Green Bay, Oshkosh Again and Racine

Aug 2014. 

 You can't go to Green Bay without going to Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers.  Not a lot of activity was going on and we didn't have time for a tour of the stadium..

We did go downtown to the Heritage Trail, which gives the history of the Green Bay Packers and how it shaped the city.

The park had some great bronze statues and lots of murals depicting Green Bay history.  Did you know the Green Bay Packers were organized in 1919 and sponsored by the Indian Packing Plant.

This is the first YMCA in Green Bay, built in 1925 in downtown, and is still in operation today.

Hotel Northland has a long history with the Green Bay Packers.  Built in 1924, it quickly became the social hub for Packer events.  Vince Lombardi gave his press conference here,  and it was even the base for the Packers training camp in 1950.  Some players became residents here and almost all visiting teams up through the 1970s, stayed at the hotel.

Back in Oshkosh, we rode the Wiawash Recreation Trail.

Of course there were cherry trees.

And dairy farms.

And these grape like fruits.  Anyone actually know what these are?  I tried one and they aren't grapes.

The Fox River Brewing Company was a great place to stop and quench our thirst after our bike ride.

I think this chair is big enough, don't you?

We had to return to Oshkosh to have Max's jeep worked on again.  The initial parts they replaces several weeks ago were bad, so they got to do it all over again.

But then it was off to Racine and more lighthouses.  The Windpoint lighthouse, built in 1888, leads the way into Racine Harbor.

We found the beach at Ocean Michigan, oh, I mean Lake Michigan.

Palm trees, sand, beach and water.  What else do you need.?

A little island music doesn't hurt.

Kenosha (Southport) Lighthouse, built in 1866, replaces two other lighthouses constructed on this site back in 1848 and 1858.

The Kenosha North Pier Lighthouse, built in 1906.

Kenosha, just south of Racine, is the home of the Jelly Belly Warehouse.

You get to take a tour on the jelly belly train, but no pictures once the tour starts.  Since the jelly bellies are made in California, we only got to see video and pictures on how it is done, but we did get free jelly bellies at the end of the tour.

This was the site of Kemper Hall, a boarding school for girls.  The school, founded in 1855 as the Kenosha Female Seminary, moved to this site in 1865.  The school operated for 105 years.  This building has an auditorium and theater and is used for special occasions.  

Prior to the school purchasing this site, it was the home of Senator Charles Durkee.  There is now a visitor center and museum inside this building, but we got there after hours.  The building is now owned by Kenosha County and is part of their recreational complex.

Time to leave Wisconsin.  I have been in this state for about six weeks.  Heading south to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Two Rivers

Aug 2014.  We were parked at the Elks Lodge in Sheboygan, WI, but I realized I did not get one picture of the area.  Sheboygan is home of the Johnsonville Brat.  But we spent most of our time in Manitowoc and Two Rivers, which is just up the road a few miles.

We rode the Mariners Trail from Manitowoc to Two Rivers, then caught the Rawley Point Recreational Trail out to Rawley Point Lighthouse.  Round trip about 34 miles.  But we had lots of stops along the way.

At the Manitowoc Mariners Museum is a submarine.  Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company built 28 submarines and employed 7,000 employees in the early 1940s, providing subs for WWII.

One of the lighthouses along the way.

I'm a human sundial.  

The Rawley Point Trail was mostly wooded.

Rawley Point Lighthouse.  You can't get too close because it is currently inhabited and the residents like their privacy.  It was built in 1894 and stands 113 feet tall.  It was manually operated until 1980, when they converted it to an automated station.  The light can be seen 28 miles out in the lake.

Getting our feet wet in the ocean of Lake Michigan.

The Washington House, an 1850s hotel, saloon and now a museum and visitor center.

It also houses a replica of Ed Berner's Ice Cream Parlor, home of the ice cream sundae.  They claim to be the originator of the ice cream sundae, back in 1881.  One day a customer asked the owner to top his ice cream with some chocolate sauce (which was only used for sodas).  It became popular and were known as ice cream sundays because they were only sold on Sunday's.  Later, a 10 year old girl insisted on having her ice cream topped with sauce, but it wasn't Sunday.  Her response was, "Pretend it was Sunday."  It finally became known as the ice cream sundae when a salesman ordered the bell shaped dishes and called them 'sundae dishes'.

The outside of the Washington House.

The Mariner's Trail was along Lake Michigan.

We had to prove we were there, didn't we?

This eagle on its nest also keeps the other birds from bothering this flower garden along the trail.

It was an all day excursion because there were so many places to stop and see along the way.  There was even an antique car show to stop and peruse.