Our Trip Blog

The Events of Thursday, September 02, 2010

          Today, our alarm clock was the arrival of Daddy, back from his morning walk. We made up our beds, dressed, and ate a yummy breakfast with yogurt! Oh, boy! Mom took a quick shower (and luckily found Abby’s swimsuit that she had left hanging in the shower) and we broke down camp and left our shaded little campsite. It was really overcast and kind of dark when we set out. We drove past field after field of swaying corn and one big red barn after another.

          After driving for a while, we reached our first destination for the day, Widmer’s Cheese Cellars. This cheese factory was first started by a Swiss immigrant who came to Wisconsin. The cheeses are all handcrafted and we got to see all of this the second we walked in. At first, the smell was overpowering. It was a moist kind of milky, moldy smell. Once you got used to it, it was enjoyable. We read about how they make the cheese. Our cheese tour began with the guide handing out hair nets to everyone. We took a family shot with all of us in our caps which you can find on our photo page. After walking us to a different room, the guide started a movie and walked away. We learned about the factory’s history, how to make the cheeses, and the different types of cheese. When it ended, a second guide took over and answered all our questions. Then, we sampled brick cheese, Colby cheese, mild cheddar cheese, and a cheese spread that we had on saltine crackers, all of which were made in the factory. We all liked the cheese spread the best, but Daddy really enjoyed the brick cheese, which gets its name from the brick that they place on top of the cheese when they make it. We walked on to the gift shop and bought some brick cheese and cheese spread and Abby got a baseball cap with a cow on it.

          Our second guide had recommended a chocolate candy factory about two blocks away, so we started to make our way towards it. On the way, we stopped at a post office to mail off some of Caitlin’s papers back to our house. When that was finished, we made our way to Confections for Any Occasion, owned by a completely blind man named Joel. There were certainly some unusual creations at the shop. They had chocolate miniature pianos, full sized chocolate high heel shoes, chocolate wine, chocolate crosses, and even a miniature chocolate outhouse!

          We drove on to Winnebago Lake, where we ate a delicious lunch in our RV. After lunch, Daddy went to check out a nearby ice cream shop. While he was gone, all of us kids went down to the shoreline where Abby waded. We touched the algae that had grown on the surface (it felt really gross) and climbed some trees nearby. Daddy came back and told us to hop in the RV, so that we could go to the ice cream shop. Soon we were in Ardy and Ed’s Drive-In where you park and the waitresses roller skate up to your car. Abby ordered an old fashioned root beer float, Ben got a Black Cow (root beer mixed with vanilla ice cream), Caitlin got a marshmallow shake, Mom got a hot fudge milkshake, and Daddy and I got turtle sundaes.  Because we were in Osh Kosh, we decided to visit their store, Osh Kosh B’Gosh. But since it was in a huge outlet complex of different stores, we spread out and looked around. Ben, Daddy, and Abby went to Factory Brand Shoes, where Abby got her much needed hiking boots. Caitlin, Mom, and I took went to The Uniform Outlet where Mom looked at some scrub tops, Osh Kosh B’ Gosh to see the baby clothes, and Claire’s, so Caitlin could get some new sunglasses. When all our purchases had been made, we drove to our campsite for the night in Sister Bay, Wisconsin. We looked at some campsites in Aqualand Campground, found our spot and then went out to dinner.

          Dinner was such a totally new thing, that it is well deserving of a paragraph all to its self. We wanted to go to a fish boil in Wisconsin. The place where we had originally planned to go to had actually burned down two days ago. So, we found the Old Post Office Restaurant, where they had two fish boils a night. We changed in the RV and then went out into the drizzling, misty weather to watch the fish boil. We gathered on moist benches around the bubbling pot of water, potatoes and onions, and our host, Earl, the Boilmaster. He had a sailor accent and explained everything we needed to know about how the fish boil works. He showed us the Lake Michigan Whitefish that he was going to put  in the pot. Then, while the fish cooked, he cracked fishy jokes. (If you would like to hear some of them, I will be posting some on my laughter log soon.) Then it was time for the actual fish boil part and he warned us about the big fire and flames that would happen when he poured kerosene on the fire and how the pot would boil over. He asked us to step behind the benches and then FWOOM! The flames went about 12 feet in the air and the cameras flashed and the ‘oohs’ were ‘aahed’. Then, we were invited inside the restaurant, where the fish, potatoes, onions, coleslaw, and breads were served up and we were left to enjoy it. Enjoy we did and we just about boiled over with contentment when they brought out the cherry pies that came with our meal. It was a very fun way to end the day. We walked out into the rain and lightning and hopped into our RV to go to the aforesaid campsite. As we drove, the rain poured harder and harder. Caitlin once said over the roar that she thinks they might have been hailstones. Well when we reached the campsite, we decided that swimming would be better in the morning. Nobody wanted to go outside where the fat raindrops made mud, so we waited inside for the rain to die down and then we got hooked up and went to bed. And we fell asleep to the rain thumping on the roof.