Happenings in May

 Hello Friends,

We have been hanging out with our family. 

I shared our Birthday party at Pattison State Park here.

I am going to share a few more photos from that adventure, starting with this cupcake. I used the recipe I shared from our Easter Cake, but this time I used raspberries.

Click here for the recipe!

 

Photos from our hike... beware of the snake!

 

 

 

On to the shores of Lake Superior.. freighter sightings!!  

 

 

Mother's Day Sunday we spent the day with the boys. We picnicked at Irvine Park in Chippewa Falls. Then we went on to visit Leinenkugel's Brewery. We sampled six beer flavors in what they call a, Craft Your Flight. 

 

 

We picked out the following beers or mixes...

Honey Lemon Light

Grapefruit Shandy

Patio Saison

Jacob Spring Brewery Ale

Fuzzy Bear ... which is a mix brewology of Juicy Peach + Berry Weiss

Bumble Bee ... which is a mix brewology of Honey Weiss + Dark Lager

 

Below I am reading the blends as we go around and try them.

 

Leinenkugel's gifted all mom's a Crowler to go. You got to choose the beer you wanted. I love the Grapefruit Shandy. It is very refreshing.

We ended our day with a walk at Big Falls in Eau Claire County. 

♥

Carla

On the Road Friday ~ Black River, Superior, Wisconsin

Welcome, to On the Road Friday, today is the day we take a little trip. We are going to hike down to the Black River in Northern Wisconsin. 

 Sit and relax as we hike on a frozen river. Yes, we are going to hike on a frozen river. And your are saying,"Carla, that does not look frozen, with water gushing!"

The Black River is located in Northern Wisconsin. The Black River is called Mucudewa Sebbe in Ojibwa, which means "black" or "dark". The root beer tint of the water comes from tannin leached from the decaying leaves and roots of vegetation along the river's path.

 The Great Explorers.

The river bank.

 On a river island.

 Ice formations.

  

Tracks...of more crazy people hiking on a frozen river.

 Cracks in the ice.

 My brave dog, Molly, the Boston Terrier.

Thank you for joining us for a river walk.

If you visit Pattison State Park, Wisconsin. Take the Big Falls Hiking trail to get down to the river. It is a beautiful trail in all seasons.

 

On the Road Friday ~ Pattison State Park, Superior, Wisconsin

It is Friday. Today we are taking a trip to Pattison State Park, Superior, Wisconsin.

Pattison State Park is the home of Big Manitou Falls, the highest waterfall in Wisconsin.

 165 - foot - high Big Manitou Falls

Frozen on the outside, but you can hear the water gushing under the ice.

 Pattison State Park is full of history and beauty.

Civilian Conservation Corps helped shape Pattison State Park what it is today.

Camp Pattison

Until 1935, facilities at Pattison were modest: a small picnic area, some wooden overlooks, pit toilets and a ranger's cabin. Visitors camped on the lawn and parked along the road. A dam formed in 1928 had enlarged Interfalls Lake, causing a muddy and weedy shore.
One of the programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to end the Great Depression of the 1930s was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) [exit DNR]. Young, single, unemployed men were put to work on conservation projects. On July 25, 1935, Camp Pattison Company 3663 of the CCC was established at what is now Little Manitou Falls picnic area. For the next seven years, thousands of men labored to transform the landscape into what is now the main park area.
The CCC put in sewer and water systems, removed old roadbeds and abutments, planted trees, landscaped and built three miles of foot trails.
During the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps quarried rock and chiseled it into blocks to create the park shelter building, nature center, bathhouse and former office building.
The CCC members began work on the campground and pedestrian underpass. One of the most ambitious projects was draining Interfalls Lake, rerouting the river channel and hauling sand from Lake Superior's shore to make the beach.
Once World War II was underway, the labor shortage ended the CCC program. Many CCC veterans often return to Pattison and reunions have been held at the park. The CCC left a legacy of beautiful buildings, practical facilities and a changed landscape in its wake. A booklet detailing the history of Camp Pattison is available at the park office. 

From Wisconsin DNR History Website

 

  

The beauty of a frozen waterfall.

Big Manitou Falls ~ January 24, 2015

 "There is more beauty than we can measure in this world of ours"

Gladys Taber

Thank you for coming along today.

Have a great weekend.

Pattison State Park

Sharing Wisconsin's highest waterfall with you.

Check out the summer posts

Summer Waterfall 

Pattison State Park features the highest waterfalls in Wisconsin and the fourth highest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains. Big Manitou Falls is 165 feet high, and Twin Little Manitou Falls is 31 feet high. This 1,436-acre park also has a lake with a beach, a nature center, camping, nine miles of hiking trails and abundant wildlife.

This was our first trip to see Pattison in the winter! Wow, I would recommend it. It is a short hike to the waterfall. 

 The ice formations are amazing. The foam from the waterfall freezes. It creates such a neat look.

 While growing up my sister and I would get Grow It Kits for Christmas. We would build a tree or mountain and put some sort of liquid on it. Over night foam stuff would grow. I hope you know what I am talking about. :)

The frozen foam in the waterfall reminded me of the stuff that would grow.

  "Tis merry, merry in the spring, And merry in the summer time, And merry when the great winds sing through autumn's woodland brown. And in the winter, wild, and cold. Tis merry, merry too."

William Howitt

Dreaming of a White Winter

We had planned to visit family this past weekend. But my parents called and encouraged us to stay home. Wisconsin got hit with some very cold weather this weekend. 

I can get down in the dumps during this time, because I do love winter. Because I love snow.

 Our ski trip 12/12/12

Our first good snowfall for the 2012/2013 winter.

 Pattison State Park

I have done several posts about Pattison State Park, it is one of our favorites. It is the home of Wisconsin's largest waterfall.

Enjoying summer at Pattison State Park

 See anything different on this tree? All three of my boys skied past, and I yelled out, "Guys, look at this tree."

 The river, always changing, yet the same. The animals still come to it, we could see the tracks. We could hear some water flowing under the ice. I love to stop and listen to the winter woods. It is full of beauty. Different beauty then summers busy beauty. Winters beauty is peace.

 I think the guy with the Sharpie was really starting to have too much fun.

Dreaming of Snow this cold Tuesday morning. 

Because we did not travel to see family, I called instead. Talking with my Grandma, she said, "You know, I think we had more snow years ago."

She is not the first person to share that with me in the past week.

I wonder what type of weather pattern we are going through? 

Pattison State Park part 2

The beauty of nature, is amazing to me. I am sharing some of the photos of our Father's Day Camping trip to Pattison State Park. We had rain everyday, everything looked so pretty with mist on it. 

Friends at Pattison State Park

We made a few friends at Pattison State Park. Up close photos of them are coming up...

This little guy was on our rug in the morning. I was the first to see him, and saved him from being stepped on. We named him Mr. Snail/Slug.

On a hike to the bottom of the river gorge, I found this young lady. I will call her a lady, because I think she will turn into a beautiful butterfly. She just might fly over to Cameron, Wisconsin and sip some nectar from my flowers.

This is a stick...with stuff on it...now check this out...

It really is a caterpillar of some kind. I need to do some research on it. It looks just like the stuff on the stick! I flipped him over to have proof that he was a caterpillar.

If you know what this guy turns into - please share!