2016 summer vacation, part 1: Wisconsin

Beth shows her disapproval of wearing a coyote pelt...  This blog post is the first part of the tales of our summer 2016 vacation to Wisconsin and Michigan.  As soon as Hope finished her 4-H cooking camp, we hit the road.  Departing early on a Friday morning, we drove hard to arrive at our first destination, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.  Ste. Genevieve is a scenic, historic community along the Mississippi River an hour or so south of St. Louis.  One of the oldest permanent settlements along the big river, as its name implies, Ste. Genevieve was founded by the French in the 1700s, which shows in the architecture that remains:

(The round disk in the wall of the building above is a millstone).  There is a state park that has preserved a number of these historical buildings, and for a small fee we had an entertaining tour provided by an enthusiastic guide; below, he tells us of the earlier French family that established a major trading operation (which reached down into Arkansas):

We also visited one of the oldest remaining homes, which was set up to show the construction techniques of the French settlers.  While it did not look impressive, this house was built in 1792, and has thus stood for almost 225 years!  Below, Hope and Stephen admire the wall construction:

We spent our first night in a hotel in Peoria, Illinois, and departed early the next morning for Galena, Illinois, to meet up with my brother Bob and his beau Nancy and tour some of the historic sites and shops of this old lead mining town.  Below, we walk past some of the gardens leading up to the home of President U.S. Grant:

President Grant (and, before that, General Grant) was given this very nice home by a number of supporters from Galena at the end of the Civil War.  Grant had previously lived elsewhere in Galena during his struggles between military stints, and spent some (but not a lot) of time living here after the war.  Below, we await a tour of the home:

One of the neatest things about this lavishly decorated home is that most of the decorations and furniture are original items purchased by or given to the Grant family.  As you can see in the picture below, a large number of these are on display:

The community of Galena also has many other old homes date to the 1800s, and the downtown is a busy historic district, full of new business in old buildings.  Below, Kenny and his Uncle Bob get ready to sample a hot sauce from one business that catered in this product:

Kenny and I later roasted our tasted buds sampling one of their hottest sauces which used the infamous "ghost" pepper--OUCH!!!  After a brief visit and lunch in downtown Galena, we ventured northeastern a couple hours, stopping at a couple cheese houses and antique shops along the way before meeting up with most of my siblings, some other family, and friends at Bistro 101, the restaurant where my brother-in-law Mark Valaskey is the head chef.  (Shameless plug--excellent food and service, if you are ever in the area and are looking for a good place to eat, try them out! http://www.hoffbistro101.com/).  Mark is the husband of Laurie, my youngest sister (pictured on the far right, sitting next to my older sister Lisa and youngest brother Bill; Bill's partner Scott and Hope sit on the left):

We had a surprise visitor at the bistro that night--the "other" Laurie Bragg...actually now Laurie Burgos...This Laurie is my first cousin, and I hadn't seen her in many years.  She brought her youngest son, and joined us for part of dinner:

After another wonderful dinner and an enjoyable evening (and next morning) of visiting with my sisters Laurie (and Mark) and Lisa and brothers Bob and Bill (and Scott), we started on our next part of this adventure--a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game with my brother Bob.  Below, we arrived at Miller Park early enough to get lunch before settling in for the game:

Even though Hope was REALLY nervous about our upper deck seating location (right on the rail) and the fact that the Brewers lost the game when their late rally fell short, we had a good time.  In the picture below, the gentleman on the left of Bob is his buddy Charlie:

The post-game highlight was that the Brewers let the kids run the bases, while their companions could walk alongside of the field and take their pictures.  Hence, we got to take this picture from the playing field of Miller Park:

We then joined Bob for an evening of fishing in a pond on Nancy's property:

Lots of panfish were available to be caught, including this "slab" bluegill caught by Stephen:

We spent a night visiting with Bob and Nancy, and then drove up to Rhinelander the next morning to spend the rest of the Rhinelander visit with my parents.  Below, Grandpa shows Stephen how he puts together one of his Facebook group lessons:

I took advantage of my visit to the Northwoods to explore some stands of timber I wanted to see, and use my laser rangefinder to measure tree heights.  Below is a picture of some of the impressive eastern white pines in one of these stands near Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin:

One of the stands I visited had a number of small patches of timber that had blown down in a severe thunderstorm just a few days earlier:

I also managed to get in a good day's fishing with my buddy Kevin, which included several nice largemouth bass (like the one pictured below):

While in Rhinelander, we did some of the classic tourist things, such as visiting the logging museum with my mom (second from left):

Below, Stephen stands next to a late 1800s steam hauler--think of a steam locomotive on a bulldozer-type track with skis on the front):

And, of course, a visualization of the legendary Hodag!:

My dad was busy with his latest home project--he's building up the ground to have a metal carport installed later this summer:

That man loves his little tractor!  On the last full day of our Rhinelander visit, we managed to get my dad off of the tractor for part of it, and went up to Crystal Lake north of Arbor Vitae (in Vilas County).  The kids played in the water and on the sand beach there:

while I snuck off (again) to measure and photograph some more beautiful large white and red pines near Woodruff:

The next morning, we piled into the van and drove east across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (getting pasties for lunch) and then south through the Lower Peninsula to Whitmore Lake to start our visit with Hope's dad (and other relatives).  But that tale will have to wait--it is still being written!