Independence Day on Rib Mountain

 

Late this morning Travalon and I met Tiffy for an early lunch at the Venezuelan restaurant, where I got their coconut tilapia and the sugar cane juice that is fresh made there. She headed off to our old college friend's house, while Travalon and I drove up to Wausau. We took a vigorous hike on the top of Rib Mountain, where we saw this snake.

Here are some more photos from our hike.

After that we spent some time trying to figure out if we could watch the fireworks from up there. That is the reason we came here, and apparently it was a perfect view in the past, but a few years ago they started setting the fireworks off at the airport, and the trees block the view. We talked quite a bit to the ranger, who said she heard people could no longer see it except from the tower, and that would be crawling with teenagers. Another guy said he thought we should be able to see them from a certain spot on Rib Mountain, but he didn't know for sure. So we went to the boat launch the ranger had recommended and checked it out before having shrimp at Panda Express. I've never eaten there before - it's not bad. 

During dinner we discussed whether we should take a chance on Rib Mountain or go to the boat launch, which seemed like more of a sure thing, plus it had a real bathroom as opposed to pit toilets. We did go there, and Travalon got a chance to fish, but all he caught were weeds. People kept arriving, so we knew this park was definitely a good viewing spot. The fireworks started ten minutes later than scheduled, but they were great, especially a perfect red spiral. I was a little bummed that they ended with those extremely bright, extremely loud white ones that are my least favorite, but most of the rest of the grand finale was in fact grand. Here are some photos. There were lots of forget-me-nots at the river's edge.

This is me before it got dark.

The view to the north was gorgeous.

We saw a lot of herons fly by.

We saw an osprey sitting in a tree and flapping its wings.

The view to the north again.

There were lots of lit-up boats.

Here are some fireworks.

As soon as they were over, we noticed a group of kayakers that were all lit up, and one had long strands of lights dragging behind the kayak in the water. This photo kind of shows it. A boat photobombed it on the left. The kayak with the long strands is the one closest to the boat.

Then we came back and swam in the hotel pool. From 10-11 pm no children are allowed in the pool, so we figured that was the perfect time to go, and in fact nobody else was in it. We swam for a while and then went into the hot tub built into a fake grotto. This entire hotel has a North Woods theme to it, so the pool area looks like a lodge. We kind of feel like we're up north too, with the river and the woods. Sometime this summer we will have to truly get up North.

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Lake Wisconsin and Eagles

 

When we got home yesterday, Travalon's new friend had arrived. Check it out - he even has tiny ice cubes in his glass of Hawaiian Punch!

Then we took a long walk, and there was a beautiful winter sunset.

Today Travalon and I drove out to Sauk; we saw a mature bald eagle fly overhead as we passed Roxbury, but we didn't see any eagles in Sauk itself. We drove along Highway U, up the north side of the lake, and on one road there is a random porta-potty, which was handy for me. We kept driving on that road up a bluff, to get a great view of Paradise Island.

Okay, this is out of order, but in Merrimac we stopped at the park from which you can see all of Lake Wisconsin, and there was too much snow to walk into the park so we took a walk along the road. We saw this tropical house that belongs in Miami! Ha, just kidding, that's a fake palm tree.

We drove to Portage and went to Two Rivers Coffee, because I had a 10% off coupon. We took a walk in town, and there were speakers on the lampposts that were playing 40's Junction, which is what we were listening to in the car. How cool is that? We saw these pretty Christmas trees on a street corner.

We saw this adorable turtle in a shop window.

Then we drove down the south side of the river on Highway V, and we stopped by Columbia Lake. Because of the power plant on the lake, the water is always 70 degrees Fahrenheit, so a lot of steam was coming off of it. Notice the rime on the weeds... and the people kayaking in January!

It had started to flurry while we were in Portage, which was shocking because it hadn't been in the forecast. It was getting a little worse, so we stopped at Hooker's Resort for lunch to give it a chance to blow through. Hooker's has a cute little delivery Smart Car.

Things cleared up, and we drove down Tipperary Road and stopped at the boat launch to take photos of the bluff across the way where we had been earlier, taking pictures of Paradise Island.

We turned off Tipperary Road and onto the causeway, and we saw lots of ice fishermen on either side. (I never see ice fisherwomen because women have more common sense than that.) Just then, 40's Junction played "It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary," and we thought it was too bad we had missed hearing the song while on Tipperary Road by just moments. We drove through Okee and past the island in Sunset Bay, and then we returned to Sauk. This time we saw two eagles on the island, one at the VFW Park that flew downriver, and two at the dam. Here they are sitting in one tree.

Then they flew closer to the dam.

There they sat in a different tree, so close that at moments they looked like a single, two-headed eagle.

I still needed some steps when we got back, so eventually we went for a walk in our neighborhood. These lit up green mounds under the snow were very cool.

Now we are watching the Cleveland Browns beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs. So excited for Cleveland! They haven't been in the playoffs since 2002, and in fact a few seasons ago they didn't win a single game, so I'm so happy that they aren't one and done. Of course, if they do make it to the Super Bowl and so do the Packers, I'm still cheering for Green Bay.

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Saturday on Northern Lakes

Today Travalon and I drove to a covered bridge on a state forest road, and we took some pictures even though it was raining pretty hard at that point. If you look closely, you can see the raindrops in these photos!

Then we drove to the south side of the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, and this sign for a self-storage company made us laugh:

We saw these people canoeing in the mist, amidst the myriad tiny islands, and it made me really want to canoe, but it's not easy to find a place to rent a canoe in the Flowage.

                             

We drove past a sign for a resort on Little Muskie Lake, so we drove in and asked the owner if she rented canoes. She seemed confused by the question but said she did have some canoes and kayaks and a paddle boat, so for $15 we could use them for the afternoon. (They are for people staying at the resort.) We took out two kayaks and paddled around the periphery of the lake, and that took about an hour. Perfect!

Then we stopped at Sandy Beach Lake and took a walk.

We drove onto the Lac du Flambeau reservation and had a late lunch at a restaurant there. So good! I had an Indian taco made with fry bread. We sat in a covered porch overlooking Lac du Flambeau the lake, and I took a picture of our view, but Blogspot in its infinite wisdom has decided I have put enough photos on this post, so it abruptly stopped letting me add any more. You will just have to imagine it until I get back home and have more bandwidth. 

Then we took a pontoon ride on Lake Minocqua, the same one we had taken before but this time in the evening. We were afraid there would be a thunderstorm right at that time, but in fact the drizzle cleared up and the weather was beautiful. Here is a picture of Beer Can Island, still crazy at that hour with people partying on the sandbar.

And we saw lots of loons! Travalon made a video of a mother with two teenagers, so I will edit and post that at some point.

This boathouse belongs to the family that owns 7-Up.

We saw a spectacular sunset, a bald eagle in a tree, and its teenager in the nest, but Blogspot won't let me post the picture of the young eagle so that will have to wait too.

It was lovely taking the cruise in the evening, because as we headed back to port all the lights were coming up. This is a restaurant called the Thirsty Whale.

Travalon and I tried to go there after the boat ride, but they were done serving food for the evening. We will try to go there tomorrow for lunch after Mass. Hopefully we can get into Mass! There is a limit to how many people can attend, and there are still an awful lot of tourists here, some of whom may be practicing Catholics.

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