Last year Stacy mentioned that we should go to Warrens Cranberry Festival some time. It just happened that Cranberry Festival Warrens was going to be the same weekend we decided on for Girls Weekend and Warrens was not that far from La Crosse. We couldn't have planned it better if we tried.
Warrens Cranberry Festival is always the last full weekend in September. It opens at 7 am on Friday and Saturday and 9 am on Sunday. It goes until 5 each day. The entire festival is throughout the main streets of Warrens. It literally shuts down the town for three days.
We headed to Warrens first thing in the morning on Sunday. Parking is in 3 main lots on the outskirts of the festival. Logistically we wanted to park in the blue lot since that was the easiest to where we were going but due to road closures through town we ended up paying for parking in the Red Lot. We just took the shuttle bus down to the festival. It really was in hindsight a better choice.
To beat the crowds, we opted to do the pancake breakfast at St. Andrew Catholic Church. For $8, we got pancakes, sausage, milk, and cranberries if we wanted them. They had a great system and the food was good. If you plan on going to cranberry festival ever, this is a great option for breakfast.
It was misty and overcast. Really not a nice day to be outside but such is life. All Cranberry Festival is a giant craft fair and flea market. If you are into shopping and arts and crafts, it's three miles of vendors. I was on the look out for a new wooden badger sign. Other than that we the whole craft fair/flea market was not that exciting. It might have been the weather too.
We did check out the cranberry tours. I naively thought it was going to be guided cranberry tours in the cranberry bogs but they were self-guided. It was more of look at the bogs, check out the pictures, and ask the volunteers any questions. Not quite the experience I was hoping for. Cranberries grow on plants. When it is time to harvest them, they flood the fields to make the bogs. To my disappointment, the bogs aren't there all year round.
The other thing we did was go to the Cranberry Discovery Center. For $5, it got us out of the weather and we got to learn the history of cranberry growing in Wisconsin. It was very interesting, hands on, and definitely worth the money. It is open all year round.
We did do some cranberry wine tasting as well but after yesterday more wine did not sound appealing.
The one thing we did not do and that was mainly do to weather and timing was eat. There are a lot of food vendors but since we had a big breakfast we weren't in the mood to try anything. I was hoping for some good cheese curds but there were the same ones I could get around here.
I am glad we went on a Sunday and the weather was not nice as there were less people. I would not want to be there on a Friday or Saturday when it is nice out as it can get really busy. Like wall to wall people crazy.
I would go again on a Sunday but I would check the weather to make sure it was going to be nice out. Walking around in the mist was not that appealing. I think I'm getting old.
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