A Taste of Wisconsin

Second time's a charm! Although I had a dream two days before our trip that Max woke up puking, the actual morning of our trip broke sunny and healthy. No sick kids, no sick adults, bags packed, ready to go!

I drove the kiddos down to G&G's in the morning, and not even Louie took a second glance when I walked out the door. When they're with Cody & Company, even Mom is old news. Ben and Norah arrived around 11:00, we picked up bagels for the road and hit the highway as soon as Paul got home from work. First stop, Black River Falls!


Sand Creek Brewery was our destination for Day 1. We learned everything we could have ever wanted to know about brewing, beer history, the history of Sand Creek (formerly Oderbolz Brewery... back in the day) throughout the course of our three hour tour of the facility. Our tour guide was super knowledgeable and sported some really awesome facial hair, but any tour that gives a beer break mid-way through might note that they are going a little overboard. (Three hours??)




We were all a little underwhelmed with many of their beer offerings, but the Hard Lemonade was a winner. Mike's move over, you don't even deserve to be called Hard Lemonade! Sadly, the Twin Cities doesn't offer Sand Creek beers; I guess we'll have to drive to Hudson next time we have a hankerin'.


We stayed the night in Black River Falls, grabbing dinner at a hole-in-the-wall pizza place recommended by our guide. And that's the way to do it, folks. Get the advice of the locals! The pizza was awesome, and there's no way we would have considered stopping there had we driven by uninformed.

Later that evening, we were sitting in the hotel's Orange Moose Bar & Grill when we looked out the rain-spattered window at a huge plastic orange moose statue across the pond. Rain or no, we were going to pay a visit to the Big Plastic Moose.




And his little brother, Medium Plastic Moose.


Saturday morning came early; everyone was up and ready for the continental breakfast by 8:00. Then, armed with coffee and beef sticks, we continued on toward New Glarus. We had no idea that we were driving straight into the middle of Little Switzerland, complete with European-style buildings and a Polka festival! We checked out a local pub for lunch and got a demonstration on how to tack a dollar bill to the ceiling! Apparently it's been a tradition there for years, and they just recently cleared off their ceiling and donated the $3000 to charity.


We then drove up to New Glarus Brewery. By 'up' I mean that the brewery was literally on the top of a hill overlooking the town. What a gorgeous location, and what a gorgeous building! We did a self-guided tour of the facility, then we joined the crowd outside for tasting. We sampled some pretty tasty beers, but I think we'd agree that the winner was their Two Women Lager. It was just so drinkable! And yummy. (Note my use of technical terminology...) Then Paul made friends with a lawn gnome, possibly the highlight of his trip. (Just kidding, honey).



We squeezed in a quick game of mini-golf before heading toward Lake Mills and Tyranena Brewing Company. Ben creamed us all... I think he had a trick golf ball.


We arrived at Tyranena just as a band was setting up to play live music! We kicked back and enjoyed some Bob Marley tunes while sampling the brewery's offerings.


I'd say we all agreed that we hit the jackpot here! While I'm not an IPA fan, there were three bitter beers that won the approval of the rest of the group: Scurvy, Stone Tepee and Bitter Woman. Of the three, I enjoyed the Bitter Woman the most... don't read into that too much. There were also two super tasty porters: Dirty Old Man and Chief BlackHawk. Think coffee, chocolate, and campfire in a beer. Ok, maybe that sounds weird. Or gross, even. But it was so good. However, my favorite was the Headless Man Amber Altbier (I know, what's with the crazy names, guys?) It was smooth, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, great color, an all-around good beer.


After eating our Jimmy John's for dinner (delivered to Tyranena!) we drove to Madison for the night. We swam, ordered pizza at midnight, played some cards, then crashed. Paul and I found a church in the morning, and after Mass we began our roadtrip home. It's amazing how much quicker six hours go when there are no kids in the car and NPR is playing their weekend programming!

When we got to my parents' house to pick up the kids, they were both so excited to see us! This is the longest I've ever been away from both of them, and I REALLY missed them. It felt good to know that they missed me too- even Max!

It was an all-around great weekend, and it was so fun to share it with such great people. If you're ever looking for a fun weekend away, check out the microbreweries in Wisconsion- they are so numerous, we didn't even scratch the surface! But I learned so much and have such a greater appreciation of the craft of beer brewing. Now instead of having Paul choose beers for me that he thinks I'll like, I might be able to order for myself next time I see a drink menu.