Cave of the Mounds, Mount Horeb, WI

I've heard about Cave of the Mounds many years ago but have never been there until this particular July weekend. The drive was quite lovely and once I got to the Cave of the Mounds park, I decided I should have lunch before I go on exploring.There were picnic tables everywhere and I picked one in the shade. The breeze was quite welcome, the birds provided entertainment and scenery was most relaxing so my lunch was very enjoyable. Especially since it's one I made myself.After the lunch respite I decided to explore the grounds, while waiting for the tour of the cave. Nestled snugly in the Driftless region of Southern Wisconsin, the park allows visitors to explore the unique geological attributes of the area. The grounds also offer some walking trails, prairie gardens, birds, and butterflies.

But on to the main reason for my visit. The cave!First, you have to keep in mind that there will be lots of children here. So, if you're not prepared (like me) for the pushing/shoving/bumping into/screaming/and being generally unruly, take a moment and get ready. Though, if you're taller, many of those things won't be an issue for picture-taking. ;)

Here are some scenes from the cave I compiled. Can you see the "parrot" stalagmite? The picture below the parrot shows a "kissing" stalagmite and stalactite. Eventually, when they meet, they become a column.
The other pictures show that stalactites can resemble a chandelier or an organ's pipes. There is also an underground river in the cave and you see it in the middle picture. The upper right picture has a lot of color and that's from different minerals, not just calcium, being deposited. In addition to all these marvels, you are also introduced to terms like "cave bacon" referring to the wavy formations you sometimes see in the crevices. Despite the ill-mannered children on that particular tour, I would still highly recommend you visit the cave. If nothing else, it provided a really lovely hour in the coolness which was sorely needed this particular day (if I remember correctly, it was near 90 degrees with nearly 100% humidity).

Renaissance Fair, Kenosha, WI

One of my goals has been to travel around locally, as in day trips during the weekend, so nothing too far away. Someplace I can pack a lunch, pack my camera, GPS, and start exploring the area around me.
I joked with some friends from CA that we pack about twelve months worth of activities into about five. And it's true; there are about three major events on any given weekend from May to end of October.

One of these activities one could do is to go back in time. And this past weekend I stepped into another world yet again. It's been about five years since my last visit to the Renaissance Fair in Kenosha, WI. Yet again, I'm so glad I live in today's world, not the world of the actual Renaissance. I'm very thankful for so many things, but sanitation, air conditioning, indoor plumbing, clean water, and having modern clothing, among many, many other things. There's no way I would have been able to deal with the current heat if I had to endure the clothing of that time period. How did people actually deal with it?
But it was a fun time, and great for practicing photography. Lots of interesting things to see and photograph.
Like these girls in the above picture. They look so bored! And they're playing checkers, not chess. They look bored but also a little perplexed. It's checkers, it's not difficult.

As you could have guessed, there is a Queen's Court. It's these costumes I'm referring to when I say I can't imagine the misfortune to wear such garb in such weather. These folks must be really dedicated to do what they do in such weather. Yes, it was hot, but not like some other years.

There were some pretty interesting costumes. I don't remember this from last time, but it's an interesting addition. These fairies played with children and not all of them were "good". There was a Pan-looking creature with horns and kids would run away and hide from him. There was a monkey-like (I think) creature that liked to swing a leg off a tree branch. The fairy in blue was blowing bubbles and the kids loved it. The woman in a black and white costume was supposed to be a spider. I think that's the only spider I haven't been afraid of since I was about four years old. You have no idea how I shriek when I see spiders. The bigger the spider, the bigger the shriek. Seriously, be very thankful you haven't experienced my arachnophobia-fueled shriek.



There were other things that don't really fit with the Renaissance, like a guy in skins and a guy in ostrich feathers. But then again, very little at Renaissance Fair has to do with the actual Renaissance. As a fried of mine suggested, there'd be only booths with books and science, to represent the rebirth of knowledge, art, literature, science, etc. Though, I have to admit, the kaleidoscopes completely fascinate me. And they had plenty of those. Those things are just a marvel.

One of the few things that was authentic was the food. Not the "food court" food where you find tempura and ice cream and chicken wings with fries. The authentic food was for the people who work at the fair. It was cooked in a huge cast iron pots with wood as the source of heat. Check out the recipe below. And there is vegetable soup in that pot.

Two Rivers, Manitowoc, Algoma - Wisconsin

For many years I have wanted to see more of Wisconsin. With an occasional trip to Door County or a rare trip to Wisconsin Dells, my exploration of this beautiful state has been rather limited. So this year I finally decided to do something about it.

This was the inaugural trip of my "Discover Wisconsin" goal. On this particular Saturday in July, I packed up my camera, a lunch, a travel guide I picked up at a rest stop, a GPS and a full tank of gas, and set off on my first adventure.
The first stop was West of the Lake Gardens. Don't let their awful website stop you though. The place itself is great. There are fantastic spaces, all completely landscaped and mesmerizing..


The hanging baskets are glorious orbs of scented color. The glass dividing wall gives you a sense that you're a special observer of something magical, and in essence, you are.


You are perfectly positioned to watch the lake, the birds, and multitude of butterflies that make the garden their playground. The garden is beautifully orchestrated so that your eye has something interesting to discover at every turn.

There is a great variety of sun-loving flowers, roses, scented hedges, a few nooks where you can relax in the cooler hours of the day, watch the coy in the pond or just watch the sail boats on the lake.

There are also some statues, some "formal" gardens, and a cool breeze off the lake. "Formal" gardens are just more architectural and not as curvy as the other ones.



After that, I decided to make my way to the Historic Farm Museum. What can I say? I'm fascinated with machinery and farming. I suggested to my dad that I must have been a farmer in my previous life but he told me that our family tree consists mainly of merchants as far back as we know (and we can trace it back to about the grandparents of his grandparents), with some military thrown in there.
It was a great place for practicing photography. Lots of items, angles, textures, and dust. Achoo! There is a stove in that museum that was used up until 2007, and it's a wood-burning stove (I think). See, I wasn't really paying too much attention to the guide since my mind had the following running through it: Can I reach those tools if I need to? Are those scythes sharp enough if I need a weapon? Drat, I don't think I can reach those.... Anything heavy nearby that I can grab and swing high enough to hit the guy if I need to? Does anyone know I'm here? Do I have reception here? How many exits are here? How can I get out of there quickly? The reason for such thinking is that the guide totally and completely creeped me out. I'm not squeamish or easily frightened, but I do trust my gut. So I kept quite a distance between us and left in a hurry. But you should still go. Just go with someone.

Anyway, the place was full of old, beautiful tractors, wagons, ceramic jars for making butter, an actual butter churner, three rooms set up as they would have been at a particular historical point, tools, rakes, hoes, pitchforks, saws, axes, scythes, and lots of things I can't identify.

After that harrowing experience I decided I wanted to visit a glass gallery in Kiel. I LOVE glass. Not just knickknacks, but actual hand-blown, artisan created, vases. I LOVE VASES! Well, the pretty ones. So I decided to go to Abler Art Glass Gallery. My verdict is "meh". Nothing interesting. No pretty vases, just some glass objects and lots of metal sculptures of birds in the garden. Just not my cup of tea.

Next on my list was The Flying Pig. I read about the place in my brochure, saw the website, got intrigued, and decided that it's a must on my list. My curiosity was richly rewarded. It's a garden store, a garden, a small cafe, a novelties shop, a cute place for kids to be entertained while the parents are shopping, the only place (probably) to get reasonably priced art and items by local craftspeople, etc.

Because the place is a garden shop, it has beautiful gardens with some sculptures and a water feature. They have the cutest garden sculptures; the happiest little gnomes and statuettes and ornaments.
They also have the cutest bird feeders. If my condo place allowed bird feeding, I'd get one. But I didn't leave empty-handed. I got some hand-made soaps! I love stuff like that. I got a bar of Sweet Basil Vanilla, a Garden Balm, and another bar of soap. You can't imagine how good the Sweet Basil Vanilla soap and balm smell! Blissful, peaceful, calming, just what I need before bedtime. It helps that I love basil and have tons of it growing on my balcony.

This delight was then followed by von Stiehl winery in Algoma. It turns out, they were having a Ladies Festival and there was a band, shopping, food, and lots of fun. I've been on many winery tours, but this one was interesting because it was local, it's small winery, and the building was really cool. And for $3.75, a bargain.
The band played familiar tunes, the women danced and shopped. There was, of course, wine tasting. You can taste 5-7 wines for free and I tasted 7. There were a few that I didn't like, but after tasting seven, I bought four bottles. I think that's pretty good.

With the bottles in tow, I decided to take advantage of the empty streets of Algoma and take some pictures of the downtown. It was absolutely charming. The building had murals on the sides, the streets had interesting artistic decorations, and the sky was about to open up. So I decided to head home.

Not quite yet though. In my reading about the area I learned that the region's claim to fame is the ice cream sundae. So I couldn't leave without even one scoop of ice cream. GPS to the rescue and next I know, I'm at the Beerntsens confectionery. Because it happened to be "Krazy Days", the scoop of vanilla was $1.00. Yup, just a dollar. And it was delicious. The shop itself was quite nostalgic with wooden booths, antique-looking display cases, and great atmosphere. Very relaxing to eat your ice cream.

But after this, I really did head home. It was a long and exciting day, having seen wonderful things, experiencing wonderful scenes and scents.

Florida Sunsets

As promised, this post will be about sunsets. They were the most amazing I've ever seen.

I like the softness of this sunset. It was amazing. I use this word a lot. But it's true. People pulled off to the side of the road, their mouths open, just to witness this magnificence. I was one of them.

This one too had my mouth agape. Do you see the couple at the bottom of the picture on the right? That couple had the right idea. They had a couple of cold drinks, a blanket, and sandals.

I had a lot of open-jawed moments around sunset time in Florida. This one is yet another. The clouds this day put on such a display. The picture doesn't do it justice. Just try to imagine a warm breeze gently rolling the waves.

So I really, really liked this spot. And had to endure what I thought were mosquito stings to get the shots here. Turns out, these were not mosquitoes but "sand flies". I still have scars. But isn't this spot pretty? I spent hours at this particular spot, taking pictures, enjoying the sound of the waves, not realizing that I'm being practically eaten alive by the creatures I never new existed.

Look at the clouds! They were so incredibly pink. And look! they're shaped like either a fish or a shell. I vote for shell. You see the conch shell, right? How perfect.

Like I said, I really liked that spot. And just look at those spectacular clouds. Breathtaking doesn't describe it.

After Day 5 in Florida

Uh..... I forgot what I did on which day after Day 5 since it's been about six months since I came back from Florida. But here's a rundown of some other cool things I saw and did.

I spent a day at Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge. Actually, I spent about two days there. On one of the days I took a trolley tour through the refuge and the tour guide was a very nice elderly woman who told us about the habitat and wild life. We saw tree crabs, flying fish (no really, the fish would jump a few feet out of the water and then back in), and all kinds of birds. I really liked the tour but there wasn't enough time for all the pictures I wanted to take, so I came back the next day and spent about 3 hours or so on the grounds.

On one of the evenings, I took a sunset cruise in the refuge. This picture is from that trip. If you're going to take a cruise, I'd highly recommend the sunset one because you see more birds and you see them in a way you wouldn't if it weren't sunset.

I saw amazing birds. I saw blue crabs. I saw sunlight. I saw sea shells. I saw beaches. I saw mangroves. It was absolutely amazing.


There were mangrove islands, sandbars where birds would gather, treetops where the birds would perch.


But the most amazing thing I saw were the sunsets. But I'll have a separate post of photos for that.

Beaches. Did I mention how amazing the beaches are? Did I also mention that they're all made of shell? So you get to see all these beauties everywhere! And I got a decent collection of those. :)

Ft. Myers - Day 5 - in Immokalee

So today I did get up a little earlier than usual and did get out the door earlier than the previous days. I wanted to make sure I made it to the Corkscrew Sanctuary and then had enough time to head back to Sanibel Island for a tram tour with Tarpon Bay Explorers. Since there is about an hour and a half or so ride between the sanctuary and Sanibel Island, I wanted to leave plenty of time for the 2.25 mile walk in the sanctuary and drive back.

The sanctuary was so peaceful and gorgeous and perfect in the morning light. Not too hot even though it was a swamp, but in the shade it was perfect. Though, I must admit, there were mosquitoes. Not as many as I expected but enough. It was so nice. So quiet. There were only a handful of people there and plenty of naturalists on hand to answer questions. I've seen things I've never seen before such as: pink lychen, blue herons, egrets, and other birds I can't identify. The sanctuary also has lots of benches along the 2.25 mile boardwalk allowing the visitor to sit and steep in the glorious scenery. You can sit and enjoy the variety of flora and fauna.

As I struck up a conversation with one of the naturalists (not to be confused with nudists - naturalist are ones who walk around and help identify the birds and such and nudists... well, I think you can guess that one), she suggested that I go to Lake Trafford for an airboat ride instead of the Everglades. Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant. Was she getting a kickback? All possible, but the price made it appealing anyways. And I didn't look forward to the several-hour drive to Everglades City for an airboat ride especially when I knew it would be crowded with hundreds of other tourists.

So, I drove for a half hour (way better than 2 or more) to Lake Trafford and got an airboat ride for about $35 (instead of $140 in Everglades City). Granted, the Everglades City stuff was for a full day, including lunch and a land tour, but I didn't want either of those. I can get my own lunch and I've seen mangroves before and I knew I'd have other little trips.
Here, the ride was an hour long and there were only 5 people in the boat and I had the front seat. I got to see some more amazing birds, some alligators as in the picture, and pretty cool scenery (the second picture is of Lake Trafford).

Up to now it's been a very action-packed morning. Actually, by the time I was done with the airboat tour of Lake Trafford, it was after 1 in the afternoon. I was getting pretty hungry and having an hour's drive looming ahead of me, didn't feel that I had the luxury of taking a chance on a restaurant. So, I went back to the Parrot Key restaurant. Hey, it was good, so why not try something else on the menu? And I did. This time, I tried a Basa sandwich. For those of you out there like who have never heard of Basa, it's a fish. It was perfectly blackened (lightly) and I had it as a sandwich. Their mango bbq sauce that accompanies this sandwich is just outstanding.

Ft. Myers - Day 4 - Somewhat wasted

The day, not me. I got a really late start on the day, but I don't really mind because the reason was a good book. And besides, this is a vacation; no schedules, no timelines, no due dates...

But by the time I got out of the hotel, it was time for lunch. So being a little adventurous I decided to check out The Parrot Key restaurant. I was really hesitant for all the kitch and "tourist trap" written all over it. I mean, how good could the food be at a place that specializes in Pirate dinner cruises and deep sea fishing? But my fears were allayed when I saw several tables full of coast guard members. Coast guard = locals. If locals eat there, I can give it a try.
I was very pleased. So much so that I went back the next day. But on this day, I decided to order a fish sandwich. I am a new convert to fish and I've been experimenting with it, but I figured that while I'm in Florida, I'll have ample supply of fresh fish at restaurants. I've also not had mahi mahi in many years and thought I'd give it a try in the grilled variety in a sandwich. I really liked it. LikeI said above, I was so happy with this restaurant that I came back the next day.

After lunch I thought it would be a good time to explore the region's natural wonders and drove out to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. The drive didn't seem to be that long but it took about an hour. By the time I got there it was just after 4:00 PM and after talking with the man at the front desk he suggested I come in the morning and spend as much time as I'd like. Since the sanctuary closes at 5:30 promptly it would not have left me enough time to walk through and see all it has to offer. So, I got back into my car and drove back.