Up North - Day 3

The breakfast gathering.  None of us knew how legendary this day would become.  Two words: meat raffle.

 More pool.

 So we drove to Dallas, Wisconsin, to take a tour of the Viking Brewing Company.  But after the drive into town, the brewery wasn't open.  What are the other options in a town with only four businesses?

 Confusion sets in.

 An new opportunity presents itself in downtown Dallas.  The Longhorn Bar.

 Just our luck!  It's meat raffle day!

 Vegetarians can enjoy the irony of the situation.

 Before this, I had never heard of such a thing.  For the uninitiated, let me explain the Wisconsin meat raffle phenomenon.  First, you buy a paint stick with a number written on it for $1.  Then, a wheel is spun featuring all the number options.  If the wheel lands on your number, you choose an envelope.  Inside the envelope, a description of a type of meat is written down.  The bartender goes to the back fridge, and in a matter of seconds, the winner has a huge slab of meat.

The Patriot Guard of Chetek, Wisconsin put on this fantastic meat raffle.

 Here's what the Longhorn looks like.

 Longhorn.  Self-explanatory.

 Sassy signs, and of course, a gun.

 More sass.

 My cousin won some meat.  Boy, was I jealous.

 Paint stick with a number, as earlier explained.

 I got to spin the wheel!

 The meat raffle crew.  Not something we'll soon forget.

We had to have lunch at the restaurant down the street.  At this table, we attempted to comprehend what we had just experienced.  

This is the antique store of Dallas.    This concludes the tour of Dallas, Wisconsin.

When we got back to The Lodge, we had a pool tournament. 

Yours truly won!

Best way to celebrate victory.

Up North - Day 2

Breakfast!

We watched the Blues Brothers.

 My Grandpa is a gun enthusiast.  Nothing gets him more excited.  Those things make me quite nervous.

 Pool is pretty awesome.

 Here is the actual lodge.

 Panoramic shot.

 We ventured into the nearest town to go to the casino.  This was my first experience gambling.  I lost 30 bucks on blackjack.

 What do you know, at the casino there was a gun show.  Two for one!

 After losing my money, we went and had Mexican food.

 The food was surprisingly good.  I figured Wisconsin would be too far removed from Mexican culture to have good cuisine.  I was proved wrong.

 Mayan art, lumberjack bench.  The perfect coupling.

 After lunch we tried to go to a gun shop.  For some people, you can never have enough exposure to firearms.

 Fortunately, the bait and tackle portion of the shop was the only part open.

 I jumped in the hot tub to enjoy a cream soda.

Continued in day 3...

Up North - Day 1

Every spring break I get to go to Wisconsin to spend several days in a rural cabin with all the men from my Dad's side of the family.  Spring break 2011 was no different.

We started the trip off by flying into the Twin Cities, which isn't at all like the Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities.  It's just St. Paul and Minneapolis.  There isn't any beheadings in these cities (that I know of).

 They had a quite a bit of snow.

 My Aunt made me french toast, which was awesome.  It gets better though...

 Check out this cup.  I can just imagine the Republican gathering now.  The to-do list looked something like:

-Get rid of immigrants, the poor, and gays.
-Reflect on good deeds while bathing in gold coins.
-Repeat as necessary.

I'm kidding... maybe.

 From the Twin Cities we drove to my Grandparents' farm in Wisconsin.  My Grandma makes the best coffee cake.

 I got caught up on the local news.

 8:59 a.m. is a gem.  12:05 a.m. has a pretty great description.

 1:59 p.m.  You can't just shovel your snow wherever you want to.

 The Farm.

 Stopped at the local grocery store before secluding ourselves in the woods.

 Men on a mission.

 Cream soda!

 A bunch of junk food.  I jammed some apples and bananas in there though.

 I requested a stop at the Cheese House.  When in Rome...

 buy cheese curds.

 Butcher shop right next to a cemetery.

 Then we finally made it to The Lodge.

Continued in Day 2...