Last stop....Ice Chamber in Minneapolis

We stopped by an ice bar to have martinis made with ice cold Grey Goose vodka! They were good and we had a lot of fun together!

Never a Dull Moment

What else would you do with your Saturday afternoon in Rice Lake but race cars?!?  On our way though town we drove out onto the lake to check out some of the local races...never seen that before.

Driving on water?!? (Frozen at least)

In Bayfield Wisconsin they have a road from the mainland to Madeline Island about two miles distance but crazy thing is that you drive on lake superior to get there.  That was a first for Dad!

Snowshoeing ON Lake Superior

We had been checking to see if the ice caves were safe to hike to and the message stated that the caves were closed but the hike to them could be done at your own risk.  So we set out to see if we could even see the caves and walk on some frozen water.  The hike was on the edge of the lake which normally would be water in the summer time.  That was unusual in itself hearing the ice crack and move in yge distance and not knowing what was really under our feet.  It sure was cold that day especially with the wind blowing off of the lake!

Arctic circle or Wisconsin??

We had so much fun hiking around on snowshoes once in the morning and then once at sunset.  It was beautiful to see the sun set right along the lakeside. 

Wisconsin winter tour

My parents flew up to visit for a long weekend and it was nothing but none stop fun.  Our first day we started up on the north shore of lake superior (just 100 miles south of the Canadian border) and did some snowshoeing along a river until we reached the lakeshore.  There were some areas that were frozen and some sections of the lake that was still water. It was a beautiful hike!

Sauna anyone?

At the end of the race they had a dry sauna you could sit in to warm up.  It felt great after our race!

City of lakes loppet

A few weeks ago Matt and I drove to Minneapolis to do some skiing and complete our first loppet.  What is a loppet you ask...it is a fancy name for a group of skiers finishing a designated course and the fastest one wins a prize or otherwise known as a race.  There was a night 5K luminary with hot chocolate and cookies and also a 10K loppet in the morning.  It wasn't too cold and there was no wind.   And to top off the weekend we celebrated the Superbowl with some friends from work.  All in all it was a great way to spend time in the snow.

Great Superbowl fan

Everyone in the clinic was all excited about last night's win, even the skeleton helped cheer on the Pack to victory!

Night on the Town

Saturday night Dace treated us to a play performance of Spamelot.  It was an entertaining show and then it was off to Weber for dinner.  They cook everything there on Weber grills.  I got the pork chops, Dace got the prime rib, and Maija got the salmon.  It was a great evening to spend time together with Dace and get some really good food. 

Visit to Chicago

Last weekend we drove down to Chicago to visit with our aunt Dace.  It's about a six hour drive down and fortunately we went the weekend before the big blizzard! Saturday we went yo a Latvian children's program and then drove through the city.  Lake Michigan wasn't frozen and there definitely wasn't any ice fishing! Crazy to think that just three days later Lakeshore drive would be snowed in!

Just another day in Wisconsin

One morning last week we got down to -30 degrees for a low and the high for that day was only going to get up to 0 degrees.  Some people up here say that there is really no difference once it gets below zero but we could really tell!

More condo pictures

The two nice things about our condo is a washer and dryer and a place to change out of your snowy, messy boots into your slippers.  Could you imagine trying to haul clothes to the Laundromat with snow and -20 degree temperatures?!?  Next post we will have to show you how we bundle up for the weather.  It's a little bit of a procedure!

Moved into our new place

We are still working up in Wisconsin for the winter but moved from the lakehouse to a condo at Tagalong golf course.  Because we are staying at a golf course in the middle of winter there is only one other guy renting a place in our whole building and the rent is pretty cheap.  The nice thing is that we have a covered garage for the car and snow removal. That means no shovelling!  We have great view of Red Cedar lake and it's nice and quite up here.  Have seen a few bald eagles flying and lots of deer as well.

Winter in Wisconsin

This was the view of what we flew into after spending a week in Georgia...Are we ready for this?!?


I think they are making a little snow hill for skiing in the local Walmart parking lot with all of the snow they have been getting and since the temp. doesn't get above 18-20 degrees it never melts. Maybe we should have brought our snowboards?



This was at the Rice Lake Christmas Parade before our trip. We only lasted about half an hour and most of the people were sitting in their cars watching the parade and the poor, little kids on the floats were frozen! But it sure was fun!


Hello again!
It has been a little while since our last post but we have internet at our condo and so more access to our blog site!
We are back in town after travelling to Colorado and Georgia for Christmas. It was great getting to see everyone and catch up a little bit. What great memories we made both in Colorado and Georgia!
But now it is back to a regular schedule and more adventures up here in the northern woods of Wisconsin...