Last week, DH and I took DD to camp in northern Wisconsin along the Minnesota border; we made several stops both directions:

Madison - we will make up any excuse to stop in Madison, one of our favorite cities! We dined at Ella's (www.ellasdeli.com) - a favorite deli - with a HS friend of DH's, his wife and two young children. We had a seemingly long wait (40 minutes) even though they told us 10 to 15 minutes. Sandwiches were great as usual. They have a great little sampling plate for toddlers - apple sauce, yogurt, cheese, etc. Dessert was Babcock Hall ice cream at the union - while enjoying the sunset out on the terrace. Would have been perfect except for the excessive heat! We stayed at a Residence Inn on the east side - clean, typical Residence Inn.

Wausau - stopped here en route to Door County. We stayed at a nearly empty (July 4th) Courtyard - nicely redone contemporary lobby but mundane rooms. We ate dinner at the Great Dane Pub, a short walk from the hotel across the parking lot. Good pub food and great beer. (It's a Madison based brewery with several restaurants. www.greatdanepub.com) We had breakfast at 2510 Restaurant (www.2510restaurant.com) - fantastic and reasonably priced! The french toast is made with cinnamon bread - yum! We got some tasty cookies for the road as well.

Door County - I had trouble finding a place to stay that didn't have a minimum stay of three nights (this was the couple of days after July 4th and we only planned on staying for two days), wasn't expensive (over $200/night) or too frilly! We ended up at the Colonial Gardens B&B (colgardensbb.com) in Sturgeon Bay, a great choice! We had a two room suite - plenty of space. Our only complaint was the lousy shower head. Breakfasts were great - and brought on a tray to the room. (I don't think there is any public space where all guests would be able to eat breakfast.) We drove all over Door County, exploring whatever caught our fancy - lots of cute little stores in cute little towns! We bought great cherry related items at Seaquist Orchards (www.seaquistorchards.com) in Sister Bay. We had a great dinner at Chop (thechopsisterbay.com) - they went out of their way to accommodate us by putting a table in a shaded spot that they don't normally use. We melted while eating dinner at Fred and Fuzzy's (fredandfuzzys.com), a very popular place! We sampled the ice cream at Wilson's (www.wilsonsicecream.com) in Ephraim - yummy - huge portions! We went for a nice walk in Whitefish Dunes State Park and then enjoyed the beach at Peninsula State Park.

Oshkosh - we made a short stop at the Experimental Aircraft Association's Air Venture museum (museum.eaa.org). Fantastic museum for anyone who loves flying!

Milwaukee - it was on our way home, so we just had to make a pilgrimage to Kopp's Frozen Custard (www.kopps.com). Yummy!!!