Wine, Meat, and Cheese! WI

We had a wonderful day driving up to Sturgeon Bay with Joyce and Jane and stopping at a few places along the way;)

But first, the cow.  Yes, there is a big animal statue in Manatowoc too!!:)

 Our first stop on the wine, cheese and meat trail was Stangelville and Konop Meats:  Can you smell the smoked sausage?   It was wonderful....

 Mike trying to make decisions on how much.....of everything!;)

Parallel 44 winery, nice local wines!  Mike, Jane and Joyce (Mikes mom) agree!

Jane and Joyce getting a lesson on grape growing

Lovely view from Parallel 44 across the vineyards to the neighboring farm

Next was Von Stiehl, also nice and local.  Cool old building!

And our last wine stop, Red Oak.  Import a lot of CA grapes but still some nice wines!! 

live music, a bonus!

We bought lots of cheese at Krohns but I spaced taking pics!  Great day!

A Day at Lambeau Field

Mikes' family being from this area, it is no surprise that Mike is a huge Packers fan.  We drove up to Green Bay for the 3rd practice of this season.  Mike was in heaven and I really did enjoy it as well.  The Packers are the only publicly owned football team and learning the history was very interesting.

We spent a good 2 1/2 hours at practice and then took a 2 hour tour of the stadium which is quite impressive.  This is for Packers fans:

Vince Lombardi statue

"Curly" Lambeau

Before and after practice children stand in line hoping one the the players will choose their bike to ride to the stadium....a very heart warming tradition.  And so fun to see the players on the bikes!

 Our tour started out on the very top floor of the stadium ....great view....

 Yes, it was cool and windy up there!

The tunnel all players walk through to get out on the field

 After our 7 hours at Lambeau Field we drove over to Bay Beach amusement park.  An old park that still sells tickets for 25 cents each and no ride cost over 2 tickets!!!   We did the ferris wheel.....

I look happy but even one motion ride is pushing it for me!

On our way out of Green Bay we passed the original home of the Packers

Woodland Dunes, Hennings Cheese, WI

We hiked in Woodland Dunes, a preserve not far from us.  I'm not taking many pics right now as I'm too busy trying to out walk the mosquitoes;)  We did see a fairly unusual sight though that I did managed to shoot and that is the pic below of 3 juvenile ospreys.  Unusual to have more than 2 in a nest so I was feeling kinda lucky about this:

 Henning cheese is well known and greatly enjoyed in the area so we drove out to taste some cheese.  Mike got a bag of squeaky fresh cheese curds and was in heaven:) We will be stopping by before we leave the area for cheese to take with us!

 They had a small museum.....

And we could see into the factory but no cheese was being made that day unfortunately

 Friday night we went with family and friends to a fish fry which is a time honored tradition in these parts.  Virtually every restaurant has one.  I had Perch and tasted Whitefish and Pike and it was all good!

Two Rivers and Manitowoc, WI

Our motorhome is parked right across the highway from Lake Michigan which is about as close as you can get to the lake.  Once again we are facing one of the Great Lakes!  Along the coast line is a hiking/biking trail that goes for several miles. Nice!

You would never know you were looking a lake by looking at this pic!  Look at those waves!

 The American Goldfinch is a common bird around here:

Thousands of seagulls call this area home as well....or are they lake gulls ??

 Art work along the trail:

 Two Rivers borders the larger city of Manitowoc which has many beautiful old buildings: