Camping In Wisconsin

A couple of weekends ago we went camping in Wisconsin with my mom and aunt and their husbands. It was fantastic! We stayed at Lake Wissota State Park, which I enjoyed far more than the campsite we stayed at in Minnesota. For one, we didn't have a gravel problem! Second, there were tons of trees; you couldn't even see the campsites on either side of us. That's how campsites are supposed to be set up (disclaimer: I still had fun camping in MN, I was just disappointed with the facilities of the place I chose). If we do another birthday camping trip for Nick I'm going to plan it in Wisconsin.

Our spacious campsite. Yes, we were allowed to have two tents on the same one.

The weather was just right too. On Saturday morning we got up and decided to take a bike ride. We rode all the way to Chippewa Falls (about 8 miles on a paved path and some roads). We then ran into some other bikers and asked them what was ahead; they told us that the Leinenkugel Brewery was only about two miles further. Of course we decided it was worth the ride! We made it there and signed up for the next tour. It was a nice relaxing hour-long break waiting for it to start. Everyone but me got to drink free samples of beer (I didn't have my ID so they wouldn't serve me even with my mom there! They gave me root beer as a consolation beverage). Nick was very excited to find that they had a creamy dark beer.

Karin and Mom waiting for the tour to start. What a fun hat!

The tour was very interesting. Leinie's is a much, much smaller facility than the Budweiser plant we toured in St Louis! I even won a key chain by being the first to yell out the answer to our tour guide's random trivia question (what is their most popular beer?). I was also amazed to find that all the beers that they sell have only been in production since the mid-1990s - they did a complete overhaul then and got rid of all the older flavors. After the tour who did we run into but the friendly bikers who had told us how to get there! They had been riding away from the plant when we last saw them, but made a big loop and just happened to be riding past it at that moment in time.

Our group outside the brewery (taken by the friendly bikers)

At first, the ride back seemed much faster than the ride there, but that ended once we got back to the front gate of the state park. It felt like we should be almost back but in fact it was two more miles of riding! I didn't think I'd make it but of course I did. The entire trip was about 20 miles; a good chunk of exercise! We made up all the calories we burned off by eating pudgy pies and s'mores though!