23 in 2023: Try at least one new Restaurant: Riverside Pizza

 I was told by my bro that I had to try the new pizza place in Green Bay, Riverside Pizza. It has been voted the best pizza in the Upper Peninsula and now opened a location in Green Bay. I went to baseball with the hubby and then we decided to give Riverside Pizza a try.

Riverside Pizza is located on Oneida Street. They opened in the former Heartland Pizza building. They are open Wednesday-Monday 4-9. They do both dine in and carry out. We obviously dined in.

The dining room is an "L" shape and not very big. It is a mix of high top tables and regular tables most of them 4 spots with a few larger tables mixed in. There is a bar with about 8 stools which is mainly for carry outs. One thing I found odd was you don't see the kitchen unless you can get a peek as the door swings open. They are very quick to shut it. This is unusual for pizza places. They usually wants you to see them making pizza. It also did not smell like a pizza place. Maybe it was too new but there was no smell of tomato sauce or pizza baking. We only smelled a pizza as someone walked by with it.

The menu is very limited. It is pizza, a salad, or a hot dog. That's it. No appetizers, no dessert. Just pizza. Okay great. Simple menus are easier for the kitchen but come on, where is the garlic bread. You need garlic bread or cheese bread with pizza. Heck, I'll even take a few garlic knots. Something to enjoy while I wait for my pizza. 

We ordered a sausage and pepperoni pizza. The plates they give you are 6" paper plates. Good thing the pizza is cut into squares otherwise it would not fit on the plates. Plus they don't believe in silverware. Pizza should be eaten with your hands is their belief. I agree to an extent. The crust is fine but once you get into the middle of the pizza sometimes a fork is a necessity especially with the more toppings. 

To be honest, the pizza was lackluster. It was good but just boring. The hubby enjoyed it. I thought it was missing something. I'm not one for sauce but this sauce was boring. It had no oregano or other spices. Maybe they ran out...or maybe they just don't believe in flavor. I'm glad we got meat because otherwise it would have been flavorless. The meat helped with adding flavor. The crust was thin but not entirely crispy. It was a thin, chewy crust which kind of reminded me of Butch's in Kimberly but thicker. 

I think the hubby has turned me into a huge pizza snob and simple pizza no longer does it for me. If the hubby wants to go back, I'll go. It's not high on my list of favorite pizza places but it's not the worst pizza I've ever had. It's just boring and I like flavor. I'm not entirely surprised the hubby liked it because is a plain kind of guy.

If you like your pizza on the blander side or just looking for something new, try Riverside Pizza. I may not be overly crazy about it but I am a bit of a pizza snob. 

Exploring State Trails 2023 -- Ahnapee State Trail

 Most of my state trail excursions occur because I decided to go to baseball and needed a place to walk. Ahnapee State Trail is no different. I opted to go to Algoma with the hubby for Shoreland League Playoff game. Looking at the map, I could either walk to along the beach or walk part of the Ahnapee Trail. Due to fact I didn't have to cross busy streets, I chose the Ahnapee Trail.

The Ahnapee Trail is a 48 mile trail through Kewaunee County that follows the Ahnapee nd Kewaunee Rivers. It can take you to Algoma, Kewaunee, or Luxemburg. When Heather and I were at the World's Tallest Grandfather Clock, we saw the trail head in Kewaunee. 

I picked up the Ahnapee at the trailhead Perry and Mill Street which was about 4 blocks from the ball park. The trail is open year round and does not require a trail pass. Like most state trails it has a gravel base, limestone in this case. It is a pretty flat trail.

I ended up walking more of the trial than I planned on, I probably walked about a mile on the trail before turning around and heading back to the game. The initial part of the trail was not very clear and over grown with grass and weeds. It went past the lumber yard but once it got out of the industrial area, the path became more defined and peaceful.

At one point I could have taken a right and followed the Ice Age trail but kept going straight. This is probably where I should have turned around but I kept going for another 1/4 mile or so. I tend to forget, that everything I walk on the way there must be retraced on the way. 

There was not much to see. I could have used some bug spray even though the bugs weren't horrible. Again I made the mistake of walking in flip flops so I kept having to shake stones out of my feet. One of these times, I'm going to learn my lesson and grab the shoes. 

Overall it was a nice night for a walk. The trail was not busy at all. I did see a few people but not many. If you are ever find yourself near the Ahnapee Trail, take time to walk or bike. 

Sprinkle Fest Fun or Not

 I get a text from my high school friend saying she and her family were going to be at Sprinkle Fest in Green Bay and wanted to know if I wanted to join her. Sprinkle Fest is an annual event at Uncle Mike's Bake Shop. Donuts and sprinkles and a chance to see Kris? Count me in. 

Sprinkle Fest was being held from 8-11 AM. After dropping the hubby off at baseball, I headed over to Uncle Mike's Bake Shop on Mason Street. I got there around 9 after parking about 3 blocks away. Their parking lot is not big and parking on the immediate side streets were full. It was not hard to find parking just a lot of cars and people. I was not expecting so many cars and people.

There were several activities going on including decorate your own donut. Apparently this was a popular activity. The kids already managed to decorate their donut. By the time I got in line, it was almost out the door. I moved maybe five feet when we were told they were out of decorate your own donut. Obviously bad planning as they should not have ran out of donuts in less than 90 minutes. Yes, I was disappointed not to decorate my own donut but based on the options for decorating (Fruity Pebbles, Sprinkles of various shapes and colors, cotton candy, and other candy that does not belong on a donut), I was okay. I was just getting a tooth ache looking at some of the creations.

I picked up a cookie and some donuts from the case instead. I had a long day at baseball ahead of me. 

There were plenty of outside activities for kids as well. You could play in the sprinkle pit. I was really tempted to put my feet in the giant box of sprinkles but there were too many kids around.

The best part was free samples. I had Kringle inside. They were also passing out sprinkled angel food cake. Yum. 

If you have kids under the age of six or seven, Sprinkle Fest is great. Otherwise it is kind of lame. I spent less than an hour at Sprinkle Fest. Glad I was already in Green Bay. It is also a hassle for people that want to visit the bakery on a Saturday morning. I was expecting a lot more and ended up disappointed. I did get to see Kris and her family. That was made the lack of fun worth it. I probably won't partake in Sprinkle Fest again unless maybe it's in Appleton.

Exploring State Trails 2023 -- Rockwell Mountain Bay State Trail

 When the hubby said he wasn't doing the regional tournament this year, I canceled most of my PTO except for Friday. I figured I'd hang out at the local tournament he decided to do instead. He was at Nouryon Sports Complex in Howard. 

There didn't seem to be a good walking trail so I ended up just kind of following the road. Then I saw this foot path and decided to follow it. The foot path led me to the Rockwell Mountain Bay State Trail which is one of the longest in the state. It runs from Rib Mountain to Green Bay and covers 83 miles. A trail pass is required if you are biking or roller blading. 

Since the trial is used for biking, horseback riding, and walk it is a mix of gravel and dirt which for me in flip flops was annoying. I kept shaking out pebbles from my sandals. I ended up walking about .75 on the trail before turning around and heading back to the game. 

This part of the trail is wooded. The shade makes it nice but that also means it can be buggy. Bug spray could be essential depending on the year.

I did walk through this culvert. It was a bit slick inside. 

Since many back yards but up against the trial, they have their own footbridges to get to the trail. 

I wish I had more time to explore this trail. It was is quiet and peaceful.. especially on a Friday morning. Brown County and Wisconsin both have wonderful trail systems and I plan on exploring more of them whenever I get the chance. 

6967. Take a cookie decorating class

I always wanted to learn how to decorate cookies using royal icing. Royal icing scares me to make. I also didn't want to buy all the ingredients and not have it turn out. When Kimberly library was offering a cookie decorating class for adults, I jumped at the opportunity to sign up.  This was free versus the $60 my online book group wanted to charge me to do it virtually.

The class was being taught by a local cookie decorator and assisted by a teen who took a summer school course on cookie decorating. She provided all the materials -- pre-baked the cookies, pre-made the royal icing and put it in piping bags for us, and gave us all the other tools we would need.

Our instructor first demonstrated on how to ice each type of cookie individually. First you trace the outline of the cookie. This helps keep the icing on the cookie. This can be challenging to drip and drop along a cookie but it does not need to be perfect. This should be done with a really skinny tip on your piping bag. Too big of an opening will cause a mess.

After the cookie is outline, then you fill it in. It's actually pretty simple to do. The hardest part I think would be making the royal icing and making sure you don't cut too big of a tip on the icing bags.

The last step is to add the details. To make the flowers on the flip flops, you make a circle with the royal icing and then pull out lines to make petals. As it dries it will sink in.

To make the waves, we just drew a tiny line and then using a paintbrush, pulled down the icing until it looked like waves. For the sand we just added some extra tan icing and dabbed it to make it look like sand. 

For the most part these basic techniques are just that.. basic. They are not that hard to complete and the cookies look really good. I'm sure they are more advanced techniques but I'm happy with the basic. If anyone would make royal icing for me I would totally decorate cookies like this the future especially if the royal icing doesn't get crunchy like this one. It stayed soft even the next day. It actually tasted good.

It was a fun 90 minutes decorating cookies. I hope they do it again because it is easy and fun. No need to stress about it. No need for it to look perfect if all you are doing is eating them.

7074. Have space food

 When we went to the Kennedy Space Center back in March, I picked up some space food. An ice cream sandwich to be exact. I've always wanted to try space food but refused to pay the price when I was younger. My hard earned money wasn't going to be spent on a freeze-dried ice cream sandwich that I might not like. I figured I better get one now or it might be never. 

The ice cream sandwich survived the trip back to Wisconsin. It sat on the counter with the other candy for a few months. I finally tossed it in my baseball backpack and figured I might as well try it at a baseball game. Some times you just have to bite the bullet and go for it.

It comes wrapped in paper just like an ice cream sandwich would. This surprised me slightly as I assumed it would just be in the package.

Once you unwrap it, the ice cream sandwich looks like a normal ice cream sandwich. Chocolate wafers on top and bottom with a creamy ice cream middle.

It really does taste like an ice cream sandwich. You can taste the chocolate and the vanilla. The wafers seem normal but the ice cream weirded me out a bit. I know it's freeze-dried but the crunchiness threw me. I ate about a quarter of it and wrapped it back up to eat later. It is very sweet.

When we got home, I had the hubby try it and he agreed it tasted like an ice cream sandwich.

I won't say I was impressed by it. The science behind freeze-dried food is interesting but I'd rather eat a real ice cream sandwich. I guess the crunchiness bothers me. I tried and probably won't get it again.

Library Road Trip 2023

 The library system that Kimberly is part (OWLS) decided to do a Library Road Trip challenge where you visited as many of the 49 libraries in the OWLS system to gain a stamp. For every 10 libraries you visited it, you got an entry into the drawing for 4 prizes. There was also the "cheater" version where you could call each library, ask a question, and get a secret code. That just seemed too easy. I get that not everyone can be driving all over northeast Wisconsin visiting random libraries but still.

There are 49 libraries across 9 different counties -- Florence, Marinette, Oconto, Brown, Shawano, Waupaca, Outagamie, Kewaunee, and Door. Most of Brown county has their own library system but two of them are within the OWL system.

The Challenge ran from May 1st to July 15th. I convinced Heather to do the challenge with me and we had to wait until school was out so we had about a month or so to attempt this feat. I had the hubby pick up my packet at Kimberly when he picked up my library books. He was like you want what? I told him just tell them you want a road trip booklet. They will know what you are talking about. They sure did.

To get your stamp when you visit the library you must check out materials, sign up for computer usage, or go to an event. 49 books is a lot of books to read. I mainly checked out picture books. I did not count most of them on my Goodreads challenge for the year.

Planning road trips was a challenge because you had to coordinate what days the libraries were open and what hours. Not all the smaller libraries were open M-F or all day even. 

Heather and I tried to do library road trips together but it didn't always work out with schedules. I picked up a couple with the hubby on the way to get more soda from Twigs or to a baseball game. Heather picked up a couple on the way to Boy Scout Camp. We both hit Appleton, Kimberly, Kaukauna, and Little Chute separately as well. I did do a Marinette road trip on July 3rd by myself when everyone was busy. I would had checked out Oconto county as well but most of them were closed for the holiday. The Librarian in Wausaukee said that Niagara was open but that was 30 minutes north. That would have added at least another hour to my day and I told the hubby I would be home by 2:30

Together we did 3 separate road trips -- Shawano County, Waupaca County, and Door/Kewaunee County. Of course stopping at libraries was the main goal but there were always other random and some times unplanned stops. Heather had Iggy, our mascot with.

Shawano County -- We planned on 8 libraries. We got to 7 because of an unplanned stop at Nueske's and wanting to get to Twig's before they closed. I met Heather at her place and we headed out around 1. On the way to her house I realized I forgot my booklet. Lucky the girl at Black Creek was sympatric and stamped my book with the other libraries that I already saw (3 of them). We hit

• Black Creek Library -- Where we added colored stickers to the sticker mural they were creating

• Clintonville Library 
• Marion Library -- We were created really cool necklaces

• Tigerton Library

• Nueske's Meat Market -- Had to check it out and get bacon
• Wittenberg Library
• Birmenwood Library -- They had fish. Iggy was excited.

• Twig's Beverage -- Had to get soda
• Shawano Library
• Old Glory Candy Store -- Can't pass up a good candy store

Waupaca County -- We planned on 9 libraries and managed to get all 9 in. This was mainly in part due to I flipped the itinerary so the libraries that closed earlier were visited first instead of last. We hit

• Shiocton Library

• New London Library
• New London Public Museum
• Manawa Library -- They wanted to take our picture

• Iola Library
• Scandinavia Library
• Red Mill Covered Bridge
• Waupaca Library
• Evanswood Village Shops
• Weyauwega Library

• Fremont Library
• Hortonville Library -- They had a cool global traveler theme going on with a photo booth

Kewaunee/Door County -- We planned on leaving by 9 am so I could get to Kimberly Library by 5 pm for a library event. I thought I gave us enough time but apparently 8 hours was still not enough to visit 9 libraries plus other random stops. We hit

• Kewaunee Library

• World's Largest Grandfather Clock
• Algoma Library
• Sturgeon Bay Library
• Miller Art Museum
• Door County Confectionary -- Heather made me get taffy
• The Gnoshery and giant Bass
• Bailey's Harbor Library
• Sister Bay Library -- They had some really amazing book themed sculptures as well as a book garden outside

• Door County Creamery
• Ephraim Library -- We were picked up an art project kit to pay our own starry night

• Fish Creek Library
• Egg Harbor Library -- The most amazing library for a small town. It has it's own Egg museum

• Pink Bakery -- We got turned around finding it
• Forestville Library

I ended up with 39 libraries visited. I did call Washington Island for a secret code to get my to 40 to max out my drawing entries.

Neither Heather nor I won a prize. Personally I think there should have been more prizes than just 4 as this seemed pretty popular. Librarians loved finding out where we were from and what libraries we were headed to. Needless to say we had fun. I knocked a few things off the bucket list as well and found some random statues. The hubby still thinks we were nuts but that is not anything unusual.