Fall Color Tour 2010

We headed out last Saturday to check out the fall color.  It was quite warm, up into the 80's which is completely NOT fall weather in Wisconsin.  Some trees around us were changed so we traveled west in search of more.  This was an impromptu trip, and Chad thought of the idea of going to Mill Bluff State Park.  Zack wanted to go geocaching and with Chad's new smart phone we didn't even need to look up any coordinates before we left the house.  I must admit I am addicted to his phone, it kept me very occupied on the trip.  If a question came up about lunch, directions, information...I used the phone to look it up.  It's magical!

We grabbed a late breakfast on the way out of town at Barriques.  It was good, and I ordered a miel(espresso with milk, honey and spices) and it came with a design on top.  Cool!  We also picked up a cheese plate for lunch later.  This turned out to be a huge disappointment.  It was a bunch of bread rounds, half toasted with garlic, some cherry chutney, and ONLY 3 SMALL PIECES OF CHEESE.  The size of the pieces was not much bigger than I would cut at home to put out on a plate.  This IS Wisconsin, and I think I deserve more cheese...especially enough to go with the amount of bread.  Otherwise, don't give me so much bread!  It was dry bread too; Zack the bread lover wouldn't even eat it.

The color improved during the entire trip, and the state park had great color.  Unfortunately, the park was closed for the season.  You would think they would stay open until the end of October to allow visitors to have services while enjoying the views from the bluffs.  The pump water still worked.

We parked along the road and headed up a trail that took us to the top of Mill Bluff.  223 stone steps took us to the top of the bluff, where we hung out for awhile and enjoyed the views.

We also thought the cache was up here since it was called Mill Bluff cache, but after checking out on top and then on a trail below the bluff we knew we would have to find another bluff on the other side of the interstate.

There is a train track that goes right across the road from the park.  The kids heard a train coming and watched for it.  Thinking I would get a cute picture of Zack watching the train go by, I waited as it got closer...then closer....then closer....then the train and it's horn got too loud for him and he sprinted in the other direction...

 After eating our small lunch, we headed over to another area of the park and hunted the cache.

On the way home we stopped at a rather unusual ice cream shop in Mauston.  It advertised 24 flavors of soft serve and they had that and so much more.  Most of the menus were written with marker on construction paper.  I had a coconut soft serve cone.

Since it was such a warm day I thought we should eat out on a patio for supper.  We headed down to State Street to The Tiki Shack.  Chad and I spotted this place earlier in the summer when we saw patrons outside eating buckets full of crab legs.  State Street was hopping with people eating outside, post-game Badger fans hanging out, and high school kids dressed for Homecoming Dances on their way to their dinner destinations.  Chad waited patiently(?) while I took a picture with his phone.

After dinner we cruised around the Capitol to further enjoy more of the day.