Heading to Galena

We take one week of vacation as a family in the summer. With 6 boys and all their activities, we’re lucky to be able to carve out that much! The question is, when you already live near one of the top vacation destinations in the US [Door County, WI] where are you going to go that’s different, but equal in terms of quality. For us, the answer has always been Galena, one of the 10 prettiest towns in America according to Forbes Traveler…

I don’t remember when my parents first acquired Teddy Bear Place, but I think they had already owned it for awhile when I proposed to my wife here on Valentine’s Day 1989. Prior to that, it had been owned by my dad’s 2nd cousin so I estimate that TBP has been part of my life for over 30 years. Returning always brings a flood of happy memories combined with the prospect of making more.

This year, summer vacation had to be sandwiched between soccer and football. We hopped in the car as soon as my son’s team dropped out of the county tournament. We made stopped along the way in Fond du Lac to visit our #2 son Colin and his lovely girlfriend Kelsey then went on to Madison for a quick glimpse at the capitol and stop at Trader Joe’s to stock up on some treats for our trip…

In my humble opinion, Wisconsin’s state capitol is one of the most beautiful government buildings ever made! One the way down, I realized that two of the three boys with us had never seen it and none had ever been inside. Even though everyone was anxious to get on to Trader Joe’s and Galena, we had to make a brief stop to check it out.

For those of you who have yet to be introduced to TJ’s, I’m convinced that Trader Joe’s [to paraphrase Ben Franklin] is proof that God loves us and  wants us to be happy! We became addicted when we lived in California in the ‘80’s and waited a long time for them to come to the Midwest. Now we have them in Milwaukee and Madison and we stop every time we pass through to stock up on high quality/value foods, wines and beers. Yesterday was no exception…

We had hoped to stop in Dodgeville, too. A couple of trips ago, we found a pharmacy with an old fashioned soda fountain where you could get hand crafted cherry cokes just like when I was a kid. Unfortunately, the pharmacy was closed on a Sunday afternoon and we didn’t make our traditional stop…

We arrived in Galena just a little after 6 and were all moved in a little before 7. We should have headed right to the pool because now the pools close at 8 and by the time we had gotten our act together, we had missed our chance…

The weatherman says there’s a beautiful week ahead of us and we’re looking forward to exploring! I’ll keep you posted…