May. Right now I am dreaming in colors of May! And you should too. Come see our crab apple tree in bloom, it’s just amazing.

I won’t ever try to kid you about the depth of my “up north” knowledge, I consider myself quite the newbie actually. But I am like a sponge. I absorb tidbits and they become knowledge, as if I have always known it. And I want to share some bits with you! Here’s what I have on Spring, Up North Wisconsin:

1. SPRING: We are so ready for it! Wisconsin has had some serious winter weather. Come May… We are hungry for mild!

2. The fish are hungry too. Early season fishing is some of the best of the year. I did my best fishing in May and June.

3. The greening of the counrtyside happens before your eyes. It’s really amazing. You can watch the winter browns fade away and the greens pop out as you walk along the trail. Little springlet flowers are there to be found too, if you only look.

4. The sunset impact seems to be even more grand in the spring. Like the world and the atmosphere are bursting anew with the excitement of the promise coming season hints to.

5. The kids are still in school. The kid-friendliest places in the summer are a quiet oasis this time of year, a rich playground for romantics!

6. Rates are very reasonable. You still get all the amenities of summer, but the lake is cold yet, perhaps for most of us still too cold to swim, and the prices reflect this. Great values can be found in May.

7. We have more pet friendly cabin options in May. Choose from #3, 5, 6, and 8. During the high summer season, only cabin 8 is pet friendly.

Head this way and we can have a snow melt party! or wait a little longer and we will have a spring blossom festival! Either way, plan to refresh with us this spring.

Spring! Fill your visions with apple tree blossoms and your nets with fish! Take some time and come watch our snow melt and our spring flowers bloom! Special rates valid for stays of 2 or more nights that depart by May 8th, 2014.

Spring Fever specials come in two sizes:
1.   The “I can only stay two nights” deal good for any cabin and 20% off the already reduced spring price.

2.  The “I can stay longer if you have a good deal special.” This is a 3rd night free special with a fantastic twist….additional nights 1/2 off. With this deal you book and pay the regular rate for the first two nights, we give you the third night free. If you want to stay longer, that’s great, 1/2 off each additional night, limit 27.

Still dreaming about another winter sled trip? We have you covered on that one too, all the way through March!

Give me a call to reserve your dates: 715-479-1040 or Text to: 715-891-9047.

Ice Cave Caper! St. Germain to Bayfield, Caves & Madeline Island

I am inside an icicle!

This weekend I took a road trip with my cousin, Goldie, from Madison to the Apostle Island Ice Caves. It was as simple as tagging her in a reply post on the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce Facebook page and a plan was born.

Brilliantly, once we set the dates, she did all the hard word of picking and reserving a hotel. Much to my surprise, on Madeline Island; a half hour drive from the caves and across the lake…. She thought the caves were off Madeline Island and that this was just the right course of action. And while at first it didn’t seem all that logical, our timing fell perfectly into place and I would not have a thing about our trip changed. Perfect!

I thought we would have to leave at the crack of dawn to allow enough time, but a call to the information hot line had both the Iced Cave and the Ice Road closed from the huge storm the day before. Goldie had an inside tip on parking and let me know that arriving in the afternoon was the better plan anywa and maybe by then the caves would be open. So, we slept in on Saturday, not hitting the highway until after 10 am, Bayfield for lunch at a crazy famingoed restaurant (bravo on the vegan pizza!) around 1 and the cave parking lot by 2:30.

TIP #1: Everyone goes early for parking… they are also done early afternoon, wait to go and park at the trail head. Works also if you are going for sunset photo. It is only in the morning that the parking fills up.

Not only did we park at the trail head, we were the in the first position behind the porta-potties and could not have been any closer to the start of the trail. The folks that did not know this added at least an extra 2 miles to their hike.

TIP#2: There are no potties on the ice. DON’T drink fluids for the hours before you go, wait until you are off the ice. A beer at lunch is NOT a good idea.

TIP#3: The 4th porta-potty on both sides is heated.  Kidding… but just by saying that I started a line at the portables for potty #4. That was fun.

We were both wearing red and thought that would make us easy to find if we were to fall through, but once on the ice there was really no fear of that.

The first cliff you come to is very impressive and sets the tone for the rest of the shoreline walk. Here there were dozens of kids climbing on and around the ice and sliding down where possible. It was quite a bit further before we found a go-into cave, and go in we did. belly wiggling our way through. Once in, there was plenty of room to sit-up and enough light through the ice to see the wonder we were surrounded by. Goldie took a narrated video of this section, if she publishes it, I will link to it here.

We walked further on and found more and more curves, cliffs and  iced embankments. Kids were tucked into every nook and cranny. It was great fun.

But… The fun ended when we had to come back. It was a wind-in-your face-like-a-brick-wall return trip. Winds were screaming at us at over 20 mph and we had to walk a mile + back to parking in the soft, unpacked, newly fallen snow. That was hard. Not impossible. But really hard. And my head gear wouldn’t stay on with the winds. But there were folks much worse off on the return than us, the mom with two kids she was pulling in a sled. I wanted to cry for her. And the dogs. Goodness there were a lot of dogs on the trail. They were not a problem in anyway, but I don’t think any of them liked it as much as their owners might have thought them too. It was cold and difficult and they were all on short leashes, not dog fun.

TIP #5: We saw many people with snowshoes and on the soft snow, that was probably a good idea. Cross country skis too. But, I think most of the time the “trail” is hard packed and then the snow shoes would be more hindering. If you have a choice and it has just snowed, wait a day or two or three. It will get hard packed again.

Bravo! We made it! More to follow in another post….

Special Menu Dining Around the Area

Humus makes a perfect base for a dressing or sauce

Yep, its a big area and I am only going to scratch the surface with this post. First let’s talk about my dining style. I have been vegan for a bit over a year. That means I don’t eat meat or dairy, but I love to eat and I love good food and it isn’t that hard to make happen. My first 6 months or so I was a shy vegan, best  handled by not going out or taking my special menu with me when I had to travel. I am far more confident now in my ability to find something on any menu with a few notes:

If you are vegan or vegetarian, do NOT choose Friday nights for your going out night. This night is typically Fish Fry nights and places where you have already found a favorite menu item or two could well not have anything but the special menu, which you can’t eat any thing from. Wait until any other day of the week

Anywhere that sells pizza can give you a great meal, order the vegetable pizza without cheese. We have trained quite a few pizza places in this style, you will not likely be the first.

Wisconsin leans heavily towards the meat & potato style of meals. As a special menu person, we like some nontraditional choices.  Look at Tapas. Our favorite place is The Vine in Minocqua. They not only have a good wine list, but have several vegetarian, vegan and easily converted choices. It also has a great ambiance. You can find them at: thevineminocqua.com.

I would be remiss not to mention some of our successes in St. Germain:
The Bear’s Den at Black Bear Lodge. They make a fantastic vegan pizza and are very skilled when asked ahead of time to prepare special menu items.

The Wolf’s Den in downtown St. Germain where much as I would have loved bacon and eggs, I stuck with the vegan choices. They did a wonderful pancakes, oatmeal and a fresh fruit that had lots of great fruit, not just melon.

Riverstone Restaurant in Eagle River has a bunch of good vegetarian/vegan or easily adapted choices, some well hidden in the menu text. Look at the mexican dishes, pizza and risotto. They can be found at: riverstonerestaurant.com

Norwood Pines is another fine restaurant with a few well prepared menu items specifically for vegetarian/vegan diners. norwoodpines.com

Pitlik’s Resort has a really good vegetarian wrap. 

Not being mentioned here doesn’t mean anything much and could be just fine with their offerings for vegan/vegetarian. These few noted here are the rare highlights of my first vegan year dining around.

I will note that not enough restaurants realize that what is today an irritating special request is going to be a growing and important aspect of their business. The restaurant that can please the vegan will win in the long run because we are the folks that decide where our meat eating group dines. It is always the special menu diners that choose the restaurant and there are more of us every day.

Oh, and if you are a restaurant owner, chef, cook, server…. salad is not a main course. Even for us it tends to be a starter, just like meat menu folks. Except maybe for lunch. Think outside the box! It’s really not that hard and we will be ever so grateful!

What’s next

I feel like a spring blossom

Now in Wisconsin 15 months, I have just this year started going to things. Hard to believe, as involved as I was in California how long it has taken me to start jumping back into it. I think it was the shock of the unexpected change. I still needed that year to acclimatize to the concept of the move. Especially important since it was really nowhere in my vision of the future. Well, now that I am convinced that I am here, and Victor too, though I think is relationship to Wisconsin has been much quicker because he got a job outside of the home and actually sees people every day! New fresh faces to interact with.

You remember I did get out to the weekly Bingo this last summer and loved it, but there hasn’t been much since. I have gone to the Vilas County Tourism Commission meetings 3 of the last 4 months and plan to continue that. But while somewhat informative, these meetings are not mentally stimulating. This month, though, I have hit the region hard. Lunch & Learn is a 9 week program every other Wednesday and I went to the first one and found some mind stimulating discussion! Yippee! And plan to attend next week Wednesday also.

Well that just led to me looking for more thinkers to interact with! I went to a class on Tuesday in Rhinelander at Nicolet Tech, time management. Guess what, again stimulating… but all information that has crossed my path before…. AND it still isn’t old. I just need to get back into better time habits. So easy to put things off when there are no real deadlines.

Oh, and then what? Another class on Wednesday night, a business consultation on Thursday and I am enrolling in a 12 week program that starts next Thursday and runs through April. I feel like a budding flower and just needed the calendar to turn over to 2014 to get started. OH, look out Up North, I have woken up! LOL

Well, that’s what I am up to, what about you?

10 survival tips for the coldest day of your life

Coldest day survival tips

Have you ever known ahead of time that a certain day was going to be the  _______  of your life? Fill in the blank with: worst, longest, happiest….? Well I knew going into today that it was going to be the coldest day of my life, and I have indeed had some very cold days, living in UP NORTH, Wisconsin as I do.

How does one prepare for the coldest day, when even the days leading up to that one date are cold in themselves? Do you just wing a monumental day such as this, Coldest one?

Well, I can tell you I did a little preparation:

1. Check your calendar. If you have an appointment in the “Big City” of say, Wausau, (an hour and a half away) reschedule it! Especially since the roads one travels to get there are not overly busy and if there is a problem, you only have minutes in the elements to handle it before your brain freezes over.

2. Fill your car with gas. This serves two purposes. First, if you have a problem on the road a full tank of gas can keep that heater going a very long time. Ideally, long enough for help to arrive. Secondly, if you are low on gas and there is even a little water in the tank, that water can freeze and cause problems. If your tank is full the problems are greatly reduced.

3. If your husband invites you to go shopping because all the stores will be empty of shoppers, decline.

4. If it has recently snowed, shovel BEFORE the coldest day gets here. If you have a pumphouse or other such that must be clear if there is a problem, shovel it, chip the ice out, clear it. You do not want to have to do this job on the coldest day of your life if you do have to get into the pump house to turn off the water main if you have a pipe burst. And just when do you think they are most likely to do this bursting? Why on the coldest day of the year, of course!

5. Start your car every once in a while. Let it run a bit. Sure you will use a little gas, but you will also know that it can still start when you need it to.

6. Teach your dog where to go potty. Go with him for a few weeks, monitor him closely. Show him pee/poo areas so he has complete confidence that he can handle the task without your guidance on the big day.

7. Things you schedule for certain days can be done earlier, or later. I suggest earlier so you don’t have them nagging on you and you can just enjoy the coldest day o the year knowing the trash is already out or whatever the task is you do on that day of the week, pick up the mail, wash the car, windex the doors, rake the roof… do it all early.

8. Call your mom. It’s probably the coldest day of her life too and she will be worried about you.

9. Stay inside, this is a perfect day to start planning your next holiday… Think warm locations!

10. Take a nap. It seems so naughty other times of the year, but a home stay on the coldest day of the year just screams nap!

Above all else stay warm!

Enjoy, only two more days just like this one! Cold. One more thing to note…. It might look beautiful out there, sunshining and all. But beware…. Hold tight, stay in and warm!

Football, Trim & Housekeeping

Cabin 2 from the outside, that pull out space is the bath we are residing

Today was a perfect example of the way I expect my days to go. While each is going to be different, today seemed to have a blend of everything.

We did not get up early, it being New Year’s Day and all, but we did get active pretty quick once up and coffeed. I started with responding to emails and pricing out a few cabins, took a call on a left behind Jacket, and opened a cabin for today’s check-in.

Pretzel and I enjoyed a great dog walk twice around the cabin loop and back to the main house in our -5 degreed morning and then met our departing guest to close out their bill. I learned how to use the credit card app on the new cellphone today and did it successfully! TWICE!

Then I headed down to start on housekeeping, but not before stopping in to see Victor in Cabin 2 where he has removed the fixtures and walls to rebuild them with the traditional pine car-siding that we have been using in our improvements. He is down to the final trim pieces. Then we install the toilet, a new sink/vanity/faucet & mirror and towel racks. Victor also fixed a pet pieve of his where the light switch should be at the entrance to the bathroom rather than across the room. We can’t wait to see what our Cabin 2 returning guests have to say.

I move next door to get started on my cabin cleaning with the TV on so I can yell at the news when appropriate. We head back to the front and have a great lunch. After lunch we head to the Den to watch the final quarter of the Badger Capital 1 Bowl Game, which we lost, but we did enjoy the turnover excitement of the last few minutes of the game. It was a non-beer day for me.  (I am Celebrating dry January again this year with 100 near strangers in a Facebook Group!) We are now back at Cedaroma where I am knocking out some month/year end work on the computer while Victor catches up on some of his beauty rest that he loses when working his odd-hour shifts.

In between all that I spent some time with the puppy working on listening skills, a little healing and some name recognition. Seems he doesn’t much like the name Pretzel. He rarely responds to it. We are thinking of giving him a new name and hyphenating it. A name he will respond to. Andy, Vince and Clark are forerunners in the naming process. I don’t get how parents can name their kids at birth without knowing their personalities. I am thankful that I didn’t have to struggle with that challenge.

That’s it for today’s fun….. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

I am a published editor!

I am an Editor… in print!

Today’s mail contained a fantastic surprise from Jeannie Tasker, all the way from California. Jeannie sent me my own copy of the new Yosemite book put out by the park & the conservancy celebrating 150 years of Yosemite National Park with 150 personal stories from visitors like you and me.

Browsing these stories again reminded me of the many evenings I spent reading the original submissions last winter. What will I do with all that time this winter? I am thinking of taking a class through Nicolet College. One night a week, 3 hours and if they assign homework… That would fill the time nicely. Will have to see how that goes with our schedule, We are hoping to travel in April and classes continue into May. But it’s time to get out meeting folks with some similar interests. Maybe a short course for a first time out instead of a full semester. There are plenty to choose from!

 

I

Play Day!

Dark Rider and his dog named Pretzel

After a morning of plowing for Victor and housekeeping for me, we had a bit of a play-day. Victor suited up and road the snowmobile over to the Den and I met him there in the Kia. Pretzel joined us and met a cute 9 year old short legged dog of the same coloring named Hanna. They got on swimmingly, which is better than how he got on with our neighbors big malamute, Harley!

We had a beer and went home for the afternoon where we worked on projects and took a long Christmas afternoon nap. Our wood burning fireplace burped all the smoke into our room and we nearly choked, but made it through that.

A return trip to the Den that evening to hear some open mic and meet some guys named Mike. It was a very sweet way to spend a very special day. Thanks to everyone we met, you were all way cool!

My 2013 Surprise Christmas

Neal and Victor. Merry Christmas from Jim & Sue!

I enjoyed an expected Christmas today. Our friend Jim hosted a holiday luncheon party at the  Den and invited many of the regulars to join him and his wife in a celebration of the season. It was a grand party, attended by a few very special people. The food was native to Jim’s childhood neighborhood in Michigan and delicious. He was even sensitive to my vegan diet. Thanks Jim.

The bar was open to our wildest choice of concoctions. I had beer. Victor did too. Then, Sue played Mrs. Santa and gifts came out for each of us. Incredibly, each was perfectlyl chosen for each of our personalities. I was so very touched. Hat, Scarf & Gloves. I immediately retired the unmatched and holed set to Victor. A beer brewing kit for a guy who loves to creat in the kitchen… Brilliant!

Cheers to Jim, Sue and all of our friends at the Den! You all rock.