2015 Year in Review

As 2015 draws to a close, I want to take a minute or two to think about things that I did and saw. 2015 certainly was a busy year with many new experiences and fun things done.

By the numbers:

• 18 Items crossed off the original bucket list
• 46 or so Items crossed off the expanded bucket list 
• 7 states (no new ones)
• 5 new counties in WI
• 3 new counties in WI that I've seen a sporting event in
• 13 5Ks completed... that's over 40 miles (or 3 1/2 marathons)

Out of the 10 Things I set out to do in 2015, I accomplished 9. I did not make it to the Mayville Schoolhouse Museum. We drove by it but I did not actually go to it.

There were also 9 official bucket list items crossed off that I didn't plan on completing when 2015 started. I really didn't expect to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or Amish Country when the year started. I am glad we were able to go to those places because who knows when the next opportunity to head that way will be.

If I had to pick my favorite thing that I did all year, it probably would have been go to Packer's training camp. It wasn't planned and was a last minute decision but it made my summer. My tea party was quite fun too.

My least favorite experience of the year probably would be the Glo-Runs only because they were over-hyped and turned out to be a great disappointment. To me, it was just another 5k nothing special except it was at night. Personally I prefer doing 5Ks in the morning. I have more energy.

I am thankful for my friends, especially Danielle and Stacy, who willingly come along on these crazy adventures and don't think I'm crazy (yet). Sometimes it is more fun to have a partner in crime in these adventures.

2015 was a great year and I am hoping 2016 will be just as fun

#899 Go to Wisconsin Dells for weekend

Last Christmas my brother thought instead of exchanging gifts between us siblings we should spend the weekend in the Dells this year and just exchange gift cards. Finding a weekend that worked for everyone, especially the hubby was easier than we thought. The hubby had a basketball game scheduled in the Dells and it was T’s weekend off. My brother booked us a condo at the Wilderness on the Lake.

Photo Courtesy of Wilderness Website

The biggest problem with doing a weekend in Dells in December is very little is open. With the nice weather this year, it would have been nice if mini golf or some of the off the wall attractions were open. Besides hiking at Devil’s Lake, the other things I really want to do in the Dells Area are the Clown Hall of Fame and the UFO Museum were closed for the season.

Because the hubby had a basketball game in Manawa on Friday, we didn’t get to the Dells until 11 on Friday night. We stayed up a little bit catching up with everyone that was still up. Then we crashed. So nothing exciting happened on Friday.

On Saturday, Shannon made us breakfast of waffles, bacon, and sausage. Then we made plans for the day. Some wanted to go to the waterpark or shopping. I wanted to go to Devil’s Lake. We split up and some went hiking and the rest went to Ripleys. After hiking, we stopped at the outlet mall. The hubby got a new jacket and I got a new Adidas sweatshirt. The outlet mall is an outdoor covered mall so it’s still chilly but you’re still protected from the elements. There was even a fire at one end.

Hiking the Ice Age Trail

Devil's Lake

Once we were done shopping, we stopped at Hot Dog Avenue for lunch. If you weren’t looking for it, you might miss it. Hot Dog Avenue is set back a bit from the road in between two hotels. It is a Chicago hot dog stand with Italian beef and other sandwiches. The food is good. I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t have a Vienna hot dog in my Chicago Dog but it was still good. The hubby had a Philly steak, which he said was very good. B&T had Italian beefs which is the whole reason we stopped here. They wanted the Italian Beef Sandwiches. The fries were very good. I’m very particular about my French Fries and these exceeded my expectations.

Photo courtesy of Hot Dog Avenue website

After lunch, we headed back to the condo and changed so we could go to the water park for a little bit. We hopped on the shuttle to take us over to the Wilderness and the water park with the wave pool. T wanted to go to the wave pool. I just wanted to go down a slide. I figured the hubby would enjoy the lazy river.  We could find a spot to put our stuff by the lazy river so we walked over the wave pool. After finding a spot to put our stuff, the waves were almost over. We waited for the next set of waves. Once the waves started, T and I let the waves wash over us from behind. BIG MISTAKE. I had a wardrobe malfunction that the hubby had to fix. Hopefully I caught it before I flashed too many people.  Once my strap was back in place, we headed back to the lazy river. I got to go down a slide. It was super fast and by the time I got used to the speed, it was over. I didn’t’ feel like climbing all the steps again to go down again. We tried to find tubes for the lazy river but there were none. We just hung out in the hot tub until the hubby got pruny. The hubby ran into his old baseball partner. He can’t go anywhere without knowing someone. The water park was ok. Way too crowded for my liking and not a whole lot of fun. There were other water parks we could have took another shuttle too but they were probably just as crowded.

Photo Courtesy of Wilderness Website

Once we got back to the condo, it was nearly time for the hubby to go to basketball. We headed over to Just a Game Fieldhouse for Marshall vs. Wisconsin Dells Girls. We met his partner there. I watched most of the game. It was a good game. After the game was over, we checked out the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame which is housed in Just a Game. It was nice to recognize a few names and see who has been added since the last time we were there.

Old School Scoreboard in the Lobby

We stopped at Moosjaw for pizza. The best things were the quick soda and the homemade soda. The pizza was awful. The crust was dense and it seemed like it was baked all the way through. We asked for light sauce and it was still way too saucy for our liking. I could pick out individual pieces of shredded cheese yet so you know it was completely melted. It was warm not piping hot like pizza should be. The hubby thought the sausage and pepperoni was something you’d find on Tombstone or other frozen pizza. The sausage looked good and I thought it was the best part of the pizza but it was too commercialized for the hubby. He believes that if you are going to claim to have homemade pizza, you better have homemade or at least fresh sausage and not sausage you buy in bulk from the cheapest distributor. Yes, we are pizza snobs.

It was not as good as it looks

Once we got back to the condo and everyone else tricked in, we did the gift card exchange. We ended up initially we 2 Kohl’s gift cards but traded one of them for Walmart. That would work. The gift cards were a good idea in theory but too many people ended up with the ones they brought.  

After watching the Bucks beat the undefeated Warriors, we called it a night. In the morning we headed out early as I had plans to have Christmas with a couple friends and the hubby had basketball. We stopped for a quick breakfast at McDonald’s. Then it was onto Goody Goody Gum Drop for a quick candy stop. We weren’t impressed. It had a lot of gummy and other similar candy but the chocolate selection wasn’t that impressive. There were maybe 8 kinds of mini truffles. The dark chocolate selections were ok but nothing really that Grandma would eat. The hubby didn’t get anything for himself. I guess we are spoiled with Oak’s.

Trees in Goody Good Gum Drops

Overall it was a nice weekend. I’m sure we’ll do it again. I know I want to get to the International Clown Hall of Fame and the UFO Museum. I don’t need a whole weekend to do that. I can pass on the water parks. I do want to ride the go Karts at Mt. Olympus. Sounds like another bucket list adventure waiting to happen.

#499 -- Hike at Devil's Lake

When I wrote the bucket list, I heard about Devil’s Lake and the hiking there. I was never there but it sounded like something fun to do. My family, even though I was a Girl Scout and my brother an Eagle Scout, were never big outdoorsy people. We didn’t camp. We didn’t take trips to the beach. We didn’t spend the day in a state or county park. Vacations were usually to cities… Orlando, Branson, Colorado Springs.  As I was writing the bucket list back in 2000-2001, I included many outdoorsy things because I like the outdoors, hiking, and just exploring the world around me.

Devil’s Lake is a state park near Wisconsin Dells. If I went to the Dells, it was usually to go to Noah’s Ark and not to go hiking. Now the Dells, is a place I can’t go there from here kinda place. It’s a 2 hour drive because there is no direct route and minimal 4 lane highways. It’s just not a place I go to regularly anymore…usually we’re there for basketball.

As the weekend in the Dells with my brothers approached, I noticed the weather forecast was going to warm for December and thought it possibly I could get to Devil’s Lake on Saturday.  I mentioned this to the group beforehand and no one was as excited by this as I was. They wanted to go to the waterpark and shopping. On Saturday morning, I convinced Tanya to come hiking with me. The hubby took Bob, Tanya, and me to Devil’s Lake. The guys didn’t want to hike but decided to hang out by the lake.

It probably wasn’t the best day for a hike weather-wise. It was foggy and misty out. You could barely see the cliffs on the other side of the lake. The fog did make for some cool pictures though. The temperature actually was perfect for hiking despite the damp conditions.

Tanya and I headed out from the lake and went over the tracks, even though we were told not to walk on the tracks. We couldn’t find a trail. The map we had didn’t really help. The trails weren’t marked very clearly where we were. We followed the road and found a steep short trail to the nature center. From there we followed the road again. This wasn’t quite what I had in mind. I wanted a trail to follow.

Finally we found some hikers and asked them where the trail was. We must have looked like idiots because the trail was right across from the parking lot we were standing in. He said we could follow the trail or climb the stairs to the top of the bluff. We decided to climb the stairs. When I think of stairs, I think of actually wooden steps and not rocks that are placed, or fallen, haphazardly in a general stair pattern.  

WHAT.A.WORKOUT. I was huffing and a puffing by the time we reached the first “landing”. The views were great. We did climb to about the third “landing” and decided to head back down.

Once we were safely back to the bottom, we followed the trail back to the lake. The best part of this trail was that it is part of the Ice Age Trail which meant I got to cross two things of the bucket list. Since the Ice Age trail is several hundred miles, I decided any part of the Ice Age Trail counted. Maybe one day I will actually a good chunk of the trail and not like a ¼ mile of it. When we got back to the lake the guys thought we walked around the lake since we came from the opposite direction we started. Um… that’s 10 miles. We weren’t gone that long.

I was glad I could finally say I hiked Devil’s Lake and got to see the beauty of the state park. I wish it was closer as I would be there all the time. It is a gorgeous park with great trails even though we only hiked a small portion of it. Maybe one day I’ll make it to the top of that bluff.

Holey Moley Donuts

When planning our cookie baking weekend, Stacy decided we should at least go to Holey Moley for Donuts. All I needed to read was donuts. I like donuts especially good donuts. She said they open at 6 am and stay open until they run out. We stopped Sunday morning on the way to lunch since it is located in the Third Ward downtown Milwaukee. I was really looking forward to trying Holey Moley.

What I was not expecting was to pay $2.25-$2.50 a donut. Luckily Stacy got a 1/2 dozen first and I learned that these things were not cheap. I got 4 donuts for just over $10. I could get a dozen at Manderfields for that price. I get it that they were "gourmet" or craft donuts so I was willing to pay a little more but I still thought it was a bit steep for a donut.

By the time we got to Holey Moley, it was around noon and they had about 6 varieties left. Every day there is a new selection. I was excited to see Boston Creme. I wanted to try the salted whiskey chocolate even though I hate salt. I thought about the chocolate cherry until I saw the dried cherries on top. It was not what I was expecting. The other donut I decided to get was the gingerbread even though I am not a huge fan of gingerbread. It was the only other one that sounded remotely appealing.

I brought my douuts back home to share with the hubby. Maybe sitting 8 hours in a cardboard box affected the taste but let me tell you, those donuts were not worth $2.50. I forgot when something says "salted" there's actual salt on top. UGH. GROSS. All I tasted was salt. The donut was ok. I didn't taste any whiskey which was disappointed. The Boston Creme was also disappointing. It's the one the hubby tried (I had the other the next morning) and he was not impressed. The filling was not the traditional Boston Creme filling. It was thicker and reminded me of glue. It had a flavor to it that I couldn't recognize just turned me off to the filling.

After eating the other 2 donuts, I didn't have high expectations for the gingerbread which was a good thing because the gingerbread was so overpowering that I found it nearly inedible. I had to eat it in small increments and never even finished the donut. I let the hubby tried it and he choked it down. I do have to say it was still fresh the next day.

The gingerbread donut....at least it looked good

I guess we are not craft donut people. If I worked in Milwaukee and someone brought Holey Moley donuts in, I wouldn't say no to one. Even if Stacy or someone else said let's get donuts from Holey Moley I would be willing to go and give it another shot. I just know I would be getting 1 donut and eating it fairly quickly. For now, I will stick with my Manderfield donuts.

#390: See a match of Comedy Sportz in Milwaukee

When playing our cookie baking weekend, Stacy said we should have time to do some exploring. I asked her a few days later what she came up with and one of the suggestions was Comedy Sportz. Stacy specifically looked into Comedy Sportz because she thought it was still on the bucket list and the last time we tried to go it was closed. The plan became to go to Comedy Sportz after making the cookie dough for the 7 PM show.

Sign in the Lobby of Comedy Sportz

Comedy Sportz is an improv comedy show where 2 teams compete against each other for points based on the audience’s response. I’ve seen Comedy Sportz road show while at college but I wanted to see an actual match. A match consists of 2 halves of comedy routines. Each half is broken down into 3 skits that each team has to perform. Sometimes the opposing team chooses the skit other times they get to pick what they want to do. Either way there will be a ton of laughter

Stacy made reservations for the 7 pm show since they wanted to charge us a $1 to order tickets online. When we got there, the ticket guy picked up the ringing phone and said something like “Hi this is Mike. Today’s my birthday. Can you hold?” Then he turns to us and said “You’re supposed to say Happy Birthday.” Stacy said Happy Birthday. He goes it’s not really my birthday. Even the ticket guy is a comic. Instead of handing you a ticket with your seat on it, they give you a wristband with your seat number scribbled on it.

In case you need a pick me up in the bathroom

Inside the theater there are 3 sections which are color coded with about 7 rows of seating and several tables on the floor in each section. We found out seats and it was a tight squeeze between the people on either side of us. Each row has a counter with chairs behind so you can eat and drink during the show. 

In case you need to know how much you weigh while in the bathroom

The show begins with the referee explaining the rules and fouls. He explained that it was audience driven and no two shows were a like since all the suggestions came from the audience. He then brought in the players who came bearing gifts. After all the players were introduced, it was time for the match to begin. We were laughing from the beginning. One skit had us provide Christmas movie lines that they had to pick up and use in the skit. The last skit of the night had us all rolling on the ground. Two players acted out a scene and then the referee would call freeze. The players would freeze in whatever position they were in and the next 2 players would have to come and take over the scene starting in the frozen position. Let’s just say the tiny guy had lift up the big guy in a fancy dance move when taking over for the frozen players.

For $12 it was cheap, clean fun. They make sure there is no profanity or anything since it is a family show but it isn’t strictly a G-rated show more like a PG-13 show. Too bad the closest one is in Milwaukee because I would go more often if one was closer.