Appleton Night Market

 When I ran into Rudy at one of the indoor famer's markets, he let me know about the Night Market in Appleton and that he would be there. Cannoli's at night? Sounds good to me. I convinced Heather she had to come with me. 

Initially the Night Market was not all that exciting. College Ave was closed from Superior Street to Morrison Street. It was similar to a street fair. Lining both sides of the street were food vendors and craft vendors. There were musicians set up along the way. As well as some aerialists. I have to admit the aerialists were very cool.

We wandered down College Ave, picked up some cannoli, and decided to go follow the Fox Trot Trail to kill some time. 

When we got back from Fox Trot Trail, we got some gelato and Italian Cream Sodas from Copper Rock Coffee Shop.

After refueling, we saw some fairies.

Then almost became part of the Chinese dragon parade. That was really cool. The dragon featuring the little kids was adorable.

As we continue to stroll up and down the street, we caught a glimpse of the ninja warriors. Too bad we couldn't get close enough to really enjoy the show. They were amazing.

The Night Market was a lot of fun at times but there were also a lot of people. I hope they do it again and I would check it out. The street performers are always my favorite part.

4961. Walk the Fox Trot Trail in Appleton

 One day while at the farmer's market or something, Danielle and I noticed blue paw prints on the sidewalk in downtown Appleton. It turns out, they are there to guide on the Fox Trot Trail. I decided I wanted to to follow this trail. This was several years ago and I kept putting it off because I didn't want to deal with parking. Heather and I had time to kill while downtown and decided to go for it.

The Fox Trot Trail is a two mile loop through downtown and the riverfront that highlights the area history. You can pick up a guide at Paper Valley Hotel or just go to the Fox Trot Trail website to download one. Since I forgot my guide at home, I just googled Fox Trot Trail and downloaded the guide to my phone.

There are 16 points of interest that the guide talks about. It starts at Houdini Plaza and continues east on College Ave. Stops along College Ave include The Zuelke Building, History Museum at the Castle, Lawrence University Main Hall, and Lawrence Memorial Chapel.

Then the route has you head south on Lawe Street. This is the start of the river are. Stops along Lawe Street include

The Vulcan Plant Replica -- the first hydroelectric plant and the industrials flats.

Once you cross the river and train tracks, the trail heads down the Newberry Trail where you can see the Lock Tender's House, Lock #2, and between the locks building.

Then you head up Olde Oneida Street to Trolley Square, The Dam Tender's House, and the Fox River Mills Apartments.

From there you go past Rocky Blair Run and end in Jones Park.

We only lost the paw prints once when it crossed the street on Lawe Street since there was sidewalk ony only on one side.

I did talk about some of the places at first but by the time we got to Olde Oneida Street, it wasn't that interesting anymore.

The walk was fun. I would suggest doing it when you have an hour or so to kill downtown. There are hills but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. There is a ramp or stairs to get you from Jones Park on the river back to Lawrence Street. Going down isn't bad, it's always going back up. 

Wooden Nail Making

 While Andrea and I were at the Sheboygan Historical Museum, we wandered into the hands-on room as I like to call it. In there they had various stations set up to explore pioneer living. One of them was wooden nail making to show how people used wooden nails to build houses and other wooden goods.

To make a wooden nail, you used this wooden vise contraption to shave off strips of wooden to make a rounded peg versus a stake.

It was a bit scary to drag this sharp plane towards you as you shaped the piece of wood. You didn't want to pull to hard otherwise you would take off too much but you wanted some force to actually take off a layer of wood. It was an exact science I did not master.

By the time I was done mine still have a very stake like look to it. However, it did fit in the hole like it was supposed to. I guess that was a win.

I am keeping it in case I run into any vampires... or is that a silver stake? I can never remember.

I learned that woodworking, piano player, and even beer chugging is not really my forte during this Sheboygan adventure. The things I randomly will try and not succeed at. Who knows what the next Sheboygan adventure will lead to??

6937. Play a player piano

 Our last stop in Sheboygan was the Sheboygan County Historical Museum. It was a free day and Andrea knows the volunteers. 

Since Stacy and I were there just over a year ago not much has changed so I didn't feel a need to explore the whole museum. While in the basement of the main building, Andrea decided I should play the piano. This is not always an option but since a volunteer was there, I could play the piano.

This is no ordinary piano. It is an old fashion player piano. The very nice volunteer helped me move my feet to get the piano to play.

However, I am not coordinate enough to get the pedals to move at the right speed to make much music. This is definitely for more coordinated people. 

It was fun trying but I certainly do not have the talent to try and play a player piano.

If you are ever at the Sheboygan County Historical Museum and they let you try the piano, go for it. You will probably do better than me.

5261. Go to 3 Sheeps Brewing in Sheboygan

 When Andrea and I were planning our Croffle date, we saw that 3 Sheeps Brewing Company was having their 11th anniversary party the same day. I said we should check it out since I've not been to a brewery in Sheboygan County.

After a bit of shopping and sampling, Andrea asked if we should do Croffles or Beer first since we were literally going to drive right by the brewery. I said croffles as I probably should eat before I drink. 

With our bellies full of croffles, we headed back to 3 Sheeps Brewing. It is located in a neighborhood with limited parking. We ended up parking on a side street and walked a few blocks back to the brewery. 

We both grabbed a beer before sitting outside. It was not a gorgeous day but nice enough to sit out and enjoy a beer. Enjoy might have been a bit strong. Because of my like to sours, I had Flower Sour which was a Sour Ale with Chamomile. Andrea opted to go with a Pineapple Mango Slushie Beer. Neither of us were fans of our choices. Mine was more bitter than  I was used to and Andrea's was just weird.

Even though we have known each other for over 20 years, we realized this was our first time we've had a beer together. We've done a beer run together but never went for a beer to catch up.

Since my beer was not very good, I decided to try to chug it. Yeah, that didn't work very well. I decided I can not chug a beer.. No I don't really care to try again. I just wanted to cross "chug a beer" off the bucket list.

3 Sheeps Brewing Company is perfect spot to hang out. They do have a good selection of beer and plenty of inside and outside seating. Andrea said it was a good spot to social distance during the pandemic. I would go again just to hang out, talk, and I would try the seltzer next time. That seems like a safe choice.

6845. Try a croffle

 Back in January, Andrea sends me a message that says I found where we are going for breakfast when you come down in a few weeks. Looking at the menu and saw they had Croffles, I quickly agreed. It turns out shortly afterwards, they temporarily closed for over a month. Finally we both found time in our busy schedule to have a croffle date.

A croffle is a hybrid waffle and croissant. It is made by putting a croissant in a waffle iron to smoosh it down. It looks like a waffle but has the flaky layers of a croissant.

At Eb Flo in Sheboygan, you can have either a sweet or savory croffle. They have about 10 different varieties of croffles.

For me it was relatively easy to decide. I don't like the one ingredient or another in most of the croffles so I went with Ham and Swiss.

Andrea went sweet and had Nutella Banana.

While we waited for a table to open up inside, we sat outside and enjoyed the fire. 

Once a table opened back up, we quickly went back inside. It was not that nice out to sit outside.

O.M.G. The Croffle was amazing. The perfect combination of croissant, ham, and cheese. It was gone very quickly. Andrea said hers was amazing as well. I probably would have eaten it because the bananas weren't overly ripe. I'm very picky when it comes to bananas.

We will definitely be back. I would highly recommend Eb Flo's for a place to grab brunch when you're in Sheboygan. They have other things besides croffles and they all looked good. 

Sampling the goods at Miesfeld's Triangle Market

 While planning our Sheboygan adventure, I saw that there was a book signing at Miesfeld's Triangle Market in Sheboygan for the new Wisconsin Bucket List book. I told Andrea we should go. I would love to have a copy of the book.

Miesfeld's Triangle Market is located off of Hwy 42 in Sheboygan. It is open Monday-Friday 8-5:30 and 5 8-3 on Saturdays. It is a local meat market that carries a few other staples and alcohol.

We did not buy any meat so I can't tell you how their brats are. Andrea is not a fan but I'm still willing to try them.

The Wisconsin Bucket List book did not look all that exciting. It was rather thin so we skipped the book signing.

If we skipped the meats and the book signing? What did we do? We sampled various products. They have product sampling almost every week. It's like Costco but better. These are local products.

We started off with some cheese by The Little Brown Cow Cheese -- a small local dairy. The cheese was very good. Andrea picked some up. I had enough cheese from our cheese dealer that I had to pass on getting more. I would totally buy some in the future though.

We then samples some beef. It was amazing. The seasoning was delicious. The hubby wouldn't care for it so I didn't buy any but Andrea did.

The last thing we sampled was Old Fashions in a can. Day drinking is what we do best. The Brandy Sweet tasted just like brandy old fashion sweet even for these SoCo Old Fashion Drinking Gals.

I did buy some hard rolls. I couldn't really not buy Sheboygan hard rolls at a market in Sheboygan. The hubby was very happy when I brough those home.

If you are in the Sheboygan area, definitely check out Miesfield's especially on a Saturday when you can potentially find food and drink samples. I will definitely be back to try some of the meat products and sample more goodies.