From Sister Bay we got to our next stop, Fish Creek, Wisconsin without any trouble. There we went to a restaurant for a fish boil, which is a big deal in this part of Wisconsin. The fish boil consists of fresh, caught that day, Lake Michigan White Fish which has been cleaned, the head and tail removed and the body cut into 3 equal pieces with bones still on them, red potatoes, whole onions, and little corn cobs. A giant witches cauldron is hanging over a blazing wood fire and is filled with several gallons of water and 10 pounds of salt. The ingredients are placed in individual baskets for stacking on top of each other during boiling process. When the water is boiling the potatoes are added and boiled for a little while, then the onions are dropped in. When the vegetables are done the fish basket is dropped into the water and cooked, finally the corn cobs are added to the top. White Fish is an oily fish so when the fish oil accumulates on the kettle water it is done. The fire master then dumps a coffee can of kerosene onto the fire which erupts in a huge hot blaze that causes the kettle to boil over overflowing some of the water and all the fish oil. The baskets are then removed and the food plated. The whole plate is then doused with butter, then dinner is served, which also includes coleslaw and cherry pie. I was not really expecting much from boiled fish but it was amazingly delicious. However, probably won’t try that in the back yard.

We left Fish Creek Marina and got into the city of Green Bay a day earlier that originally planned due to weather, yeah, that old thing again. We were at South Bay Marina, which is at the mouth of the Fox River. There was not really much traffic in this part of the Green Bay or on the water in general, as boating season was wrapping up essentially ends on Labor Day, and definitely by the middle of October. Kevin and Susan came in on Sunday, the 3rd of September, and we did some sightseeing around the city which included an hour and half tour of Lambeau Field, where the Green Bay Packers play.

The Green Bay Packers are owned by the city and it’s citizens, not a single owner. Team pride is felt and shown on every house, every person and in every nook and cranny of Green Bay and it even caused a resurgence of Packer Pride in me from my younger days living in Wisconsin. That was a spectacular tour, many, many thanks to Susan for that! I highly recommend it if ever in these parts.

Oh, and I did find out the deal with the cheese head thing. It started in the late 80’s when the guy who owned a foam rubber company took a wedge of foam rubber and covered it with yellow cloth and made it look like a wedge of cheese. Why?? He then wore it on his head to a game, even bigger why??, and it seemed that the crowd and the team liked it so much that they contracted with him to start making them for the team to sell. Therefore, they are now cheese heads. Apparently the Packers foundation just bought the foam rubber company, so they now produce them for themselves. I still don’t like the cheese head thing. I will always remain a Packer Backer.

The next day was Labor Day and as a surprise to me from my wonderful and thoughtful husband, we took a drive along the Fox River, to several of the locks and down into Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where my history with boating started so many, many years ago – not saying how many, many’s there are.

The locks along the Fox River between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay were shut down in the 80’s as an attempt to stop the Lamprey Eel from transiting from the Great Lakes into Lake Winnebago. Now there is another invasive fish, a gobi of some kind, that is endangering the lakes. In the early 2000’s the Army Corp of Engineers, who originally made and manned the locks, determined the locks were no longer a Corp responsibility so they gave the locks and some money to the state of Wisconsin and told the state they can do whatever they wish with the locks and the land they are on. So a preservation group was started and they have restored several of the locks back to functioning condition and are manned by the group that now allow passage through several of the locks to various places along the river. However, the last lock before Lake Winnebago will never be restored. We also found out that my dream of taking our boat down the Fox River into Lake Winnebago was never going to happen. We are way too big and we would not fit under several non-lifting bridges, and there are a lot of pretty shallow areas now. Oh well.

We were walking between a series of locks and saw a guy in one of the booths, so we went to talk with him. That was the last day the locks were going to be manned and in operation for the season. While we were talking with him he got a call from a guy who was moving his boat from his house along the river to a spot where he would be storing it for the winter and made arrangements for the opening of 3 locks between home and end location. Since it was a few hours before locking time, we found a nice little diner for lunch. We returned to the lock to watch the boater to pass through and saw the operation of one set of locks. These locks were restored to original operation, which means the gates, the water inlets and outlets are all hand operated. It’s quite a workout and it was very hot since it was in the high 80’s to low 90’s, the very first day of above high 60’s to low 70’s all summer long. But, those temps only lasted 2 days and it’s now back into the 60’s.

Oh, yeah, there is only one remaining paper mills along the Fox River. The river water has been cleaned up and the smell is not as intense as it was back in the day, but my nose memory banks recognized that smell immediately.

From the locks we traveled further south to Oshkosh and believe it or not, and with the help of my phone-a-friend brother Dave’s amazing memory (he’s not as old as I am), I actually found the site of the 10 slip dock where my grandparents kept their boat. The dock was torn down in the 1970’s but there are still remnants of pilings that identified the location. And once I got there, memories from my summers spent there started to flood back. The little island across the way where my grandmother always yelled at me and my dock friend Nancy to stop launching hot air balloons made of dry cleaner bags, paper clips and wax soaked cotton balls into the air as she was sure we were going to start the island on fire, the little train that traveled around the attached park, the pony ride arena and the little petting zoo that is now the Menominee Park Zoo.

The day was such a special trip down memory lane and brought me to tears a couple of times, and I’m even tearing up a little writing this remembering the past. OK, enough of that. We stayed in Green Bay one extra day…yup, you guessed why.

We are currently in Menominee Michigan, on the west side of Green Bay. We will be leaving here tomorrow and getting into Sturgeon Bay for one night then moving back into Lake Michigan for the journey down that side of the lake to Milwaukee.

Thanks for joining us and keep following us along the journey. Love to all, Gina and Mike