Saturday, August 24, 2024

We met at Brenda's at 7am to start our road trip to Wausau to visit our BVE friend Lisa and her husband Randy and their dog Annie.  We stopped half way for a break and arrived at our VRBO around noon.  After we dropped off our bags, we met Lisa and Randy for lunch.  When we asked our waitress if a particular dish was spicy she replied "I'm Mexican so I don't think it is hot, but I have seen people sweat when they ate it."

After lunch we went on our first hike to Van Douser Tower.  We had a great view of the towns of Wausau and Rib Mountain.

Then it was time for a delicious dinner at the Velveteen Plum.  It was warm, both the temperate and the food.  As the waitress repeatedly told us that everything they serve has a little heat.  The food was delicious and the sunset was beautiful.  After dinner we went back to Lisa and Randy's and Randy showed off his bartending skills making us chocolate martinis.

Sunday, August 25, 2024

While the Catholics attended Mass, Sue and Julie got breakfast ready.  When they got back we ate and then Lisa and Randy came over to get out day started.  The first stop was Monk Botanical Gardens. 

This was a beautiful garden.   Lovely plants and art work.  There is a Preschool on the property along with a huge vegetable garden.  This was when we decided that Randy was an honorary BVE!  The butterfly chairs didn't look it, but they were very comfortable.

We ate a picnic lunch at the shelter house near the vegetable garden. Unfortunately after lunch we had to say good-bye to Sue.  She was not able to stay for the whole trip and was heading back home early. 

Our next stop was Yawkey House Museum.  The Yawkey's were timber barrens.  It was a beautiful mansion and gardens.  Lisa stayed with Annie on this tour.

Then it was time to go to downtown Wausau and have the best ice cream ever at Sweet's on Third.  It was so good we ended up going again the next day.  While we were down there several of us got our wings!  And Brenda found her family's building.

Monday, August 26, 2024

The weather called for a hot day, so we decided to hike early to beat the heat.  Lisa had an appointment and wasn't able to join us, but Randy and Annie stopped by the house after breakfast.  We headed to the Rib Quarry Trail, which was just a ways up the road next to our house.  On the way to the trail we ran into a crew taking down some trees and making road repairs.

The views were beautiful and worth the slight climb to get there. 

After a couple rounds of Golf, we headed back downtown to get Ice Cream again.  Followed by Pizza for dinner.  We like to eat dessert first to make sure we have room for it!

Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Lisa had another appointment in the morning, so after breakfast Randy and Annie came over to lead us to 9 Mile.  This has lots of trails for hiking, mountain biking, snow shoeing and cross country skiing.  The weather looked like rain, but we headed off and hoped for the best.  We got about a half a mile down the trail when the sky opened up and it started to rain.  By the time we got back to the car we were soaked. 

We went back to the house to get dry.  While we did the weather started to clear.  So we packed our lunches and got ready to leave again.  We had a pontoon reserved and we were looking forward to the afternoon on Lake Dubay.  We were in good hands with Captain Randy at the helm.

That evening we were back at the river to watch the Wausau Water Walkers perform daring stunts on water skis.  Followed by more toasting and cards at the house afterwards.

Wednesday, August 28

We are heading back today so we all got packed and had our clean out the fridge breakfast.  Since we got rained out of our hike at 9 Mile the day before, we decided to go back and try again.  This time we really got to experience the trail.  Annie had to lead and loved to fetch sticks the bigger the better.

After the hike it was time to head back to Lisa and Randy's.  It was hard to say good-bye, we had so much fun.  After we left Wausau we headed LaCrosse to visit a cousin of Peggy's and a friend of Connie's

We met Connie's friend, Ann at Granddad Bluff Park Gateway Trails.  This was a short hike to an overlook of LaCrosse - beautiful view.  It was hot, half of us took the shady route in the trees and the rest the more direct route on the road.  We all ended up at the same place for a group shot. 

That night we met up with Peggy's cousins and her god-daughter.  We had dinner at Red Pines Bar & Grill.  The food, service, views and company were all top notch and we had a great evening.

Thursday, August 29

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel.  It was raining but supposed to clear off by 10 so we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some Spotted Cow for home and found a quilt shop that opened at 9:30.  Quilt shops are Peggy and Julie's happy place, but this one was so fun that both Connie and Brenda caught the bug.  Before leaving Lacrosse we took a walk on the Riverwalk.  We didn't stay too long.  A Trump Rally was scheduled later that afternoon, and we didn't want to get caught in the traffic.

The next stop was Decorah.  We had lunch at Toppling Goliath Brewery.  Then took some short hikes to a water falls and the ice cave.  From there it was just a short drive home.