We got on our way about 15 minutes later than anticipated – but for me that’s pretty good.
Since part of this whole plan of ours is honoring our parents/grandparents and our “older” generation, we decided that the inaugural “‘Splorin’ Saturday” should start with a breakfast stop at one of the places Tammy spent a lot of time at as a kid – the Oasis cafe in Stillwater, Mn. Auntie Cec and Uncle Barney used to take us there all the time when visited them. It still looked the same from the outside and I felt a little catch in my throat as we walked up to the door. I just imagine aunt Cec poking my dad in the arm up in heaven and saying “look at that Denny, Tammy Jo remembers.” 
I know the restaurant has expanded, but when you walk in, it looks EXACTLY THE SAME. There were a few people ahead of us and when the host asked if they wanted to wait for a table, he asked for their favorite cartoon character instead of a name. 🙂 We were lucky and got to sit at the counter by all the action. The menu was huge as always and I was so excited to see breakfast salads! I had the original – spinach, roasted peppers, onions and mushrooms, bacon, walnuts, bleu cheese and 2 over easy eggs! So good. Mike had eggs benedict with portabello mushrooms and a side of bacon. We were hoping the mushrooms were in place of the english muffin but nope. Now i have no problem just putting the english muffin aside if i get a benny – but not Mike. 🙂 He did skip the fruit since it was mostly grapes, apples and watermelon. (We need to remember to ask for berries.) There is no doubt why this place is very busy. The staff was running around like crazy but with smiles the whole time – and a bit of teasing back and forth – and the food was THAT GOOD! The coffee cups looked like they came out of my mom’s kitchen – each one unique and fun. My only “complaint” was that the iced tea came from the fountain and not fresh brewed. But given that we were going ‘splorin’ later in the day – it’s probably a good thing anyway.
After our hearty breakfast, we ran to Hudson to spend some time with Mike’s dad. It is hard to have much of a conversation with him, but he listens pretty intently and interjects an “aye-yi-yi” once in awhile. We talked with another resident, Faye, for quite some time and learned she knew some teachers in Eau Claire (she was pretty sure I should know them too) and had a cabin in Balsam Lake where we were having dinner. I was glad to notice Ray’s cough from last week was gone and he sounded much better.
We were then off to explore Wisconsin’s Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls, WI. This is a park we know very well – we have hiked, camped and canoed here since we were in high school. Exploring (sorry, splorin’) this time was going to be different. With our newly re-found energy, we were going to walk and hike the whole park. 
We were a little worried the trails might be wet, muddy, and just plain soggy, especially with all the snow melt and 2+ inches of rain a day or two ago. Mike asked the attendant who sold us our daily park sticker and he told us “All the trails are open and in good shape.” Mike specifically asked if they were muddy and he blatantly lied to us by saying “Nope!” (ominous foreshadowing). Pulling in we stopped at the very “top” of the park at the Ice Age Trail visitors’ gift shop. We had already decided (ok, Mike had decided because he always has to have a plan…) that we would leave the car there and hike down to the beautiful St. Croix River via the hiking trails. Trail Map
We set off on the Skyline Trail which was supposed to take us down the ridge line eventually taking us to the campground areas. We were on the trail about 3 minutes and ran into a lady heading the opposite direction. She told us that no one was on the trail ahead of us and that it was “a little bit muddy” (another blatant lie). We quickly found sections of the trail that were very muddy, but it was easy enough to give them a little bit of a wide berth and we managed to stay nice and dry — not a problem we thought. Well a little while later we found large stretches of the trail that were very muddy and trying to go off trail to get around them was a bit challenging. We finally came to one section of the “trail” that actually was more like a running stream. Attempting to go around the outside of it, Mike stayed mostly dry because of his large stride, Tammy — not so much. Half way through the mud claimed her shoe. She did an excellent balancing act on one foot while pulling the shoe out of the mud and getting it back on. She was a little irked by that point in time, but got over it quickly enough. 
That was the epitome of the rest of our hiking day — tons of beauty and mother nature — tons of muddy spots on all the trails. Making it to the end of that trail we were treated to a very low lying swampy area that had, to our ears, about 1.3 million frogs frolicking about. It was unbelievable just how loud they were.
We then took a nice level trail (Silverbrook Trail) out to a waterfall that was just beautiful. Still lots of muddy spots on the trails, but we were experts at getting around, or through, those by now. 
We only had about 4 hours that we could spend at the park before we had to leave for dinner and we were about 2 hours in to that time. We decided to forego walking all the way to the river and start heading back toward the park entrance — we figured we might need the full two hours since we had to make it back up all the hills we just came down. We started the journey back up on what was supposed to be an easy loop trail around Lake O’ the Dalles. It would have been an easy trail had the water in the lake not been so incredibly high due to the snow and rain. We quickly found there was not just mud in the middle of the trail here, but instead there was actual lake in the middle of the trail. In several spots the trail just went right off into the lake only to re-emerge at some point in time up the trail (which you couldn’t see). So, this quickly became “make your own trail” day at the park for us. Up and over rocks, through deep thickets of brush, being followed by a little white dog named “Charlie” who apparently wanted to follow us instead of his owners. But we made it through and had a blast while doing it.
We now were in the beach parking lot and had to take the “Meadow Valley Trail” that would take us most of the way back to the car. That sounds so peaceful and lovely, although they describe it like this: “Steep, switchback Talus Slope Trail descends the bluff…”. Well we knew we were ascending instead of descending, but… The trail started looking ominous immediately when, at the bottom, was a narrow valley between the two rock-filled sides. Again the trail here was completely under water, a foot or two in a couple of spots, and at least 4 to 6 inches for about an eighth of a mile. No worries Mike led us up and over the rocks on one side of the trail and it was a blast making it to the dry point of the trail without ever getting our feet wet again.
This reminded us so much of our earlier days spent climbing up cliffs and over rock falls in this park and Tammy actually exclaimed “I feel like we’re 30 again…” (insert more ominous foreshadowing music here). The trail led through some gorgeous meadows (like it’s name implies) before dropping us at the bottom of the “ascent” part. This section was basically straight up climbing up rock steps that again were a lot easier for Mike with his long legs. Half an hour later we were at what we though was the top (more foreshadowing) and we needed a break. We sat for 5 or 10 minutes enjoying the view (which is incredible BTW). Tammy now took back the comment about feeling like 30 again and adjusted the age a little bit upwards. Mike was a bit winded too, but after that quick break we were both ready to complete the last bit of the trail to make it back to the car. While that “last little bit” was no longer climbing up shear rock faces, it was still decidedly uphill. We were very happy to see the car sitting in the parking lot and to get some water!!
We then hopped in the car and drove down through the park (that we had just hiked down and then back up again) to enjoy the river view which we had really yet to see, except through some of the trees at the top of the bluff. We sat at a picnic table and enjoyed the nice Spring sunshine. (Oops, should have remembered the sunscreen.) Mike peeled his shoes and socks off his blistered feet (we had walked 10 miles on Thursday and Friday, and now put on almost 6 at the park). After enjoying a quick rest and a short walk along the river, we got back in the car and changed out of our yucky hiking clothes for our clean Supper Clubbing clothes.
The Indianhead Supper Club in Balsam Lake Wi, is a traditional supper club with a lot of history and no doubt a lot of memories for a lot of people. It was built in 1939 and much of the decor is original. You can read all about it here: www.indianheadsupperclub.com 
We were seated at a small table for two right across from a big family of 12 that was celebrating grandpa’s birthday and at least one engagement. It was hard not to listen in to their conversations and I admit to playing with the little baby, James, a bit. We learned that the Indianhead was the first place the daughter dined with her husband when she brought him to town for the first time. Mike said they reminded him of “On Golden Pond” which still kind of confuses me, but it was fun enjoying our dinner “with” them nonetheless. We decided to save the carbs and had no-sugar cocktails and Tammy stepped out of her comfort zone so we could have the calamari appetizer too. It helped that it was served with a very good basil aioli. It’s still not her favorite but it’s an option. Mike decided to skip the prime rib and we both had surf and turf and the grilled veggies of course. (steak and scallops for me and steak and walleye for him.) The food was great and our server was just fantastic. She made sure we got our order in before the big family, but didn’t rush us at all. That is one of the best things about our supper club experience -the servers. It is very obvious that they love their jobs and we always have such nice conversations. The place was definitely busy so I am glad that we had early reservations. And after our long day of “splorin’, we made it home right as night fell.
Splorin' Saturday 