Wausau River Walk

I forgot to mention yesterday that, before we saw the hummingbird sitting outside our porch, we went to the nearby bluff with our neighbor for a walk. She really loved it, so we took her by the little pond, and there we saw a great blue heron. But we didn't have our good cameras with us. I do have a couple more photos of the little hummingbird. (It was hard to find everything while Blogspot was acting so wonky about putting photos onto my posts, but today it is back to behaving.)

On our way back home from up north on Monday, Travalon had wanted to stop into Wausau and walk along "the River Walk." I asked if he knew where it was, and he said no, he just assumed there was one since the Wisconsin River flows through the middle of the city, so I said let's leave that for another time and just get home. Once we were back home, I did some research and discovered there is a wonderful River Walk in Wausau that even goes onto three islands. Islands?! I was sold!

We drove there and had lunch at Subway, which isn't that notable except that the building was so crazy-looking.

Then we went to Oak Island Park and took a hike on the Isle of Ferns. Here is a view from the bridge to the island.

And here is the sign welcoming you to the island.

There are lots of fun bridges on the island.

And lots of ferns - hence the name.

And beautiful views of the river.

And a creek with red water.

Then we walked north along the River Walk.

We passed a really cool railroad bridge.

We passed one spot where there were three churches.

We could see downtown from the bridge to Barker-Stewart Island.

We saw a momma duck with a bunch of babies.

On the island are the ruins of the Barker and Stewart Mill, founded in 1880.

Back on the River Walk, we had to cross a fun bridge spanning a tributary of the Wisconsin River.

When we looked to the east, we could see another bridge spanning the tributary, and it had waterfalls!

We passed a plaza with a lot of flags.

And an incredibly beautiful rose.

We went all the way to the north end of the River Walk, and we saw lots of wild roses.

We also saw this cute island. There is no bridge to it.

On the way back, I took a picture of these red-tinted flowering grasses.

Travalon took a picture of this goose family.

He also took a picture of the old railroad station. He says there was a drawing of it in an ad for Wausau Insurance years ago, where they asked people to try to pronounce "Wausau." I vaguely remember the ad, but not the railroad station.

We saw this duck swimming, and as Travalon took a picture of it, it flew away. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems to have a crest, so definitely not a mallard.

Travalon took this beautiful picture of the River Walk path.

By then we had walked about seven miles, so we took a break from walking to go to an antiques store where everything is jumbled together randomly and there are no prices listed - you have to ask the guy. He ended up just giving me a stuffed goose and a plastic rosary that is turquoise and black. We did buy an old high school basketball calendar for Travalon and some paintbrushes for me that were just the size I was looking for.

After that, we went to Riverside Park and walked out to Picnic Island.

We found this brave little flower that had somehow escaped the mower.

Finally, we went to a park on a small peninsula in Lake Wausau. We saw a great blue heron fly overhead, and Travalon managed to get a picture of it. (We also saw a young bald eagle fly overhead on Barker-Stewart Island, but we didn't get a picture of that.)

Here I am with Lake Wausau and Rib Mountain behind me.

And speaking of mountains, here is our own neighborhood "mountain," Mount Wank, at sunset.

So that was our island-filled day today. We walked over nine miles altogether!

Famous Hat