Journey to Straight Lake

I hope my readers enjoyed the long holiday weekend. Friday Travalon and I took it easy, just walking to Mariner's for fish and then going maybe two miles away to the Parched Eagle. Saturday we also had a relaxing day, sleeping very late and then driving to Eau Claire in time to go to Mass at Sacred Heart. We stopped for a beer at the Lazy Monk Brewery in the shadow of Sacred Heart, then we drove to Menomomie, where Travalon went to school, and took a walk along the Red Cedar River. We ended the evening with beer and pizza at Lucette, a relatively new brewery in Menomonie, then we drove back to our hotel in Eau Claire.

Yesterday Travalon's evil cell phone, which as I have mentioned has a mind of its own, set off an alarm at 6 am, and I couldn't get back to sleep. We started a project: I had begun collecting the artistic Life WTR bottles, but somehow a few got recycled by accident. Travalon suggested that dollar stores in small towns might have older bottles, and he was right! We had so much fun stopping at various dollar stores and finding older Life WTR bottles as we went about our travels. We drove up to Kinnikinnic State Park, which a bartender had once told us was a boring state park, but in fact it had a beautiful overlook on the St. Croix River and a steep path down to a beach. We got nine flights of stairs worth of exercise coming back up! Then we took a brunch boat ride on the St. Croix, which was wonderful. It was raining a bit when we started, but at that point we were inside eating. This brunch had the best waffles I have ever tasted in my life. The weather cleared up, and we went out on deck and watched sailboats racing, with their colorful spinnakers. Then we drove to Straight Lake, the last state park Travalon had not been to yet. We hiked around a smaller lake called Rainbow Lake and then followed a long trail down to Straight Lake to find a vista worth the trouble, with a small island in the middle of the lake. We would love to come back and canoe out to that island! Then we drove to Interstate State Park, which also has a spectacular view of the St. Croix River. We stopped at a really good pizza place called Pizza Planet, like the Married B-Boy's old business, in Somerset. Then we went back to the hotel for a refreshing swim.

Today we continued our Life WTR bottle project as we drove along Highway 12. We stopped at a park in the very small town of Humbird and walked along the lake. We stopped at a gorgeous waterfall in Merrillan and had lunch at a charming little coffee place in Black River Falls. We went to Lake Wauzee County Park in the Black River State Forest and hiked. We found a beach there where you could swim out to a small island, but it was cold and drizzly so we didn't swim, though we saw some people paddle boarding with their dog. We will have to go back and visit this island too! Since we had to pay $5 to get into this park, we explored it thoroughly, including a point called Sherwood Forest and a basin created by old lead mining activity. There is a herd of elk in the forest, and we were hopeful that we might see one, but we were not that lucky. After that we drove to Mill Bluff State Park, one of our favorites, and waded in the pond before hiking around the bluff. We drove through RockyArbor State Park, and it was a bit flooded in places. The Mexican restaurant where we wanted to eat in Mauston was closed for the day, so we found one in the Dells with a spectacular view and mediocre food. Now we are back home with so many bottles of Life WTR that we can barely fit them all in the fridge.

Famous Hat