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.