Getting My Taffy Fix

I've been craving taffy for awhile now. I probably could go to the grocery store or Walmart and buy some but I wanted good salt water taffy. A few months ago I was searching for candy stores near Ladysmith and Rice Lake. I didn't find any but there was a couple in Hayward.  Playing around on Googlemaps before we headed to Hayward, I found a candy store called Tremblay's Sweet Shop. A brief glance at their website told me they had taffy and other chocolate treats. 

I informed the hubby that if we had time I'd like to stop at Tremblay's Sweet Shop because I wanted taffy. We had plenty of time. There are actually two locations downtown Hayward... a smaller shop and then the main shop across the street. Of course we went to the main shop. 

Tremblay's Sweet Shop is a sweet tooth heaven. There are baskets full of taffy and other old school candy. There is homemade fudge and other homemade chocolates behind the counter. Of course, there are jelly belly jelly beans and other gummy candies. There is something for everyone.

You get a basket and fill it with whatever wrapped candy you want. The taffy and old fashioned wrapped candy is $5.99/lb. That is dirt cheap for taffy. 

I really liked that I could pick my flavors of taffy. I am partial to watermelon, licorice, and cinnamon. The hubby surprised me and wanted some flavors too. Tremblay's had some pretty unique flavors of taffy including chili mango, chicken and waffles, red velvet, and guava. I did add a couple of the more unique flavors to the basket as well as maple for the hubby. 

The hubby said we should have had separate baskets since I had the weird flavors. Let me tell you it was an adventure once we got home and I had to figure out what flavor each piece was and if it was mine or the hubby's. Next time separate bags and more pictures of to match the flavors with the taffy. 

We also each got a couple of pieces of homemade candies from the case. The hubby went with coconut clusters and I got a mint truffle and chocolate covered pretzel. The mint truffle was huge and very minty.

You can watch them make the candy, taffy, and brittle through the glass windows.

The only downside of Tremblay's Sweet Shop is they only accept cash or check which I didn't realize until we were in line to pay. Luckily we had enough case between the two of us to get all of our treats. I opted for a pretzel instead of an oreo ball. Lesson learned, bring cash to Tremblay's Sweet Shop.

Unfortunately I won't get my taffy fix all the time. Hayward is 4 hours from Appleton. A bit of a drive for some taffy. There is another location in Eagle River but that's still almost 3 hours from Appleton. I guess the wait will make it sweet. 

5343. Go to all the counties in Wisconsin

 Driving to work one day back in like 2002 or 2003, I heard the morning show talk about someone visiting all the counties in the US. I decided that would be fun to try to do. I had no real intention of actually even coming close to doing it. There is an actual group called Extra Miler Club that you can join to track all your counties which I have not joined but maybe one day.

I've been religiously tracking the counties we've been through on all of our road trips. I have a binder of maps that I color when we get back. The hubby helps point out when we cross a county line. 

Fast-forward to 2020 and the pandemic hits. Instead of hitting new baseball stadiums (and states), the hubby thought maybe we could cross off the rest of the counties in Wisconsin that I have not visited yet. There were only 5 I had left to visit. There were 2 in the southwest part of the state, 2 in the northwest part of the state, and 1 in the Northwoods.

We planned a day trip to the southwest part of the state in June to cross off Richland and Vernon County. This included a stop in Richland Center to cross the suspension bridge.

We did another day trip to the northwest part of the state in August to cross off Burnett and Rusk counties. There is not much up in these counties. We did stop to see the trains in Ladysmith before visiting friends in Eau Claire.

We decided to hit Iron County in fall to see the fall colors. Initially I thought about going all the way up to Hurley but changed my mind and decided on a county park in Iron County. A change in plans got us to neither but we did drive through Iron County and I got to stop and take a picture of a giant corkscrew.

I did it. All 72 counties in Wisconsin have been at least driven through with many of them having done something in. Some I purposely went out my way to get (Crawford, Monroe). Others I took a road trip to get to (Pepin). I can thank my brother for wanting to check out collages in La Crosse, River Falls, and Superior. A high school ecology trip brought me from Port Washington to Eagle River. You never know how you going to get to a county but sometimes the stories behind the visit are just as fun as the road trip itself. 

Now to focus on the other 49 states and their counties. There are a couple that I am close in going through all the counties -- Delaware (2), Rhode Island (2), Connecticut (4). The next one I really want to try to get to all the counties in is Arizona. We only have 7 left but some of those are going to prove difficult.

Challenge yourself and see how many counties or states you can get to in a life time. It is all about discovering new things and new places. 

5219. See the World’s Largest Penny in Woodruff

 When planning our road trip to Northern Wisconsin, my original plan was to head to Hurley and then over to Hayward. I reversed directions for logistical reasons. That really doesn't matter because either way, I wanted to stop in Woodruff, which we would be driving through anyways, and see the largest penny. 

I am a sucker for the largest anything and why not see a giant coin. It was outside and it was pretty COVID safe.

I was expecting a metal penny created out of copper like pennies were back in the day. Nope. This one looks to be created out of cement and is a nice grey/silver color.

The World's Largest Penny was created to honor the Penny Parade which helped build the Woodruff hospital back in the 1950s. There is a plaque telling you about the history behind the penny.

Would I drive out of the way to see the world's largest penny? Nope but since we were driving almost right by it, I figured we could check it out. It's worth a quick photo op if you are ever in the Northwoods but not worth going out of your way to see.

5239. Go to National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward

 When we decided we wanted to finish crossing off the rest of the Wisconsin counties I've never been to, I decided I wanted to try to get to Hayward to see the big fish. Apparently I was to the big fish when I was a toddler but of course I don't remember being there. I knew the hubby would enjoy going there as well.

The big fish is part of the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. The grounds consist of a museum, hall of fame, and of course the giant fish which you can actually go up into. The price of admission for an adult was $8.75 and children (3-17) were $6.75. The museum and grounds are open Mid-April to end of October at least 5 days a week. 

Our first stop was the giant fish which was really the only reason I wanted to go. Inside the fish are display cases as you walk up the numerous stairs to the fish's mouth to overlook the grounds. Unfortunately there is no other way up to the mouth of the fish but stairs. They were not too bad and wide enough to accommodate social distancing. 

Then we entered the museum which was a housed in a separate building then the visitor center and fish. The building itself has 3 different wings coming off the main entrance. Again plenty of room to social distance. 

One whole wing was dedicated to fishing motors. I think the earliest ones I saw were over 100 years old. I loved the various models, shapes, and sizes of them all. It was like a treasure chest.

Another wing was the hall of fame which included pictures of everyone and their fish broken down by types of fish. Many of the pictures were at least 30 years old. There were not too many recent photos. 

The last wing had more motors and the largest musky ever caught. 

Outside was a few displays of different boats and of course more fish statues. 

It was all very fascinating. The hubby was impressed. He said it was worth the money. I liked when we got there, lunch time, it wasn't very busy but the longer we stayed the more people arrived. If you want to avoid the crowds, go first thing in the morning, around lunch time, or towards the end of the day. 

Even if you are not really a fisherman, pay the $8.75 to climb the stairs to have your picture taken from inside a giant fish. 

Quarantine Adventures: Summer Reading Challenge

 The various libraries around here always do a summer reading program. Usually it requires me to log my reading in some way that is not convinient for me like going to the library or it's just for people under 17. Besides of COVID, the libraries were doing their summer reading program by logging reading time and books via an app called Beanstack. I can totally do this.

Since I have library cards through two different library systems, I used both my phone and my tablet to download the app and sign up for the summer reading program at two different libraries -- Kimberly and Neenah. I visit both so I figured why not. There were prizes involved in both reading programs as well. 

Each library had it's own way of tracking reading over the summer. Neenah only cared about reading per day. So I didn't have to keep track of my time read just the pages. Kimberly wanted you to read a specific number of minutes before earning a badge. It was harder to track minutes as I usually don't read continuously but throughout the day while doing other things.

Each library had its own reading challenge complete with the kind of challenges you could complete and the type of challenges. By completing challenges, you earned badges. The badges then would enter you into a drawing for prizes depending on the program.

Neenah library challenges were more vague and let you read what you wanted under a particular genre -- short stories, classics, graphic novels, memoirs. Kimberly Library was very specific... read these recommended books or watch these recommended movies. I completed all but one challenge for Neenah. I didn't take the language course. Kimberly I completed only a handful of challenges as many of the books/movies were not available through Hoopla or Libby. Even though some of the books I read could have fell into multiple categories for Neenah's challenges, I stuck by my rule of one book, one challenge per app. 

Both libraries award prizes. Again how they did this was different. Neenah you earned tickets which you could enter into a drawing for various prizes (books and gift certificates to area businesses) at the end of the challenge. Kimberly had weekly drawings.

I won a $10 gift certificate from the Kimberly Library to area business.

I won a book of my choosing form the Neenah Library.

It was pretty easy. Log your titles and reading time. Complete challenges and win prizes. The app is fairly easy to use and let's you search for books different ways and add books if you can't find a book. The only downside of the app is that the books are in pages which makes it difficult for audio books. I just changed the number of pages to the hours and minutes of the audio book. 8 hours 15 minutes became 815 pages. 

Both libraries have a new challenge for the upcoming Fox Cities book festival. Read books by authors at the festival, possibly win prizes. Signed up for both again. I hope they continue with the app readingn challenges even once we are back to normal. It is fun and easy.

20 in 2020: Explore one new city in Wisconsin

 My 20 in 2020 list is not going very well mainly due to COVID. It may turn into 21 in 2021. However, I was able to explore a new city in Wisconsin while at softball. The hubby had a softball tournament in Mishicot and I figured I'd tag along to make dinner an easier option. I needed to go for a walk so I explored while I got my steps. The only other time I recall being in Mishicot is for a wedding at the resort. 

Mishicot is a little village in Northeast Wisconsin that besides Fox Hills Golf Resort really does not have much going on. I didn't even see a fast food restaurant.

First stop was the Covered Bridge. I'm a sucker for covered bridges and this one was right by the Community Park and softball diamonds. Apparently it is also a good spot for fishing. It turns out they were fishing for salmon. 

Then I wandered the downtown area which is a couple blocks long. The downtown features many historical buildings. Many buildings feature a sign that tells you the history of the building. The history geek instead me was delighted. I learned about the early history of some of the buildings.

I found the cemeter. I love walking through cemeteries and looking at old graves. Instead of taking the road up the cemetery, I took the set of old cement stairs. They are a lot steeper than they look.

The cemetery was had several cool looking headstones.

After leaving the cemetery, I followed the scenic shortcut for a bit.

I then discovered I was on the Ice Age Trail. I followed the trail for a few blocks. I am completing the ice trail a few feet at a time. Most people do a segment or a few segments at a time. I prefer a few feet.

Mishicot does have a few art galleries and a historical museum to check out as well. 

The village was decked at for fall. 

If you are ever following the Ice Age Trail through Mishicot check out the history. Personally I don't think it's worth a visit unless you plan on golfing or maybe fishing. It was not that exciting of a town.