Random Statues and Sculptures 2025 -- Ice Cream Cones

 Andrea sends me a Facebook post about some new ice cream statue down on the pier in Sheboygan. My response was "You're telling me I need to swing by for ice cream next Friday on my way home from Port?" She was like probably. So after Tall Ships and Margaritas I headed to Sheboygan for a little bit of ice cream

The Ice Cream Cones are located between South Pier Parlor & Lino Ristorante Italiano right on South Pier in Sheboygan. While we were enjoying our ice cream, tiny munchkins were climbing all over the statue. I was really hoping they would eat their ice crema at least for 5 minutes so Andrea and I could get some pictures.

While the munchkins were corralled by their parents, Andrea and I took the opportunity to take some pictures with the ice cream cones.

I became the ice cream scoop. Sorry for the blurry picture. My lens obviously needs to be cleaned. Ugh. Guess I'll need to go back and redo it.

Then we got some selfies with the individual cones.

Sweet treats and fun poses is all that you need to make it a random friend date. 

Next time you're downtown Sheboygan on the pier, take your selfie with the giant ice cream cones.

7608. Have a margarita flight

 After volunteering at and checking out the Tall Ships, I met up with Kris for a drink before making my way home. We decided to go to Beanies for margaritas. All the swings were taken so we just sat a table in the bar. 

While I was at Tall Ships, I picked up a flyer that offered $5 off a flight of margaritas. I knew I couldn't drink an entire flight by myself and still be able to drink. So we decided to split the flight. 

A flight at Beanies includes 4 blended 5 oz margaritas.. lime, strawberry, swirl, and prickly pear. Since I don't care for strawberry Kris took the strawberry and swirl and I had the lime and prickly pear. We also shared some chips.

Prickly Pear is amazing and even tastes better when you can actually taste it. This would be my go to margarita if I had to pick.. probably followed by peach or mango.

The lime is like any traditional margarita. It was good but not my favorite.

Both of them did not have strong tequila flavors. I am not a huge tequila fan which is why I prefer my margaritas blended.  

Sharing a flight was a great way to end the afternoon before I headed to Sheboygan for ice cream. I guess I kind had a progressive dinner experience except I kind missed the whole entree portion. Hmm.. that gives me an idea for another adventure when I go home in the future.. Drinks with one friend, dinner with another, dessert with a third. Who's game???

Tall Ships Come to Port

 When I saw that Port Washington was having a Tall Ships Festival, I wanted to go. I usually don't get to see them but seeing there were going to see in Port and I figured mom and dad could use my help with some stuff, I decided to go check them out. Ideally I wanted to go to EAA and Tall Ships on back to back days so I didn't mess up my week at work but it didn't work out that way but either way, I made it work.

Tall Ships are large traditional-rigged sailing vessels such as topsail schooners. They are really just modern pirate ships. 

Tall Ships were in Port for 3 days before they headed up Lake Michigan towards Door County. They actually reached out to Port for safe harbor and Port figured they could do something to draw people down to see them. Working together, the Port Visitor Center and the sailing ships put together daily sails and tours of the ships. The sails were $70-$95 depending time of day. Sails were 1.5-2 hours depending on the time of day. I kind of regret not spending the money to do a sail. I think I will save my pennies and do a sail next time I get to see Tall Ships.

I had the opportunity to volunteer at Tall Ships. I spent a couple of hours answering questions and booking sails on the ships. It let me watch the ships come into the harbor, dock, set sail, and just watch ships. It was actually a good time even though I wasn't sure what I was going to get into. I picked a time slot where there wasn't a lot going on. 

Tours of the ships were once a day around 4 pm due to the Lake level. They could only board at Rotary Park even though they docked at Coal Dock Park. Each day one of the ships would dock at Rotary Park and open up for free tours. 

Due to some miscommunications (and a late departing ship), the tour on Friday was on the Appledore. The Appledore home port is Bay City, MI. The ship is not the big. It's only 85' in length. We were free to explore the top deck of the schooner. 

You could see the itty bitty galley.

And peek down the stairs to see the living quarters. 

I was disappointed that while docked, the sails are down so they weren't as magnificent looking as they are when the sails are bellowing in the wind while out on the open water.

I was able to watch the Liberty Clipper come back after their sail with their sails bellowing in the wind as I walked back to my car. 

Even though you could only tour the shops once a day, you could view them any time while they were docked at Coal Dock Park. You could look down into them and if crew was around talk to them. 

I am glad I was took a day off to go check out the Tall Ships. I think I would have been kicking myself if I didn't. I hope you can some time be able to see Tall Ships and maybe even take a sail on one of them. 

305. Go to the EAA Fly In in Oshkosh

 When I wrote the original bucket list over 20 years ago going to EAA sounded like fun but I don't think I really figured I would get there. When I moved to the Valley, EAA was only 30 minutes away. It really wasn't something I was overly interested in. I figured I'd get there one day. The people and traffic was not my idea of fun.

Then the hubby got a guy on his football crew who worked at EAA and he always said he could get us passes. I kept bugging the hubby and we finally put it on the calendar this year. If you don't have a connection, it was about $65/person for a day ticket. You can get 2 day passes or a week long pass. Parking was about $30 and that was quite a walk. We tried to park on the street and pick up a shuttle at the airport but somehow we never saw the shuttle. 

EAA AirVenture is a week long fly-in, expo, and air shows at the EAA grounds in Oshkosh. Wittman Regional Airport becomes the World's Busiest Airport for a week. There's 1000s of aircraft that fly in for the event. Many people fly they plans in and camp under them. 

Once met the hubby's buddy and got our passes (and made sure we had sunscreen), we entered the grounds of EAA. It is huge. The hubby said to wear good shoes because there would lots of walking. 

They said to download the app to make your day easier. The app was not very user friendly. It was more of a webpage disguised as an app. I didn't use it at all. The paper map they gave us served us well and the hubby knew the lay of the land pretty good having gone many times as a kid.

Our first destination was Boeing Plaza to see all the new planes. We walked several expo tents which we skipped. Maybe if I was on the look out for a new plane, those would be interesting. Boeing Plaza is where all the BIG planes hang out.. There was a new Delta Plane, several Air Force and Air National Guard Planes, and a new bomber that was heavily guarded. The hubby would know what kind. I don't pay attention to the details -- I like to look at the pretty planes.

Then we checked out the National Park booth in one of the expo halls. I was seriously disappointed to find out they didn't have a stamp this year. I lugged my NPS book with to get the EAA National Park stamp and they didn't send a stamp with this year. Stupid budget cuts. This is Heather's from last year when she went.

The we hopped on a shuttle to Fightertown to see the War Birds. This was probably my favorite area. Lots of cool war airplanes mostly from WWII but more recent ones as well. There was a whole field of these planes. There had to be 100s of them of various sizes and styles. Again the hubby could tell you what they were but I liked the shiny, colorful ones. Some pilots were around that you could talk to if you wanted. 

We even got to see a warplane flying around

After wandering around the warplanes for a while , we head back to the other side of Boeing Plaza where the old school planes were kept. 

But it was almost time for the daily air show so we found some seats in the bleachers and waited for it to start. Our poor aching feet could certainly use a rest. The air show runs about 4 hours every day. Some days there is a night air show. 

The air show opened with some military sky divers with the American Flag. 

Then were some of the ultra lights and other small aircrafts

Then you had a couple stunt devils 

And the blimps made an appearance

Finally the war birds in formation came out to dazzle all of us. 

After a while we decided to check out the ultra light camp but nothing really was going on.

We watched the planes from the air show land which was cool.

After about 4 hours or so we decided we had enough airplanes for the day and headed back to the car which was a lot of walking to get to the shuttle buses and then more walking to get back to your car. Lots and lots of walking. 

On the way to the car, we got to get pretty close to the blimps. They are huge. Riding in a blimp is on my bucket list. 

You can also visit the museum which I've done several years ago so we didn't do that.

We did grab some ice cream at one of the food court places for lunch. I did like that many of the area restaurants -- fast food or sit down had a mini restaurant on site. I saw A&W, Chick Fil A, Jersey Mike's Subway, and several local restaurants such as Parker John's or Osorio's Latin Fusion. There was something for everyone. Some of it was more expensive than others but not any more than a ballpark food.

Initial impression -- It's a state fair for airplanes. 

It's almost a been there, done that kind of thing for me. The Air Show is cool and I won't mind seeing that again but the rest of it I can do without.. well except maybe the war birds or my NPS stamp. 

However if you have never gone to EAA, go once to experience the amazing wonders of aviation. It is truly something you need to experience once even if you hate to fly. Just being around all those planes is something to see.