Day 5 - Mirror Lake

JP, the resort man, recommended a trip to the Carr Valley Cheese Factory Farm. We headed over there this afternoon to see how Wisconsin cheese was made. Unfortunately, we were too late for an actual demonstration, but we watched an interesting video and got to sample several different kinds of cheese at various stages of aging. We also examined, felt, and tasted fresh cheese curds. The drive to this place took us through two towns with a population of less than 300. Beautiful scenery.

From there, we went to Mirror Lake State Park which isn't far from our resort.  This too was another JP recommendation. We drove in and hiked to this area where we rented two canoes to tour the lake.

Madison, Beth, and I rode in one canoe while Tom took Darcy and Teddy in the other. Our canoe took off first from the dock and we didn't meet up with the other canoe for over an hour. Teddy had a fishing pole so they did a lot of cruising so he could fish.

Madison loves to paddle so she was our frontman. Beth took the back for the first half of the journey and then I took it for the second half. We canoed for a little over 2 hours and covered over 3 miles.

At the changing of paddlers, we stopped at a sandy area just before the dam and got out to explore the wooded area. The rocks are very porous and soft so that trees are able to grow right out of the rocks. We posed for photos, dipped our bodies in the lake, and then headed out to find the others.

We ended the evening with yet another JP recommendation. This restaurant was one in the park that we canoed past early on, but we drove to get to it for dinner. It is the Ishnala and it is now famous for being one of the sets for Johnny Depp's movie Public Enemies.

The food was fabulous if not a tad pricey, but we enjoyed it. It made for a nice ending to our Mirror Lake day.