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Thanks so much! Actually, I've been living in VA for 7 years now (and cant wait to move back to WI). We're coming up next summer to visit my family and plan to spend at least a full day or two in DC. Love it up there, especially the cherries and the cherry pie! I also want to take my 2 year old (who will be 3 when we go) to The Farm. I remember going as a kid and loved that place, and funny enough my daughter LOVES cows and farms! I told my husband that is good ol Wisconsin genetics there...lol Thanks for the congrats! Its funny my husband's brother married a WI girl and they moved back to WI 13 years ago (he was from VA) and now I'm getting my husband to move in a few years. They both agree life is so much better up there to raise a family than it is where we are now.
Everytime I'd go to DC w/ my friends our first stop would be to buy cherries & we'd spit the pits out while we were driving! Perhaps something I shouldn't admit to, but... Maybe it's my own WI genetics, but who DOESN'T love cows??
Wisconsin is a wonderful place to raise a family. When I first moved to Florida, I thought I was going to love the sunny winters and enjoy being a beach bum. I had the worst culture shock of my life! I'd taken for granted how kind, generous, and welcoming Wisconsinites are. Not to mention the fact that I could walk all around the city at all hours of the day/night and know I was completely safe. Any time the power went out in our apartment building or there was a particularly bad storm, my neighbors would always knock on my door, knowing that I was a single girl on my own. People aren't like that just anywhere, but you don't realize it until you leave!
I imagine I'll go back one day, myself. Whenever I see a WI license plate (even though it's been 2 years) I still tear up.
For me, it's the dining options and the beers and the good people.
For Breakfast: Paul Bunyan's and its famous "Logging Camp Family Breakfast". Family style flapjacks, sausage, ham, eggs, and those wonderful doughnuts.
For Lunch: Baumgartner's in Monroe. nothing like the world's best cheese sandwich (with onion and mustard) served to you on a piece of paper
For Dinner: any supper club where it's Prime Rib night. Get some homemade soup and a big plate of iceberg lettuce. And, yes, I'll have a 6 ounce glass of beer, bring me 6 of them.
good stuff. After a day like that, call the cardiologist. At least you'll die with a smile on your face.
I'm a native from from Huntington Beach CA and we moved to GB for 6 years. People there thought we were nuts! I loved it though, and the thing I miss most was our beautiful home and the LIGHTNING STORMS!!!! Oh, I do think I could cry of how much I miss that wild weather.
Now were in WY heading for CO. If I had a choice I'd go back in a second!
The exit ratings...that's hilarious. I always prefer to have all services in close proximity...I will pay special attention and report back if I encounter a Platinum.
Oooh, WI_Girl, thanks for the reminder about CHOCOLATE. There are some simply fabulous chocolatiers in Wisconsin, and since of course I'm always ready to do what I must for the sake of my health (dark chocolate is good for the heart, you know), I force myself to partake as often as possible. Gotta support the local economy, you know...
Gail Ambrosius (her real name!) makes some of the BEST dark chocolate truffles I've ever had, with fillings like green tea, roses, curry, and saffron, along with the more typical things like vanilla, bourbon, raspberry and such.
Candinas Chocolates are simply heavenly, and regularly get written up in Consumers' Report list of the best chocolates in the country.
And there is a little place in Oshkosh, in someone's home, actually their basement, and I canNOT remember the name for the life of me, but they make simply wonderful, basic, unpretentious chocolates, too. They only make them in the cooler months, as I recall, because summer temps are too hot for good results. Anyone here remember the name of the place? When my sis and bro-in-law lived in the Fox River Valley, they always had a box of that chocolate around for dessert, and it was a real treat.
The little white house that makes heavenly chocolate in the basement is Hughes' Home Maid Chocolates (that's the correct spelling). It's at 1823 Doty St. in Oshkosh. Phone (920) 231-7232. You could say that the answer was at my fingertips -- because I use one of their empty boxes for my pens and pencils.
Their "Snow on the Mountain" is deeelicious and their "Pudding" is so rich that just one piece will satisfy any sweet tooth.
I love Hughes' candy so much that I recently found a company in that area to mail it to me. FromStore2Door is a service that will do your grocery shopping and deliver it to your home. They only charge $15. I contacted them and asked if they would go to Hughes' and buy candy and ship it to me -- and they did! I pre-paid them via PayPal (they require an initial deposit of $75) and they mailed the candy yesterday. If your order is under $75 they send you a credit; if it's more than $75, they bill you.
I was extremely happy with the professional service fromstore2door gave me and thrilled to be able to get my Hughes' fix without having to make a 4+ hour round trip (especially with the cost of gas).
They only charged $15 for their service. I will definitely be using them again closer to Christmas because I like to give Hughes' candy for Christmas gifts. It's going to be a VERY Merry Christmas for a lot of people on my gift list.
Everytime I'd go to DC w/ my friends our first stop would be to buy cherries & we'd spit the pits out while we were driving! Perhaps something I shouldn't admit to, but... Maybe it's my own WI genetics, but who DOESN'T love cows??
Wisconsin is a wonderful place to raise a family. When I first moved to Florida, I thought I was going to love the sunny winters and enjoy being a beach bum. I had the worst culture shock of my life! I'd taken for granted how kind, generous, and welcoming Wisconsinites are. Not to mention the fact that I could walk all around the city at all hours of the day/night and know I was completely safe. Any time the power went out in our apartment building or there was a particularly bad storm, my neighbors would always knock on my door, knowing that I was a single girl on my own. People aren't like that just anywhere, but you don't realize it until you leave!
I imagine I'll go back one day, myself. Whenever I see a WI license plate (even though it's been 2 years) I still tear up.
My feelings exactly!! My husband and I moved to Orlando from De Pere about two months ago. I miss WI so much, and reading all these posts makes me so homesick. I was born and raised there and never lived anywhere else, so I really didn't realize what a great place it was until now. I'd trade in the sunny weather and nearby beaches for the friendly atmosphere of WI any day!!
some things to add to the list:
-Everyone's idea of a vacation is going "up north"
-It's not strange to see someone's personal pickup truck with a big snow plow on the front
-Someone already mentioned this I believe, but Seroogy's meltaways...sooo good! I used to work there--not good for the diet!!
-Everyone knows someone that has a Packer party for each game--complete with beer and tons of snacks
-BOOYAH!!!!
-Larry's honey
-An ice cold Miller beer on a hot summer day at the ballpark
-Camping at Penninsula State Park in Fish Creek (don't EVER feed those seagulls!!!)...and catching a show in the woods put on by the Penninsula Players
My feelings exactly!! My husband and I moved to Orlando from De Pere about two months ago. I miss WI so much, and reading all these posts makes me so homesick. I was born and raised there and never lived anywhere else, so I really didn't realize what a great place it was until now. I'd trade in the sunny weather and nearby beaches for the friendly atmosphere of WI any day!!
some things to add to the list:
-Everyone's idea of a vacation is going "up north"
-It's not strange to see someone's personal pickup truck with a big snow plow on the front
-Someone already mentioned this I believe, but Seroogy's meltaways...sooo good! I used to work there--not good for the diet!!
-Everyone knows someone that has a Packer party for each game--complete with beer and tons of snacks
-BOOYAH!!!!
-Larry's honey
-An ice cold Miller beer on a hot summer day at the ballpark
-Camping at Penninsula State Park in Fish Creek (don't EVER feed those seagulls!!!)...and catching a show in the woods put on by the Penninsula Players
The company I worked for in Green Bay gave us 2 boxes of Seroogy's every Christmas. One was a melange, the other was all meltaways. That meltaway box never lasted long.
We lived in Wisconsin(Milwaukee area)our whole lives up until 4 years ago. Hubby was offered a job promotion that took us to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This city is beyond suckage!
We know the things we miss and talk about them all the time. Seeing them in writing makes us so homesick. Thankfully the company he works for is based out of Wisconsin so we get to go back quite a bit during the year(meetings for him)so we can see family and friends. I also have a great job that I can take off whenever and I can go with him. We also come home for all holidays and sometimes just to get away. Thankfully my family is there so we get to stay with them for free..
Reading some of your list's crack me up. One of the first stores we hit when back in town is Farm and Fleet. We hit every restaurant we can because this city is mostly chain restaurants. Pizza, fish fry's and chinese food are first to enter our bellies.
We had one fish fry here at a VFW club. I'll be kind and leave it at that. We found one pizza joint that makes a pizza similar to Milwaukee pizza. The person up thread that mentioned pizza sliced in squares, made laugh out loud. This joint here cuts it in strips, everywhere else, triangles. We don't eat at the pizza place a lot because it's ridiculously expensive. We can eat cheaper at Ann's Italian Restaurant in Hales Corners. Don't get me started on chinese food here. We've tried 3 places and gave up, waste of money. There is no culture here like in Wisconsin. Food here is very bland.
Shopping sucks. We have the typical, Super WalMart and Super Target. I do love the Super Target, but not enough for us to want to stay here much longer. There are 2 malls in this city and calling them malls is asking a lot. The one that is closer to us is dead. Jc Penneys and Younkers is the only thing holding it up. I guess it's been like this for years. The city has no idea how to rebuild it, plus this city is beyond poor. The mall is 2 stories. It's slighty smaller then Southridge. There is probably about 10 stores in it, if that. Can you imagine walking into Southridge and having 7-10 stores in it? So we always do a ton of shopping when we go home to. And yes, Wisconsin is home. Iowa will never be home for us.
The surrounding towns here have nothing. You have to either go 20-25 miles one way to get to Iowa City(University of Iowa is there). Or you can go about 70 miles the other way to hit a much bigger city. Or 2 hours to Des Moines. It's not like living in New Berlin where you have stores and restaurants and going to Brookfield and having the same. The city that is close to us(same distance from New Berlin to Brookfield)is nothing but farm and a library. There isn't even a major grocery store there. It's so not what we are used to.
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I imagine I'll go back one day, myself. Whenever I see a WI license plate (even though it's been 2 years) I still tear up.
I'm the same way when I see a license plate. We were in Dubuque(right on the border)and between all the Wisconsin license plates and being so close to the border, I was a mess.
We hope to be back in the city and state we love within a year or so. The one thing I do know is that everyone I talk to knows where we are from and anyone that comes to our house, knows we are from Wisconsin. We have Wisconsin pride everywhere.
So to say we hate it here is probably an understatement. If we had to do it all over again, no way. Here's to getting back to civilization soon!
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