6116. Go to Forgotten Fire Winery in Peshtigo

 I've been wanting to go to Forgotten Fire Winery for a while now. I never found myself up in Marinette county with time to spare to stop by it. The one time I was close, I was by myself and I know me and alcohol so that wasn't going to a be a wise decision. I proposedly added it to vacation so I could finally get there. 

Forgotten Fire Winery is located in Peshtigo, about a mile off I-41. The address technically is Marinette. It is open 10-5 Daily. 

Forgotten Fire Winery is named after the Peshtigo Fire which happened the same night as the Chicago Fire but killed a lot more people. Since it was the same night, it made little news. 

There have a variety of wines, meads, and ciders all made on site. They even have a homemade root beer. For $8, you get 4 samples.

I went with

Blackberry Burglar -- I am still in search of a good blackberry since I don't get to AZ enough to stock up on my favorite wine and who knows if they even carry it since it has now been sold and rebranded. This one was good... still not as good as Basil's but not too wine-y. It was good enough to bring home and try again. 

Mad Badger -- This is their cherry wine and it tasted like cough medicine. It was not my favorite. 

Hot Mess -- I tried this one just because I liked the name. It was too dry for me but still better than Mad Badger.

Walleye Oughta -- This was a lemon wine. I only tried it because it was sounded intriguing. I should have tried the Pink Hot Mess instead. It wasn't bad but it definitely could have been better. Lemon and grapes definitely didn't mix well for me. It was just a weird flavor combination.

Over all it was a good tasting. I would like to go back and try the root beer or at least stop and pick some up.

If you are headed to Michigan, I would recommend stopping for a some wine at Forgotten Fire and then head into town to check out the Fire Museum. 

5412. Splurge on a Mile of Music Candy Bar

 Every year Crazy Sweets, along with Mile of Music, sponsor a Golden Ticket Giveaway based on the candy bar contest in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. 

It is very simple, you buy a homemade candy bar and see if you won the golden ticket which is a  pair of Festival Only Music Maker Badges. Every candy bar is a winner though containing coupons to various downtown businesses. Each candy bar is $5.50 and you can get dark chocolate sea salt or milk chocolate. There are sold at various businesses downtown. A portion of the candy bar goes back to Mile of Music. So everyone wins.

I am not usually downtown much when these candy bars are on sale but I really wanted one. When Heather and I made plans to meet downtown to go to the Farmer's Market, I realized I was going to beat her downtown and suggested to meet at Copper Rock. I could get a beverage and wait. While I was in line, I saw the candy bars and decided to get one. 

Heather showed up and got her own candy bar (I'm such a bad influence). We decided to see if we got the golden ticket.

Neither of us were so lucky. We got many of the same coupons. We each got 7 or 8 coupons, many we will probably never use. My favorite was 50% off a drink at AmberLulu.. the Boba Tea shop I've been wanting to try. Heather got $5 off at the Blue Emporium which I needed to go to anyways so I got that one too.

The candy bar was delicious. I am not a sea salt fan but it was not very noticeable and did not distract from the candy bar at all. The hubby said his milk chocolate one was very good too. I picked him up one at the Blue Emporium.

Next I am definitely getting another. So what if I don't use many of the coupons. I just want the chocolate bar. 

I would recommend buying your own candy bar next year and maybe you will end up with the golden ticket or free ice cream. 

26 in 2026: Visit a New Ice Cream Place -- Creekside Creamery

 A Facebook poll rated Creekside Creamery the best ice cream in Valley. It beat out Leon's and Frogg's.  I figured that was a good enough reason to try it. When the smoke was going to be a potential issue for the T-Rats game, I suggested getting drinks at the game and then celebrating National Ice Cream Day with some ice cream. She readily agreed and suggested Creekside Creamery. 

Creekside Creamery is just off downtown Hortonville on Nash Street. It is open 7:30-8 Tue-Sat and 11-8 on Sundays. They are currently closed on Mondays. There is small parking lot in the back. 

Creekside Creamery features natural ice cream and coffee meaning no artificial colors or flavors. They have unique flavors of ice cream as well as dairy free ice cream. You can sample all 24 flavors if you want before making a decision. The rotation keeps changing so you never know what they have.

Some of the unique flavors they had was Lemon White Chocolate Scone, Quinoa Sweet Cream, Lemon Poppyseed, Strawberry Rhubarb, Mojito and Rum. They had basic flavor as well such as Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup, Birthday Cake, Orange Dreamsicle, Sweet Cream, and Chocolate. 

Heather and I had lemon white chocolate scone. The hubby went with Birthday Cake. Her hubby had Lemon Poppyseed. I almost went with chocolate peanut butter cup but realized I wanted to try new ice cream flavors this year. I also almost got the quinoa but opted with the lemon white chocolate scone. 

My sample was fantastic. I was excited to get a scoop of it. I found the actual scoop disappointing. It lack lemon flavor through out. There was one or two burst of lemon flavor other than that, I felt it didn't have much flavor. The hubby said his birthday cake tasted like sprinkles and no real cake flavor. I think since it's natural flavor, it's not going to stand out as much as artificial flavors.

Overall I was kind of disappointed. I would go back but I'm not racing out to Hortonville when I get an ice cream craving. 

If you want to avoid artificial flavors/colors or need dairy free ice cream, this is the place for you. I definitely would recommend trying it. It is a popular place and I hope they make it. I would also like to try their coffee drinks. 

26 in 2026 -- Try at least one new beer, cider, or cocktail -- First Base-Fizz

 The Timber Rattlers always have specialty cocktails for their games. I try to get at least one a year. Heather mentioned it was definitely a day-drinking kind of game. We decided to head to Leinie's Lodge for some cocktails.

Today's drink of the game was The Buzzer Beater. The grape vodka and cranberry juice were a turn off. However, they had other vodka flavored drinks. One of them was First Pitch Fizz which Heather and I got.

First Pitch Fizz has Cotton Candy Vodka by Game On Spirits, Lemonade, and Starry. It sounded perfect for me. It was $8 in a plastic cup or $12 in a souvenir cup which is reasonable for a baseball game. 

The First Pitch Fizz was perfect. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and refreshing. I just wish there was some cotton candy add to the top. That would be so much fun. 

I hope we can indulge in another specialty cocktail before the season is over. Stay tuned to what else we may drink this year. 

6416. Go to the Railroad Depot History Museum in Waupaca

Last year Mom said Our Wisconsin magazine has an article about the train museum in Waupaca. I'm thinking there is no train museum in Waupaca and she must have been mistaken. But when I got our copy of the magazine, sure even there was an article about a train museum in Waupaca. Even the hubby didn't know it existed. I knew we needed to check it out.

Railroad Depot is part of the Waupaca Historical Society. It is open Memorial Day Weekend though Labor Day Weekend on Saturday and Sundays 12-5 which makes it difficult for us to visit. It is located by the Waupaca Foundry and if you weren't looking for it, you probably wouldn't even notice it was there as it's off of downtown. It is free to visit. 

When we arrived, a volunteer asked us to sign the guest book and suggested we start downstairs with the model railroad. There really wasn't much upstairs in the depot to see to be honest. 

In the basement, there is a model 6 scale train of Waupaca and surrounding area in the 1950-1960s (I believe). Another volunteer told us all about his work on the model railroad and stories how the railroad depot came to be in the hands of the historical society. He also mentioned how their acquired their extensive library collection. 

We headed back upstairs to view the train cars outside but first our volunteer showed us the tracks and explained how it looked in the hey day. A train was going to be coming through in about 10 minutes according to the digital scanner.

We headed over to the caboose. Someone turned it into a man cave. It was very cool to see.

Then we saw the Soo Line Potato Car. I didn't even know Potato cars were a thing but it make sense that they needed to haul tons of potatoes before the days of the semi. It was smaller than a regular box car. 

We thanked the volunteer and drove down the hill to check out the car barn. Our volunteer met us there. He explained about the baggage car from the Waupaca Trolley, the horse drawn cart, and the old Model T. He bought (or assisted in acquiring) all of it. 

Our volunteer made our visit into a personal tour. 

Before heading home, we drove across the street to the another caboose and old Soo Line Building. 

If you are into train, the Railroad Depot in Waupaca is definitely worth checking out. Then go check out the Red Mill and Grand House as well. The Grand House is on my bucket list yet. 

7745. Have a dirty soda

 I know what Italian Cream Sodas are and I've been to the Soda Bar in Appleton. I just never realized exactly what the whole dirty soda trend really was and I really didn't even know it was a thing. That is until this food truck showed up at a baseball game and everyone was getting these fun drinks. I decided to check it out and splurge on myself for our anniversary.

A dirty soda for those that don't know is a soda that you customize with cream, flavored syrups, and other mix-ins such as fruit. It differs from an Italian (or French) Cream Soda that it uses actual soda instead of club soda. 

The baseball tournament had invite The Bubbler Bar to the diamond for the day. The Bubbler Bar is a food truck based out of Green Bay that creates Dirty Sodas. 

They do not have a large menu but they do feature hand muddled lemonade and energy infusions along with their Dirty Sodas. 

I played it safe with a Raspberry Dream which was Dr. Pepper, raspberry and vanilla syrups, and cream. After I ordered it I saw the Campfire Cream which looked amazing. I was told it was by the tournament director. Maybe next time.

My raspberry dream was amazing. It was the perfect combination of sweet and creamy. I would totally get it again.

Based on the color, one mom thought it might have been a bloody Mary. 

I may now be obsessed with dirty sodas. I may have to try to create them at home. Hmmm. coconut raspberry Dr. Pepper anyone?

If you have not tried one of these (and I don't mean the ones at McDonald's), find a local business that makes them an indulge.

Summer Bucket List

 Last year on Instagram, I saw a post of someone creating a summer bucket list with their family. I never got around to doing it. This year I managed to scribble a few ideas down. They are nothing complicated but just good summer fun. We'll see if I can manage to do them all. 

1. Dine outside
2. See an outdoor concert
3. Chase waterfalls
4. Go on a hike
5. Watch fireworks
6. Have a s'more
7. Go swimming
8. Stick my toes in a lake
9. Read outside (not at a ball game)
10. Visit a food truck

What would be on your summer bucket list?

7515. See Garth Brooks

 Last year we saw that Garth Brooks was going to open Summerfest and he's one of the few artist we actually would want to see. 

Because I was busy at work, I missed the pre-sale code until there were only a handful of (very expensive) seats. Because the show was almost sold out before tickets went on sale, they added a second show. Tickets went on sale the next day. I made sure I was on the computer early. I got seats at a price we were willing to pay (less than $200/ticket). 

The concert was at the American Family (aka Marcus) Amphitheater on the Summerfest grounds. I've seen a few concerts there but probably not for 15-20 years. We contemplated taking the bus in but decided to buy parking. The price difference before fees was minimal. 

Getting to the parking lot once we got off the freeway was slow going and took us at least 45 minutes to go less than 3 miles. There was very little traffic control and you still had every day traffic to deal with in a congested area. A pain yes but survivable. We gave ourselves plenty of time to park.

We had to no issues getting into the Summerfest Grounds. Because it was been a while since I've seen a show at the Amphitheater, I had to remember how to get to our seats. I went the wrong way but found bathrooms with no line.. well that's because half the stalls didn't work. 

I turned us around and we found our seats with plenty of time. We had a decent view of the stage even with being less than 10 rows from the top. Once the show started, the pillar blocked my view at times but that's what scenes are for. Garth moved around enough that it really wasn't an issue.

Garth's show started at 8... originally 7:30 but somewhere the time changed and no one really minded. The audience was mainly our age and older. The people that knew Garth when he first started and listened to him since the 90s. 

The show was absolutely amazing. We were on our feet the entire time. The entire place, well maybe not the hubby, sang along the entire time. Garth was like "take it away" and it was very interactive. He still can move for 64. Even though it was high energy it was still very relaxed and intimate in a way.

He played all my favorite hits. 

He introduced the members of his band and most where with him since the beginning. The "rookie" has been with him for 7 years. I absolutely love that he has accordion player in the band.. and of course all good country bands has a fiddler player or two. 

I expected him to play for 2 hours but about 80 minutes he was done. We did get him out there for an encore which he played Standing Outside of the Fire. It was over in about 98 minutes but he could have played all night. It was definitely worth every penny we spent. The hubby said it was the best concert he had been to and he saw Willy Nelson.

Getting out of the Amphitheater wasn't too bad. We were back to the car within 15-20 minutes. Then the chaos started. We got in line to exit the parking lot and did not move for 45 minutes. Even the buses couldn't move. Finally they got some traffic control and opened up another exit. It was still another good 30 minutes before we were on the freeway. Once we cleared the area around Summerfest, we finally started moving. Yes it was beyond annoying but it was what it was. I never did see a Milwaukee County Transit bus. There were plenty of buses from bars but none that I could tell that we were have picked up at one of the park n' rides. 

A live concert does wonders to your soul. I can count the number of major concerts I've been to one hand (and all outdoors) but there are certain bands/artists I would jump to go see. All I have to say is if you ever get a chance to see an band/artist that is on your bucket list, go. 

26 in 2026: Visit a New Ice Cream Place -- Frankie's Ice Cream

I really wanted to get ice cream so I scheduled an ice cream date with Kristine. There were a couple of places in Port that I wanted to try. We picked Frankie's.

Frankie's Ice Cream is a seasonal ice cream stand in Port Washington that is ran out of an Airstream trailer. It is located on the corner of Pier and Franklin Streets downtown. They are open daily 11-9:30.

Frankie's serves Cedar Crest ice cream, Mini Donuts, and Jolly Good Soda. You can get a float with ice cream and Jolly Good. You can even get donut sundaes. Cedar Crest and Jolly Good are so a Southeast Wisconsin thing. 

I kept it simple just a scoop of Mint Mackinac Island Fudge in a waffle cone. It was $5.25 or so for my cone which I thought was reasonable. 

A dozen mini donuts were $7. I just don't get the fascination with mini donuts. Maybe it's that they are too sweet for me once you add all the toppings.

There is plenty of seating and if not the lake is only a few blocks away.

If you are ever in Port, grab an ice cream for Frankie's.

There's still a few ice cream places in Port that I need to try. I'm sure one day I'll get to them all. 

6201. See the World's Largest Potato Masher in Plover

 I told the hubby there were a couple of things I wanted to see on our way to/from Eau Claire. One of them was a giant potato masher in Plover which I've been trying to get to for a few years.

The World's Largest Potato Masher is outside of Plover, just off of Hwy 54. It stands outside of the Food + Farm Exploration Center, which is a children's museum dedicated to food and agriculture. How fitting for WI. There is plenty of parking.

We actually passed it on our to Eau Claire. If we stayed on 54 a smidgen longer, we would have found the road to get us to the Food + Farm Exploration Center which if I put it in the GPS, I would have seen how close we really were. 

We stopped on the way back. The potato masher stands 38 Feet 11 inches. There is a pathway to it. 

There is not sign telling about the potato masher or the significance of it.

I snapped a few pictures while the hubby stayed in the car.

If you plan on going to the Food + Farm Exploration Center or are in the area it's worth the detour. It's not far off of I-39 so it does make for a quick stretch break. I don't know if I would actually drive out of my way to see it though. 

5935. Go to The Dells Mill and Museum in Augusta

Somewhere in my reading, I stumbled upon the Dells Mill in Augusta. Naturally I added it to the bucket list. Since Augusta is on our way to Eau Claire, we drove by it last fall but I wanted a chance to actually go in it. 

The Dells Mill and Museum is located about 20 miles from Eau Claire and 12 miles from I-94 in Osseo. It is only open Fridays and Saturdays 9-5. There is plenty of parking. There is a donation box for taking pictures.

You are allowed to walk around the outside of the mill when it's not open. We did that last fall but I wanted to go inside. 

We decided to stop on our way to Eau Claire and check it out when it's open. It is part museum, part store that sold Amish bakery. 

You can wander around the ground floor but if you want a tour it's $10/person. It covers the 5 floors of the mill with lots of stars. The hubby is not fond of staircases and high places especially ones that are fairly open. I'll keep that on the bucket list for another day.

The store was very small. I was hoping to snag a post card but I didn't see one. The cherry angel food cake looked really good but we had cheesecake in the car. 

After checking out the mill, we walked down to the bridge and checked out the falls. The mill wheel was moving the time and it was very picturesque. 

We even had a nice chat with an Amish man.

Overall it was a nice stop. If you ever find yourself in that are on a Friday or Saturday afternoon, take a moment to go back in time and check out the Dells Mill. 

26 in 2026 -- Try at Least One New Restaurant -- Geno's Steakhouse

 The hubby had a rare Saturday off in the middle of baseball season. He asked for dinner suggestions and I gave him my list of restaurants we wanted to try. He narrowed it down to two different supper clubs. After asking around, he chose Geno's Steakhouse in Black Creek.

Geno's Steakhouse is off Hwy 47 in Black Creek, closer to Nicholas than Black Creek. It is open Wed-Sun 4:30-8, except Friday and Saturday when they are open to 9. There is plenty of parking. Geno's Steakhouse looks like a regular house even on the inside.

Like a typical supper club, you make your way to the bar where they took our drink orders and gave us menus. I had an old fashioned while the hubby had a Mountain Dew. It was only like $9 for both. And my old fashioned is not a little one either. It was a decent old-fashioned.

Once we said we were ready to order, they gave us a number. Then our waitress came to take our order. I went with prime rib and the hubby had tenderloin and haddock combo.

We were then seated shortly after in the back room and advised to help ourself to the salad bar.

The salad bar was in the front room. It was not very big but offered plenty. There was also two kinds of soup. I knew if I had soup I won't eat all my dinner even the taco soup sounded good.

We had fresh bread at the table.

Our food arrived fairly quickly. I'll be honest my prime rib was boring. It was not very flavorful. Maybe I am just used to tenderloin. It was good just boring. The hubby said his tenderloin was very good and wondered why I would even consider prime rib when there was tenderloin. Next time I will get tenderloin. 

They offered us dessert which we declined as we were too full.

It was all very good. We would definitely go back. The hubby said it took him over 40 years to get to Geno's... hopefully it doesn't take us another 40 to get back. 

I wonder where our next dining adventure will take us.