Minnesota Vacation Day 2

After a great night sleep, we woke the boys to head off for our second day of car travel. We hadn’t made it to any cheese store in Madison, so we stopped in at our old standby, Humbird Cheese, right by the highway in Tomah. About 12 years ago, they tore down the old building that we stopped at at least once each year (sometimes we stopped on our way up AND back). The woman that was working had been there for over 30 years, so we talked to her for a bit about our memories of the old tasting room. Even though we had barely any space left in the car (besides in our laps!), we bought some cheese.

Our next stop was Leinenkugel Brewing Company in Chippewa Falls. We squeezed into the last tour that was available before noon. As we were waiting for the tour, we found out the plant wasn’t even in production that day! We considered leaving, which Jeremy was fervently in favor of. We finally decided to take the tour anyway. Jeremy had gotten his hopes up that we could leave, and when the tour was starting, he announced to everyone around him that this was his worst day ever. The tour was okay, but not nearly as interesting as it would have been on a day that the bottling was happening. I did get 3 of my 4 samples of beer. I tried Summer Shandy (silly, because I’m well aquainted with that one!), Leinie’s Original, and a combination of their dark beer and a wheat beer (very tasty!). Mom tried 2 samples, and the boys got some root beer.

The tour guide told us about a restaurant called the Fill In Station. Her endorsement of the fried cheese curds clinched it for us. The curds were amazing, and my wild rice soup was good, too. It did take a long time, so we were very anxious to get on the road. It suddenly seemed that there was a long way to go. Mom drove from Chippewa Falls to Duluth, then I took over after a stop at Starbucks. We stopped at Zups in Tower for milk, bread, and eggs. After all that, we arrived at the cabin around 6 PM. The cabin was sweltering hot when we walked in. The boys were a big help unloading the car. It wasn’t too horrible, and I was able to dig their swimsuits out so that we could get in the lake. Mom actually got in, too, which shows how hot it was! The thermometer by the boathouse read 90 degrees at 7:30 PM. The boys took a small ride in the paddleboat. Since we didn’t have the right life vests out yet, they had to stay by the dock. We all went in after 8PM to fix BLTs for dinner. After dinner we played Pinochle, and everyone went to bed.