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.