Posts Tagged ‘family’

This Scenic drive is a wonderfully picturesque 40 mile loop that begins and ends right here in Baraboo and can make for a fun family road trip any time of year. Along the way you’ll view old country churches, rustic cabins, wildlife and farmscapes surrounded by rolling hills, stone cliffs & amazing sandstone formations. You’ll also have the opportunity to visit Natural Bridge State Park, have your picture taken on the “Devil’s Chair” and stop by the Mid-Continent Railway Museum. Ready? O.K. Let’s go… Read the rest of this entry »

After years of planning and the enviable political nightmare that precedes any decisions made in our form of government, the state of Wisconsin’s representatives did something  increasingly rare, they made a good decision.  They voted to protect the Lower Wisconsin Riverway for us, and our children. That was now just over 20 years ago.

The Lower Wisconsin State Riverway encompasses a 93 mile stretch of the Wisconsin River from Prairie du Sac to Prairie du Chein, covering nearly 80,000 acres of river, bluffs,  islands and flood plains.  Since its establishment  1989 the region has become a major attraction to nature lovers and sportsmen alike.  Over 44,000 acres of state owned land offer opportunities for camping, hiking, hunting, skiing, horseback riding and all sort of outdoor endeavor. 93 miles of unbroken riverway offers one of the longest stretches of river open to boating, canoeing, kayaking and fishing in the midwest. What’s more, all this activity is shared with the amazing wildlife of the area including of course the majestic American Bald Eagles that are commonly seen overhead.

FLOW Sponsored Lake Delton Clean Up Event

One of the groups instrumental in fighting to preserve this slice of Wisconsin for all of us was called the Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway.  The group went on a bit of a hiatus after winning the war so-to-speak  in 1989, but then came back to life when the member’s realized that the real work was just beginning.  In 1998 FLOW kicked off once more under the guidance of Timm Zumm and former DNR State Riverway Coordinator, Dave Gjeston with the goals of protecting the ecological integrity and public trust interests of the LWSR.

Over the last dozen years FLOW has done so much to protect and manage the Lower Wisconsin Riverway including everything from area clean ups to pollution investigations, that it will take another article or two to cover it all. Stay tuned…

What is important today however is that on Jan 31st the Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway will be hosting their first annual membership meeting since becoming an official Non-Profit Organization which means there will be much to discuss.  It’s also an opportunity for those of you interested in the preservation and protection of the Lower Wisconsin to become involved in this new stage of FLOW’s life.  What’s more the big shindig looks to be a great family event as well with a big bonfire, ski trails, horse drawn sleigh rides and more. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event. Especially the kids. Festivities start at noon and run until 9pm.  The first annual FLOW meeting will begin at 4pm.  There will be a heated shop for food, socializing and for the meeting.  Bring your own activity equipment, chairs, beverages and finger food to share.  At twilight the bonfire will kick off with the natural pyrotechnics last year’s Christmas trees.  Feel free to bring yours as well!

Directions

County Hwy C is just south of the Wisconsin River off of State Hwy 23. The property is approximately three miles west of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin, near Lower Wyoming Road. Please park your vehicle along the side of the road and walk up to the building. Contact us before the event if you think an uphill trek is too difficult and you would prefer to have a ride up the driveway.

Side Notes:

RSVP requested to help us plan, but not required.

Are you available to help staff the event?
If yes, please contact Timm Zumm at: 608-575-0325
or email: wisriverfriends@yahoo.com

More Information:

FLOW on Facebook
Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board Website
KayakQuixotica photo story – Extreme Lower Wisconsin Paddling!

* Photographs reprinted with the kind permission of the Friends of the Lower Wisconsin Riverway.

The Flake Out Festival is coming to Wisconsin Dells this weekend, Jan 22 – 24th.  We’ll certainly be there! In honor of their 20th anniversary and to save you the effort of reading every last page of the festival website.. Here’s our list of “10 things you may not know you can do at the Wisconsin Dells Flake Out Festival this weekend”…

Number 10 – Watch Winter Fireworks on Saturday Night!

Number 9 – Read the full menu & beverage selections on the website!.. ah, no..forget that!

Number 8 – Meet the critter who said, ” “How bout that, I go to sleep a bear, and wake up an octopus!”

Number 7 – Eat chicken with your mittens on!!

Number 6 – Listen to Swing Crew.. and request songs by Insane Clown Posse just for fun! (Must be a Baraboo thing!)

Number 5 – Take a class.  Ah, never stop learning…

Number 4 – Watch dogs pull stuff.

Number 3 – Get lost in an ice maze!

Number 2 - Ride A Pony!

Number 1 – Make BBQ Snow Cones! Well, probably not but with that silliness out of the way, be sure to check out the website for details and daily events, then check out the festival this weekend. We’ll see ya there!

* Today’s Image is from a great Wallpaper created by Michael M. Knight and can be downloaded here.

I’m 44 years old.  I figure I’ll get that out of the way right now, otherwise you’d never understand why I’d have become so attached to Stratego or so disappointed with what Hasbro has done to it.  Imagine all the excitement of taking your child to get a new board game that you knew by heart, only to get a game that was so unplayable that it was left on the counter as a memorial to a wasted ten spot.

For those of you following along at home, Stratego is a board game, introduced to the US in 1961 by Milton Bradley.  In the game you have a set of numbered pieces that move about the board, bombs that lie in wait and a flag.  The object of the game is simple, capture the enemy’s flag.  The rules are simple enough, (Low number takes high number, one type can remove a bomb while all others cannot, etc.,) that children in the 8 years and up range can play.  The simplicity of the rules make it a great addition to “Board Game” night.  Something many families do these days to keep everyone together and away from the television.

I hadn’t thought of Stratego in years,  (Most of the time as a child I had no one to play the game with so I simply used the red and blue pieces as cars and drove them around the board!) but the other day we happened upon a fancy high priced edition at a Barns & Noble in Madison.  I found myself explaining the game to my 8 year old and soon committing to getting a copy.  Ah, only not the expensive, fancy-pants version!

This is when the fun got started.  We decided we’d stop off at the local Wal-Mart on the way hope and see if they had a affordable copy.  I mean, Christmas just ended, how hard could it be?  This gave us a 45 minute drive back to Baraboo to build up expectations of a night of Stratego.  Parents always put in the pepperings of “IFs” as in “IF they have it”, but children of course are deaf to the word, “IF” until well after drinking age.   Needless to say a long chattering walk to the toy department revealed that they didn’t have it!  Oh, NO!

We thought we’d give the local toy store downtown a call.  “They’d have it.” We thought.  They always have the fun, interesting toys that big box stores won’t touch.  But alas, they were closed on Sunday.  We called the Wal-Mart in Wisconsin Dells. Nope.  Then we ran over to the Sears store, that used to be a K-Mart.. (another story, for another day) and walked through their empty hallways only to find…  they didn’t have it.  That was it, for one evening.. No Stratego today!

The following morning was again filled with an 8 year old voice asking about all the intricacies of Stratego.  How would this happen?  What happens when your Spy finds a Bomb?  Are you going to order it from Amazon today? Obviously Stratego was not going away. We’d talk about it again after school… (and work).

About the time we needed to pick our son up from school I did a quick surf over to Amazon and found a multitude of versions.  Still the $99 classic seemed a bit much, and we were not sure we wanted the “Lord of the Rings” magical edition.  In a last effort we ran over to Portage, a town 13 miles to the east of us.  We’ve found that the Portage K-Mart & Wal-mart stores often have things no one else does simply for lack of customers  it seems.  Once again our theory held true. The Portage Wal-Mart had Stragego!  Oh the joy of the heavens upon us! And only $10 to boot!  Soon we were driving home again deep into the mire of the 8 year old thought process; Are we going to play as soon as we get home? Is Dad going to play? How many flags are there? What happens when …” and on and on.

The new Hasbro Stratego is called the “Fire and Ice” edition and like most modern things is cheaply made, forcing parents to spend a half hour putting stickers on the plastic pieces instead of simply embossing them as they once did.  The number of pieces has been cut by 10, and the board shrunk.  The once easy rules have now been so complicated and muddled by the use of fantasy characters with new “special powers” that, by the time we had all the stickers on, we no longer had the patience for the rules.  The thought that I could save the evening by forgoing the dragons and Yetis, for the numbers was a big fail as well.  Even those had been re-arranged as not to function by the standard rules that had worked fine for almost 40 years.  In the end we left it to sit, unplayed.  A $10 donation to the needy Hasbro & Wal-Mart’s  executives.

The game we ended up buying on Ebay.

Now to be fair, change is often a good thing.  Being a techie, I love “new”.  I’ve even read a few reviews of the “fire & Ice” Stratego that call it a “Breath of Life” into an old game.  Maybe.  But if a game can no longer be easily explained or played right out of the box it’s on a road to mediocrity.  Forcing people to put stickers on 60 plastic pieces before they can even play the game is not going to do anything to keep the attention of today’s kids.  Board games are suffering already without the help of poor design and  confused instructions. For the moment there is still a small number of people and families who treasure these wonderful excuses to have a bit of fun, and think through a little friendly competition. Game makers need to recognize their audience.  If they are patient enough to play a board game, they are probably paying  close attention to product as well. It seems to me the cheaply made parts, and a “Velvet Elvis” fantasy theme  are only going to hasten this game’s demise.

In the end we went on Ebay and ordered a vintage 1961 version.  I mean, if we’re going to go through the trouble of ordering the classic, why not go all the way!?

More . . .

• Ed’s Stratego Site
• Fire & Ice Edition on Amazon
• Family Game Night by Amazing Moms
• Just for fun, Pat Benatar sings “Fire & Ice”