Cruise with former and current Packers players planned for 2018
Packers fans will have a chance to see their favorite players in warmer climes in 2018. The Packers Legends Cruise, a fivenight Caribbean cruise aboard the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas, will feature both alumni and current players.
Players joining the cruise include LeRoy Butler, Ahman Green, Dorsey Levens, Dave Robinson, Andre Rison, Ryan Longwell, Bill Schroeder, George Koonce and Craig Hentrich, with additional players being announced later.
The cruise will include special activities with the players such as a Green Bay’s Got Talent competition, a Super Bowl XXXI Rewind, Remembering Reggie White, question-and-answer sessions and sports deck competitions. Guests will also be able to purchase private dinners with players and autograph passes.
“As a community-owned team, our fans have had such a unique relationship with the organization over the years, and we’re looking forward to this cruise enhancing that relationship and giving fans the chance to connect even further with the Packers,” Chad Watson, Packers director of sales and business development, said in a statement.
The cruise will depart Fort Lauderdale on March 10, 2018, and will stop in Puerto Costa Maya and Cozumel.
Interior cabins start at $699 per person and include food, non-alcoholic beverages and events. Tickets are available by calling (844) 582-1119 or at
Frank Lloyd Wright Trail directs visitors to 9 Wright sites
The Frank Lloyd Wright Trail, a selfguided tour of nine Wright-designed buildings in southern Wisconsin, was officially dedicated at a ceremony in Madison last Monday.
The approximately 200-mile trail is marked by brown signs on highways and roads in nine counties. The signs direct visitors to Wright sites including Burnham American System Built Homes in Milwaukee; the Monona Terrace and the First Unitarian Society Meeting House in Madison; the SC Johnson Administration Building, the SC Johnson Administration Research Tower and Wingspread in Racine; and Taliesin, Wright’s summer home in Spring Green.
“Wisconsin is home to beautiful natural resources and diverse landscapes that inspired the designs of the worldfamous architect,” Wisconsin Tourism Secretary Stephanie Klett said in a statement. “The trail will help brand and elevate Wisconsin’s architectural and historic treasures, create greater visitation to the sites and generate an economic impact for the state and local communities through traveler spending.”
The trail begins on I-94 at the Wisconsin-Illinois state line and ends at a Wright-designed warehouse in Richland Center. By the end of the year it will include 115 route marker signs.
Tours company singles out solo travelers for trips in 2017
One is no longer the loneliest number. In fact, more tour companies are singling out solo travelers for attention. Why? They spot a growing market.
The big tour company Intrepid Travel has announced that three of its new trips in 2017 will be for solo travelers only. It has seen a 38% increase in the last five years in customers traveling alone on group tours, so that half of their travelers are now independent.
The trips are: Classic Rajasthan (March 19-April 2; $1,113 per person, sharing a twin room; $350 extra for own room), South Morocco Discovery (March 18-27, $765 per person, sharing a twin room; $195 extra for own room) and Café Colombia (March 11-19, $1,606 per person, sharing a twin room, no single supplement available).
Trip costs do not include airfare from the U.S. The trips also require physical stamina and involve physical challenges like hiking and long road journeys. Intrepid, based in Petaluma, Calif., offers more than 1,000 tours a year in 100 countries.
If the trip sounds too active for you, contact your favorite tour company and see if it, too, has created trips just for solo travelers. Other companies are reducing the dreaded “single supplement” so that traveling solo is more affordable.
Gloomy skies seemed appropriate on the nearly deserted highways of Vilas County the Monday after Thanksgiving.
The deer hunters and turkey indulgers had gone home, and the Northwoods had settled into a quiet, slow period before snow (hopefully) and related activities invaded.
While the rest of my family had fled home with the hunters, my mom and I had extended our turkey time up north. And after a couple of lazy days around the cabin, we decided it was time to get out and do something.
We were learning the hard way, however, that that’s a little challenging on a Monday in November, with many shops closed for the season or the slow weekday.
A chilly rain prevented us from exploring the alwaysopen outdoors, so onward we drove: north through Minocqua and Woodruff, Lac Du Flambeau and Mercer, then back east through Manitowish Waters to Boulder Junction.
The “Musky Capital of the World” delivered. Not muskies (that day at least), but a Main St. lined with inviting, open(!) shops.
The name Peeplelures caught my eye through the window of the Boulder Beer Bar, where I inhaled a pulled pork sandwich and sweet potato fries next to a cozy fireplace.
We’d been driving around looking for an open restaurant for over an hour and finally found one off County M in Boulder Junction. Regulars at the bar debated carburetors and catfish as the small jewelry store across the street supplied more signs of life in the little Northwoods town.
More shops beckoned down the easily walkable Main St.: the expansive Boulder Junction Trading Company, with all manner of decorations, furniture and clothing that you would expect in a Northwoods gift shop. We picked up a post-Thanksgiving-appropriate sign for my sister — “It’s all fun and games until your pants don’t fit” — before heading to No Boundaries, a men’s and women’s clothing shop next door.
“Downtown Boulder Junction is really nice because it is an area where you can park your vehicle, get out and walk, get a bite to eat, shop … all without having to get out of your car and move it,” said Theresa Smith, executive director of the Boulder Junction Chamber of Commerce.
The town of less than 1,000 is “really kind of Norman Rockwellish,” Smith said, “especially when the snow is falling. It’s that classic, smalltown feel.”
Other shops along Boulder Junction’s main drag include the Alder Lake Cranberry Gift Shop, with yes, plenty of cranberry-infused gifts among other offerings (the Knob Creek bourbon had me at the door); and Coontail, an outdoor retailer that has expanded to Arbor Vitae and Manitowish Waters and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The shop rents snowshoes and cross-country skis in the winter and bikes, kayaks and stand-up paddle boards in the summer.
Those bikes would be useful for the 47 miles of paved trails accessible from Boulder Junction. Known as the Heart of Vilas County system, the trails stretch west to Manitowish Waters and south through Sayner and St. Germain.
But with snow on the trails, attention turns inside, and that includes to artistic offerings.
“We’ve got a lot of artists in town from woodworking and painting to pottery and leatherworking, so that’s a really nice variety of handmade items in addition to sporting goods and clothing and jewelry and all those wonderful things,” Smith said.
Try Firemouth Pottery and Gallery, with pottery, oil paintings, etchings, handblown glass and more, or Moondeer & Friends Gallery, featuring more than 150 local and regional artists. Antique hunters can browse the offerings at Violets & Lace.
The small town is also nicely complemented by a handful of restaurants, from the Granary and the Bakery for breakfast fare to the Aqualand Ale House for pub grub and craft beer.
And Boulder Junction isn’t the only small town worth a visit for one-of-a-kind gifts and a mini getaway this time of year.
Many small towns across the state, from Cedarburg and Kohler to Hudson and Door County, offer both great local shops plus dining and lodging options for a mini getaway during the hectic holidays.
But before you bring out the pitchforks about towns not included here, this is, of course, not an exhaustive list. That could take up an entire