ate. The food was excellent and we had more than we were able to finish. We'd eaten very early - 4:30! (Kris didn't want to have to come at the busy time -- well, as you can see, we're the only ones there.....) so I had my left overs later that night.

These are the steps up to the entrance. They look quite grand, but were built at a strange width. When walking down them, you can't take two full size steps. It's sort of like a step and a half, which is really difficult after a while. You have to keep your eye on what you're doing. (I just walked on the grass half way down.)

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On Saturday, again we got up at an obscene hour (6:30) so we "could get an early start" and we left at 9:00 a.m. and were home by noon. It was a "quick hit" vacation but I had a good time considering I was sick part of the time and didn't get much sleep. The area is so pretty and I always have a feeling of renewal when I come back from the Northwoods. Nature will do that to you . . .

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A happy life is one which is in accordance

with its own nature.

Marcus Annaeus Seneca

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Bye for now,

Alyssa

A Family Outing

Every month I go with my sister and her children (and their girl friends) on what we call a "Family Outing". July's Outing was to Boerner Botanical Gardens in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. It's a fantastic group of gardens set in acres and acres of wooded parkland called Whitnall Park. We have been going there since we were children and it holds many special memories.

Today Cindy, Kelly (her daughter), Jesse (her son), Mika (Jesse's girlfriend) and I were in the jolly little band that comprised this "Family Outing" group. Jesse is just getting into photography and spent a lot of time finding interesting close-ups. I just snapped away and ended up taking 220 pictures!! Don't worry, I've only included a "few". This will be pictorial so I want to explain the very colorful "horses". These were painted by various individuals, schools, and organizations to raise money for the Botanical Gardens.

As a wonderful ending to our Outing, we had a little picnic. It was in the same picnic area that my family and I had enjoyed 50 years ago. It brought back such fond memories and Cindy and I shared them with the kids. What a perfect day.

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"The family is one of nature's masterpieces."

George Santayana

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Bye for now,

Alyssa

Horicon, Homes, Cemeteries and the Marsh

I made a mistake and published what should be the first blog below this. So read the bottom one first, then this one. Sorry . . .

Horicon is a very small town with two things that keep it going. One is the John Deere plant that is huge - 1 million square feet! - and employs 1,500 people. All of their lawn tractors and lawn mowers are made there. It is the only viable business that we saw . And the other thing is the Marsh. Birders, canoeists, kayakers, sightseers, and hunters come to enjoy all it has to offer. Even with these, Horicon seems rather sad and doesn't feel as if it is only a short way from Milwaukee. While we were there, we saw no new construction or even any buildings that had been built in the past 15 - 20 years. There is not food store, drug store, fast food restaurants, or shopping center. There is a busy gas station and an "ice cream station" that had lots of people coming and going. Here is the down town:

There are some very old buildings with character but all are boarded up. The were a few bars that were open but not many people in them.

Cindy and I picked up a pamphlet put out by the Historical Society that had a walking tour map of old homes of distinction from the better, by gone days. And we were surprised and pleased to find these gems as we walked the small neighborhoods. Horicon must have seen some boom times. I'm sorry I don't know much about them,or their architectural styles, but there are very pretty. Our B & B was also listed on the walking tour. Also, the pictures came out kind of dark - only the two middle houses are painted light blue-gray. The other two are white with dark trim.

The large maple on the left was planted the day Lincoln was buried!

This is now the home of the Historical Society.

I guess the Garden Club is no more. But this is quite well kept and someone was beginning to replant the garden when we were there.

Cindy and I had originally wanted to take pictures of barns but our route just didn't have many on it. But we did see two very interesting cemeteries. I just love the beautiful etching in some of the head stones. Here are some very pretty examples.

Here are some grave markers that look like chess pieces.

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An angelic one and a very old one.

And some sad ones.

Both of these cemeteries were mainly populated by German families and were out in the country. They were both well kept and quite peaceful. I'm sure they didn't mind us visiting.

And yes, we did get to canoe the Marsh. We luckily decided to just paddle around and not take the long trip. Things started out really well and the water was like glass. We saw cormorants, Great Blue Herons, turtles, and pelicans. The water lilies were just coming into bloom and I got a few nice pictures of them.

Notice the flower has holes chewed in it.

This is what a lot of the area looked like. We were out for at least 3 hours and began to turn back when the wind came up and we had to paddle into it on the return trip. Boy, that was too much like work but we laughed and joked and made the best of it. There were lots of kayakers out (mostly women of various ages and levels of fitness) and we decided that this Fall we're going to try that out. The rental lady said it was easier than it looks.


A map of the Marsh taped on the prow of the canoe. I was in front and Cindy had the harder job in the back.

At the Horicon Nature Refuge tourist center we saw all kinds of these swallow nests with birds swooping back and forth. I've never seen this kind. Does anyone know what variety of swallow builds this?

It's built on top of a standard nest.

And, lastly, here is a present I bought for Steve at the Blue Heron Landing canoe rental business. He just loves it and so do I.

It's about 4 feet tall and weighs quite a bit. There is a little metal perch in his mouth if you look really close.

That is pretty much of what we did. We'd like to go back and visit some Native American effigy mounds that are on the west side of the Marsh. There are quite a number of good hiking areas that we didn't have time to travel. So there will be plenty for us to do next time we visit Horicon.

Bye for now,

Alyssa

P.S. Horicon is the home of the world's most beautiful, big smoke bush. Isn't it lovely!