Only in Wisconsin

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Only in Wisconsin.....can you find New Glarus beer, so we decided to drink as much of it as we could before leaving.  There was a great dive bar called Fathead Steve's in La Crosse, WI where we tried New Glarus Moon Man for the first time.  Donna liked it so much she had it again when eating pizza at Big Al's.

La Crosse is in the geological region called the Driftless Area.  The Driftless Area is about 10,000 square miles encompassing parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa.  It's defining characteristic is that it was not covered by the thick ice sheets that came down from Canada numerous times over the past 2.6 million years. Because it was untouched by glaciers, this area's topography is markedly different from the surrounding areas. Rather than have its hills smoothed overs and river valleys filled with glacial sediment or "drift", the Driftless Area retained its rugged ridge and valley topography.  

As you can see, it's both beautiful and distinct with its craggy forested bluffs.  This is the view from the top of the bluff in Hixon Forest.


Views from Grandad Bluff.  We walked out on the overlook on a particularly windy day, which was a little unnerving.

We went on a ghost tour of La Crosse.  The tour guide told some scary stories of ghosts in the downtown area.  Sorry, no snapshots of ghosts..... Some of his other stories were about Liberace, who performed here many times beginning as a 20 year old not yet famous piano player and Mark Twain, who was marketing his newest book - "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". 

We also took a tour of the Mississippi aboard the paddleboat La Crosse Queen.  We saw barges pushed by tugboats and went through a swing bridge that pivots rather than raising vertically.  This area of the Mississippi is also home to bald eagles.  We saw four eagles and an eagle's nest.  A pair of bald eagles mates for life and lives in the same nest for their entire lives.  Did you know that a bald eagle's nest can weigh more than 1000 lbs?

 


We're heading to Sioux Falls, SD on Wednesday.  We've had a blast in La Crosse.  There will be one more post from Wisconsin of miscellaneous pictures from places we visited.

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