Reporting from New Berlin, WI
Our last real day of the trip, with the exception of the run back to Ohio, which doesn't count.
We started late because our first stop didn't open until 11:00 a.m. We cooled our heels, wandering about downtown Wisconsin Dells--again, a plethora of tourist traps, attractions, and fudge shops. Finally, the Museum of Root Beer opened. It's a conglomeration of collections--bottles, cans, ads, ephemera. There's two theaters showing the history of root beer and old ads. Rather fascinating, I thought. It ends with a tasting from the 6 rotating varieties on tap. I tried the “1919” brand, which is a very traditional blend—and loved it.
This game originally came out as “Beer Tapper”, and then parents’ groups complained.
We moved on to more giant critters. A bear that was once part of an amusement park, a cow that moo’ed, a spectacled pig, some mice…
Off to Madison for two attractions--the University of Wisconsin, which includes a tribute to William Dempster Hoard, the man who created the Wisconsin cheese industry aka the First Cheesehead (we had sammiches at the school ice cream shop in his memory)…
…and our second Statehouse of the trip. It’s rather baroque in design--very impressive, but also impractical. Lots of dark hallways that seemed to lead nowhere. They did have an observation deck where you could theoretically see Lake Mendota tucked past the other buildings.
Our final stop was “Dreamkeepers”, a set of scrap metal birds.
We scooted back to Chez Kathy, dropped her and her stuff off, and headed to the hotel for the night.
Tomorrow, an off day mostly on my own.
#Fairof10000Foods