It was Family Weekend at Marquette University this weekend. We wanted to spend time with Carrie and her roomates (as well as buy them food and stuff) but we also did not want to miss out on a chance to do some Splorin’. This made for a perfect time to do some abbreviated Splorin’ at a state park that was not up to the task of taking us a full day of hiking.
We usually start off Splorin’ Saturday with breakfast at a mom and pop type restaurant, but since we were in Milwaukee and had Carrie and her roommate, Elena, along (YAY!!) we went to more “urban” place – First Watch in Brookfield, WI. It is a wonderful restaurant — Mike had been there with the kids before, but Tammy had never been there. The conversation at breakfast was much more lively than a typical Splorin’ Saturday as Carrie and Elena are non-stop energy and plepping (and we wouldn’t want it any other way). We didn’t get to do any eavesdropping this time, but I am sure that other tables were eavesdropping on us! Mike kind of had his usual — “The Works” omelette had all the meats plus onions, tomatoes and mushrooms, and Tammy kind of had her typical — “Fresh Market Veg” omelette with zucchini, mushrooms, shallots, tomatoes and kale. Both came with greens on the side, so we didn’t even have to ask for a salad!! The greens were supposed to have a lemon dressing – Mike apparently had one little splash on his, Tammy — not so much. It was a nice breakfast with good company.
After breakfast we dropped Carrie and Elena off at their apartment — Carrie tutors at Kosciuszko Community Center from 10 – 12 every Saturday, and Elena had some photo shoots to cover for the Marquette Wire. Then we headed north to Harrington Beach State Park, about half an hour away. We knew we would have about 2 hours to hike before we had to head back to pick up Carrie from her tutoring gig, so we didn’t waste any time. This was going to be one of our chillier splorin’ days, but we figured hiking would warm us up — no sweatshirts or jackets for us! (It was in the upper 50’s but thankfully the potential for rain had dropped to about zero per cent from the 40% we had been seeing all week.) “The Plan” had us just doing one long hike without a break– well, not really long by ‘splorin’ standards anymore – Mike figured it was just under 4 miles. Well, we don’t have much time — let’s go!!!
Before we even left the car we were surprised at how loud the wind was where we parked. It really seems to just be roaring through the trees. We took off and headed straight for Lake Michigan. We quickly found out the noise was not the wind howling, but rather all the waves breaking on the beach. It was gorgeous….and cold. Whew!! We wish we would have had a sweatshirt or jacket!! But we’re tough — we then headed down the trail which kept us just off the beach (but still in the wind). We made it about a third of a mile down the beach to a point sticking out into the lake; it offered a great spot to look back up the beach.
That was the end of that trail so we turned back inland to Quarry Lake. There is an accessible trail all the way around the lake. Since it once was an active quarry (imagine that) it was amazing to see the steep edges. The water was very clear, it looks like it is very deep, but apparently it is only 6 feet deep at the maximum. This picture is looking down in to the water,
That was kind of disappointing to find out — we were thinking it was hundreds of feet deep. The trail wound along the edge and offered great views of the lake and a family doing some fishing. One of the boys was even in the water up to about his knees fishing — he was pretty brave and must have been pretty cold.
After going part of the way around Quarry Lake, we were quickly on the Whitetail Trail and moving back towards the ranger station. There were a lot of purple flowers everywhere along the path. Even some with wildlife on them.
The Whitetail trail quickly gave way to the Bobolink trail. This was a big loop trail out in the middle of a prairie overlooking Lake Michigan. Don’t know what a Bobolink is? Neither did we, but if you’re interested follow the link to see and read about what we’re not sure if we saw along it’s trail. We saw lots of little birds, but it unknown to us if they were actually Bobolinks or not. To be fair though — we didn’t see whitetail deer along their trail either. Since we did have a bit of a time crunch, we didn’t stop to take many pictures. One thing Mike did have time to notice was that every 20 feet or so there were trails that cross the path. Some looked very well worn with the grass pushed aside. We kept thinking they must be heavily used deer trails. That was until we popped out at the end of the loop onto the park road just in time for Mike to see two turkeys scurry into the grass. We walked down the road to try to see them — which we finally did. It was a family of a couple of larger turkeys and 4 to 6 “kids”. They were strutting through the long grass along those trails that we had seen. Mike was disappointed that they weren’t deer trails though- we haven’t seen any deer along our hikes in many weeks.
We were already on our way back to the car, and only had one last little nature trail to go. The nature trail was full of signs explaining all the animals that we were not seeing. One very prominently said “Deer Love It Here!” — well, no, no they didn’t. At least not while we were there. We made our way around the trail. Mike had commented earlier that we were skunked as far as seeing mushrooms too (except for one in the middle of the trial that just looked like a golf ball — boring!) before he came across this log.
We were now officially done with the park. We did 3.45 miles in just over an hour – not too shabby.
We then drove back to Milwaukee to get Carrie, and we made it with a few minutes to spare! Whew! After picking her up we went back to the hotel to hang out for a little while, then change for Mass and dinner.
#SupperClubSaturday was also a little different this time. We are wine club members at Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant and have been for years ever since we stumbled across one in Orlando, Florida before one of our cruises. They have amazing wine and food!!! We get two bottles a month and when we’re in Milwaukee we always stop in to pick them up. This time we had 4 bottles waiting for us. Another perk that we get there is $15 for each of our birthdays and loyalty rewards as well. So, we also had $40 in cash off our bill that had to be used before November 1st. We couldn’t pass it up! While not a true Supper Club, we figured since everything else was a little different this weekend it was acceptable for this to be different as well. No prime rib, so Mike had a NY strip and drunken shirmp, and Tammy had Parmesan crusted medallions and a crab cake. The food is just simply amazing. And we have never been to this restaurant when it hasn’t been SUPER BUSY! There are not enough superlative adjectives to try to describe it.
Splorin’ Saturday then took us on another detour on the way “home” to the Hilton Milwaukee City Center where we hung out at the bar for a couple of drinks while we waited for Carrie to finish with a volunteer shift she was working for the PT department’s Marquette Challenge Fundraiser. A little different, a little shorter hike, and all worth it to spend some time with Carrie and her friends. We won’t see her again til Thanksgiving so we cherish the moments we get to spend together.
Splorin' Saturday 