Waiting in Wabeno

Continuing on with my story, Cory and I met up with Wayne in Suring for a few days while he took the truck in to have the brakes looked at in Green Bay. The team at Gandrud Chevrolet declared that nothing was wrong with it and let us go without charging us, which I'm sure will never ever happen again!

To pass the time we did interesting things like drive half an hour to find a laundromat.  Or a grocery store.  Or anything at all!  Across from the laundromat in Wabeno we found a Logging Museum that actually was good place to visit.

The Phoenix Log Hauler on display was built in 1901 and was powered by 4 steam engines.  It may not have gone fast, but it good sure pull a lot of logs, 25 sleighs at a time as a matter of fact.

I love the guy sitting on the front and more sitting on the logs in the picture! Must have been good to let the engine do the work after logging them.

More items related to the logging life were on display inside, but my favorite was the maple sugar molds.  Made my mouth water!

And if you need a haircut and your computer repaired where else but Wabeno could you get both done at the same stop?

Treats and Trains

I don't want to even think about how many cookies and cupcakes have made their way past my lips in the last 3 months since I started traveling for my new job.  Bakeries are everywhere, and I never seem to have time to eat lunch...or at least that is what I tell myself as I'm eating giant chocolate chip cookies for lunch instead of vegetables.

Sweet Lola's in Wausau not only had tasty treats, but their sign was sweet as well!

When Cory was little we went to a lot of train museums, he was quite the admirer of Thomas the Tank Engine.  Hum along if you know the song.  I'm sure I'll be hearing it in my head when I'm 100 years old and senile.

Brodhead saved their train depot and turned it into a museum, and they even had a matching mural on a nearby building!

Instead of taking the train you can ride your bike on the Sugar River bike trail to New Glarus where there are cute shops and cute cows doing cute things.  They have a bakery too, and a candy shop as well, but their garden shop is what I plan to explore next time I pass through.

I don't even have to go far for a sweet treat, Kenosha has opened up a new bakery and jam shop!  And look, Elsie Mae's even provides a rocking chair so you can sit down and eat it with a spoon?

The Streets of Chicago

I know this is hard to believe, but except for going to the office 3 days a week I've barely left the house since before Christmas.  When I met Katrina in Waukesha the other day I told myself I had to get over my aversion to winter weather.  The forecast for yesterday might have only been in the low 20's, but our normal windy conditions were absent so I decided to take the train in to Chicago for the first time in almost a decade.

Twenty minutes to the Fox Lake station and then an hour and a half on the Metra which went quickly thanks to the wonders of Kindle.  Once I arrived at Union Station I opted to walk instead of catching the bus.

The Berghoff has been open since 1898 - one of the few neon signs in the Loop

Milwaukee is great, but there really isn't anything like Chicago.  Due to the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 that destroyed 18,000 buildings a lot of effort was put in to rebuilding the city in a way that not only was functional but built to last.  And built to impress.

I noticed a lot of lions downtown, jus tkeep looking up, they are everywhere!

But don't forget to look down too.

Not all the cool stuff is on the outside of buildings, lots of them had impressive lobbies filled with large scale public art.

"The Winged Victory of Samothrace" made from
a mold of the original in The Louvre, Paris

 I was tempted by the food trucks, but only ended up picking up a cupcake at one.  Not the greatest cupcake, I should have probably tried the Cajun instead.

 

But if you aren't in to food trucks maybe you can get a coupon from the guy in the cow suit.

Some of the newer architecture is interesting too.

Reflections

And the Chicago Police have a surprising way to beat downtown traffic.

I took 287 pictures, lots of them were duds, some of them held hidden surprises.

Caught 

The one thing that really moved me was the sight of one of the old Marshall Field's clocks.  I mean, 7 3/4 tons of over 100 year old ornamental bronze hanging off the corner of a building is pretty impressive, don't you agree?  It brought back memories of going to the Walnut Room and Christmas shopping at Marshall Field's decades ago...

More to come from my 5 mile walk up and down the streets of Chicago.  Plenty to keep me busy if I get snowed in!

More to do in Two Harbors Than Hike

The little town of Two Harbors in Minnesota was settled in 1856 but didn't really get going until the railroad got up here to get the iron ore out of the area in 1884.

 By 1885 roughly 225,000 tons of ore were moving through Agate Bay prompting the Vessel Owners Association and the US Lighthouse Service to recognize the need for a navigational aid at Agate Bay. On August 4th 1886 the US Congress authorized $10,000 to build a light station.

My mom walking by the breakwater light

We didn't tour the lighthouse, I was content to see it from shore.  From the Lake County Historical website: The light was first lit April 15 1892, a continuous white beacon in all directions.  In order to help distinguish it from other lights on shore the original Fresnel lens is replaced with a four bulls eye lens and clockworks (rotating mechanism) creating a signature flash. As more electric lighting appeared on shore red screens were placed in the gallery to further distinguish the light signal.

Of course I got some shots of nearby Split Rock Lighthouse as well...but they were so inspiring that they deserve their own post!

While the bedrock of the area is interesting, I liked the Nonesuch Shale that we found along Lake Superior in the Porcupine Mountains region a little better.  The rock in Two Harbors made for interesting textures in photographs but was bumpy and awkward to walk on!

No starfish in Lake Superior!

Not far from the lighthouse by the ore docks is the Edna G tugboat.  She's pretty big as tugboats go, and painted a vibrant red and yellow that was nice to shoot in the early morning light when my mom and I went down there.

Also in the same lakeshore area is a couple of old engines and a Depot Museum.  I didn't get to the museum, but Cory and I walked down to see the engines when Wayne went in to True Value to get some screws to fix our sliding closet doors.



One night Wayne and I walked toward town along the shore from the campground.  There was a paved path through a Veterans Memorial Forest along the shore and we got a nice view of the campground to go with our exercise.

A week is enough for the area for most folks unless you're planning to hike the Superior Hiking Trail, but there is lots to see in the 30 miles from Two Harbors to Split Rock State Park if you like the outdoors. I didn't get to hike the Split Rock River Loop that John and Pam recommended because the rain came in on our last full day, so if I'm ever up here again I know where I'm going to start!

We also had a fantastic dinner at Black Woods Grill in Two Harbors.  We don't eat out often because we're invariably disappointed, but everyone's food was well prepared and the waitress was patient with all our questions.  My mom and I had lunch one day at the Vanilla Bean too, and that was good as well though their menu is limited.  Of course the best find was the Great Lakes Candy shop on the scenic highway in Knife River.  I came away with a variety of chocolate but my favorite was the dark chocolate bar with almonds and toffee - Yum!

Rail Fun in Frankfort

Last week on Tuesday we left Corbin and headed to Frankfort.  I stopped there on my way back from my hiking meet-up at Red River Gorge with Sharon and enjoyed wandering the streets looking at the architecture.

Twice now I've stopped in town and their old Capitol has been closed to tours for the winter.  I didn't have time to check out their new Capitol, but I did buy a few books in Poor Richard's by Kentucky authors.

Their old downtown district reminds me of that scene in "Coal Miner's Daughter" where she goes in to town and sees Doolittle with another woman. It was shot in Kentucky but not in Frankfort.

Cory and I were passing some time at Gibby's having lunch when a train came through and stopped right by where we were parked.

It was the train version of AAA since a few minutes later a man drove up in a truck and the train ended up being there for awhile.

After taking the pictures we drove down Broadway to head to the Buffalo Trace Distillery and I caught sight of a mural along the train tracks!

Notice truss bridge over river at far right

The mural was designed by local artist Jennifer Zingg and paid for by Sherwin Williams and the RJ Corman Railroad.  The design was drawn and local children and adults completed it in 2011.

I thought it was pretty cool to see the RJ Corman engine in the mural right after we saw a real one.

There's a bridge portrayed in the mural going over a river which is interesting because just down the tracks is a truss bridge over the Kentucky River.  Built in 1929 the Broadway Bridge is now closed to even foot travel and is fenced off.  A riverside park pathway runs alongside it though so I hopped down the embankment and took some pictures from there.

Linking up to Monday Mural.  Off to work now, I'll post about the distillery tour tomorrow.

Beverly Shores to Sunset Shores

Turns out that Sharon has a thing for trains, so we visited the Beverly Shores Depot and local museum.  Beverly Shores is where those Century of Progress homes are located that we visited.

The electric South Shore Line runs from Chicago to South Bend.  I found a link to great reproduction poster art at Amazon.  One of those posters was framed at the house we rented.

Unfortunately we arrived at the museum two minutes before it closed but it was very small and only a few minutes was needed.  Sharon bought some notecards and I looked over the Century of Progress homes and other Chicago Art Deco information displayed.

Sharon watching the train arrive

Getting to Chicago's museums from the South Shore is a lot easier than getting there from where I live.  I'm thinking about camping in Elgin and taking the train in from there.  It might have to wait until spring though, we'll be gone the next few weeks and then the fall temperatures might prove to be too extreme for tent camping.  But, who knows?

hazy Chicago skyline view from Indiana

In the meantime I have a few more sunset pictures to share from the shores of Lake Michigan.

Sharon and I walked from the rental house to the Indiana Dunes State Park to get a free look at the facilities.  The only trail we saw was the one from the bathhouse at the beach to the campground.

When we emerged at the campground I wasn't impressed.  The sites were kind of crowded.  It was not my scene.  The beach at the park wasn't my scene either, it was kind of crowded too.

But heading back from the state park we arrived back at the rental just in time to sit on the beach and enjoy a great sunset.  Without the crowds.

There are no crowds here this morning either.  Just me and my cup of Tazo decaf chai tea.