![[Lake scene drawing]](http://images.midwestweekend.com/graphics/lake_scene.gif)
Madison is known as a college town, yet it's always putting on fun festivals and events for children. It's the perfect place to take school-age kids for a weekend in winter.
What to do: Go to a free Kids in the Rotunda concert at the Overture Center on State Street, Saturdays at 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Explore the shops on State Street. Take a free guided tour of the Capitol.
Tour the Wisconsin Historical Museum and Veterans Museum on Capitol Square. Visit Olbrich Botanical Gardens to see the exhibit "Chocolate: the Bitter and the Sweet'' or hear a 2 p.m. Sunday concert ($1).
Free events to catch: Feb. 19-21, Winter Festival, with tubing and snowboarding right on Capitol Square. March 6, International Festival at the Overture Center.
Where to stay: Rooms at Hilton Monona Terrace, three blocks from Capitol Square, have views of Lake Monona.
Where to eat: Ella’s Deli & Ice Cream Parlor has a carousel and is known for its collection of wacky toys.
Details: See Madison for all ages.
Past fast plans: Fun around Ely, Ski the North Shore, Snow days in Eagle River, Eagles and a concert, Swans in Monticello
Bock Fest at Schell Brewery in New Ulm, Minn. There's a parade of mythical Germanic characters (pictured), a hunt for stag heads on the brewery grounds and beyond and a big party afterward with beer, live music and a bonfire. Feb. 13.
For more, see A German Mardi Gras.
Winter Festival in Cedarburg, Wis. This festival just north of Milwaukee features bed and barrel races, snow golf, an ice-carving contest and a dog weight pull competition. The grand parade is at 1 p.m. and Cool Brews & Blues at 6 p.m. Saturday. Feb. 13-14.
Chicago Auto Show. Shop for your new ride at the largest car show in the nation and third-largest in the world. Feb. 12-21.
If the flapping of giant sails makes your heart flutter, this is your summer to be on the Great Lakes.
The Denis Sullivan of Milwaukee’s Discovery Center is leading an armada of international schooners, barks and sloops on a race through the Great Lakes, from Toronto on Lake Ontario to Cleveland on Lake Erie, Bay City on Lake Huron, Chicago and Green Bay on Lake Michigan and Duluth on Lake Superior.
The Great Lakes United Tall Ships Challenge 2010 will promote freshwater conservation and youth sail training along the way. But the crowds gathered in ports along the way mostly will want to see the spectacle of hundreds of sails flapping over historic vessels rarely seen on the Great Lakes.
They include the Amistad, a 129-foot replica of the schooner on which kidnapped Africans launched a revolt in 1839 that later became the basis for the Spielberg movie; the Europa, an 185-foot Dutch bark that was built in 1911 by the city of Hamburg, Germany, as a floating lighthouse on the Elbe River; and the 165-foot German brig Roald Amundsen, which once served the East German Army and sports 18 sails.
Up to 25 tall ships will sail into Chicago, 12 into Green Bay and eight into Duluth. A flock of privately owned schooners will follow them, drawn like moths to flame.
Here’s a tip: Reserve your hotel rooms now. Or, sleep on the ships.
If you want to live in a lighthouse this summer, now is the time to shine a light on your qualifications.
The national-park service has posted volunteer positions at national parks and monuments around the nation, and some of the most enticing are on Lake Superior.
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin has the most lighthouses and the most keeper positions, on Sand, Devils and Michigan Island (pictured), which has two lighthouses. The park service also needs live-in helpers on Oak and Manitou islands.
In Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the remote Au Sable Light needs a volunteer keeper.
The park service also is looking for backpacking helpers for Isle Royale's famous wolf-moose study and fur-trade interpreters at Grand Portage National Monument. If you've got the time, seize the moment.
For more, see Volunteer vacations and Living in a lighthouse.
When it’s 30 below in the north woods, that's nothing like a cold day in Siberia.
It’s more like a cold day in Mongolia.
Temperatures were dangerously low over New Year's when we drove with friends to the Gunflint Trail, but we knew a wood fire would be waiting for us in a round, canvas-sided hut called a yurt, or ger in Mongolia.
The peaked-roof huts work for nomads on the Mongolian steppes, and they work for skiers in Minnesota’s north woods, too. Our yurt, part of Ted and Barbara Young's Little Ollie Lake Lodging, had a futon sofa, bunks, a kitchen and an acrylic dome to let in the moonlight. A propane-fueled chandelier provided light and a wood stove kicked out heat, keeping everyone toasty warm.
We'd planned to ski from yurt to yurt on the 28-kilometer Banadad Trail, a balsam-lined corridor that starts next to the Youngs’ Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B and soon enters the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
But a forecast of 40 to 50 below temperatures with wind chill changed our plans.
“In this kind of weather, people don’t stop to eat or drink, and they get to the yurt chilled and dehydrated,’’ Ted Young said regretfully. “Why don’t you stay in the yurt tonight to get the experience, and then stay in the B&B tomorrow?’’
We didn’t argue. First yurt, then luxury B&B: Anyone could see that was the best of two worlds.
On the week before Christmas, I figured I’d found the prettiest place in the world.
Fresh snow had fallen around Hayward, and the forest was sparkling. We made our way down the intimate lanes of the Makwa Trail on snowshoes, brushing past heavily laden balsam boughs as we scaled gentle ridges and descended into snowy glades.
Each new tableau was more beautiful than the last, and I congratulated myself on the discovery that single-track mountain-biking trails are great for snowshoeing.
Then one of those boughs snapped into my face, and I wrenched my neck whipping it away. We had to cut the hike short so I could get some heavy-duty muscle relaxants from the local clinic, but I’ll always remember it.
On snowshoes, I’ve had the most fun bushwhacking on new snow. The first time, it was in Nicolet National Forest, and a friend and I set off from Bear Paw Outdoor Adventure Resort wearing rounded bear paw snowshoes.
When anniversaries, birthdays and Valentine's Day roll around, swains everywhere wonder where to take their sweethearts to celebrate.
Of course, it has to be somewhere romantic. But what's romantic? To many, it's the floral Laura Ashley look, with lots of lace, patterned wallpaper and antiques.
To others, it's a rustic cabin in the forest, minus the heart-shaped whirlpool but with loads of privacy and atmosphere.
Some prefer a sleeker, more contemporary place, such as the Arts and Crafts-style Hotel Pattee in Perry, Iowa, or the Bernard Schwartz House in Two Rivers, a Life magazine "dream house'' designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
And there are inns with classic Victorian exteriors but modern interiors, such as the McCormick House in Hayward: "You can breathe in there,'' says Hayward shop owner Molly Otis, a friend of the proprietors. "Sometimes, those painted ladies wear me out.''
In the end, however, decor has very little to do with romance, because romance is what you bring with you.
In 2010, Valentine's Day falls on the Sunday of the long Presidents Day weekend, so it would be smart to plan ahead. Here are a few places likely to aid and abet l’amour.
The first time I visited Marquette, I saw mostly Yooper Land.
I chuckled at a 10-foot mosquito, giant chainsaw and packages of Roadkill Helper. I noted the best-sellers in the bookstore window: "A Look at Life From a Deer Stand'' and "Leap of Faith 2: God Loves Packer Fans.''
This is the Marquette that's sports-crazy, hunting-happy and tough as nails, with a population descended from Cornish, Finnish and Italian immigrants who could put up with the rigors of iron mines and, later, their closings.
The second time, I saw cosmopolitan Marquette. Elegant townhouses had sprouted along its harbor on Lake Superior, and an exhibit of art doors lined jogging paths like giant dominoes. I shopped in a gallery and bought a picnic lunch at the food co-op.
That's the Marquette named one of the 2010 Dozen Distinctive Destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which cited its arts and architecture and called it "a must-see for travelers looking to get off the beaten path.''
Marquette has barely 20,000 people but is the largest town on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, often called Baja Wisconsin. It's so off the beaten path that many people from Lower Michigan never make it there — nearly 500 miles and Lake Michigan separate Marquette from Detroit.
Most bicycle trails are covered with snow, but it’s still time to think about summer tours.
The Horribly Hilly Hundreds, which cover the part of southwest Wisconsin that would have been used for bicycling if Chicago had won the 2016 Summer Olympics, already is full — 1,300 riders are eager for the bragging rights that come with 10,700 feet of elevation gain.
Across the border in Illinois, GITAP, Grand Illinois Trail and Parks ride, is nearly full. Sponsored by the League of Illinois Bicyclists, the June 13-18 ride starts in Freeport this year and winds west, through three state parks, to Galena.
The routes of many of this year's longer tours are especially appealing. Most riders prefer northern routes with lakes to southern routes with cornfields, and this year they get them.
RAGBRAI, The Register's Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is July 25-31 and cuts across northern Iowa, with overnights that include Storm Lake and Clear Lake; this year's route is being touted as the third-easiest in the ride's 38 years.
MS TRAM, The Ride Across Minnesota, is July 25-30 and is traveling a loop through northern Minnesota lakes country, from Alexandria to Little Falls, Pequot Lakes, Wadena and Fergus Falls.
And the Michigander will use three bicycle trails on a northern loop July 17-23, returning along Lake Michigan from Harbor Springs to Mackinaw City.
Many tours limit riders and sell out. For 2010 weeklong bicycle tours, see Sightseeing on $20 a day. For 2010 day or weekend trips, see Tours on two wheels.
When reserving a hotel room, there are deals, and then there’s Priceline.
Five years ago, I tried the on-line bidding service, which has a big catch: You don’t know what hotel you’ve reserved until you’ve paid for the room. We got a hotel in Miami’s South Beach that had a decent location but was noisy, had an unfriendly staff and charged an extra "resort fee.''
After that, I’d had it with Priceline – until friends made me reconsider.
In December, we both booked hotel rooms in Chicago on the same weekend, two blocks apart. I used Expedia and paid $129. They used Priceline and paid $55.
Mary and John once owned a resort hotel in northern Minnesota, and they have a killer instinct for deals that serves them well. They use Priceline wherever they go and often come to the Twin Cities on weekends, paying about $45 per night. Here’s how they do it.
In winter, not everyone wants to get out and enjoy the great outdoors.
Many people would rather enjoy down comforters, hot toddies and a massage. Many people don't even want to look at snow and ice.
And that's possible at many inns and resorts. Some include a spa or dinner theater, others shops and restaurants, and a few
offer a whole weekend's worth of entertainment under one roof.
In Duluth, the Fitger's complex includes a hotel, restaurants, Aveda day spa, shops, dinner theater, nightclub and a brewpub
with live music. In Milwaukee, the InterContinental is connected to the Pabst Theater and Marcus Center, and concert and
theater patrons never have to go outdoors.
There are many good reasons to go off trail, and the chance to see moose definitely is one of them.
When we were at Bear Head Lake near Ely one January, we hiked first along a
lakeside ski trail that was so packed we didn't need snowshoes.
But then the ranger mentioned she'd seen moose tracks in fresh snow near the park entrance, and we decided to go moose-tracking. Strapping on our snowshoes, we plunged from the road into deep woods.
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