Joel and Kris's Excellent Adventure - Baraboo, September 2019(published in November)

Trip To Baraboo

When the end of September rolled around, flower farming exhaustion had set in, so my husband Joel and I decided to take some much needed time to rest and celebrate our wedding anniversary. We did have plans to go to Door County but later became aware Joel’s friend was having a wedding reception at North Freedom Park-Wisconsin so we decided to spend the weekend in that area.

To find a place to stay, we checked out the Airbnb website looking for a room in North Freedom. We had never done this before and were curious as to what the experience might be like? After searching around the site, we decided to stay in Baraboo(home of the Barnum & Bailey Circus) at the Ash Street Retreat. We stayed a Friday and Saturday night in the “Artist’s Retreat” room which cost us a total of about $200. We were charged half of the payment around September 5th when we made the reservation and the other half around September 12th.

The Artist’s Room at the Ash Street Retreat.

The day before we were to arrive, the hosts of the Ash Street Retreat sent us an email regarding parking and how to get in. The email instructed us to head up the staircase when we arrived and look for a room with a sign saying “Artist’s Retreat” and the keys would be in the door. There was a binder in the room explaining everything else about our stay. We actually never saw or met our hosts. This was a very nice quiet, clean comfortable place to stay.

There was no TV, breakfast served or or pool etc. This was fine with us since we were pretty tired and just wanted to rest. One night, we used my husband’s ipad to watch a show on Youtube - there was a good internet connection. Otherwise, we were fine with resting and reading during our downtime.

On the landing outside our bedroom door, there was a Keurig machine with several different types of coffee and assorted tea bags. Plus there was fruit, granola bars and oatmeal packets. I made oatmeal and heated it up in the microwave and Joel said it was easier for him to just eat a granola bar.

Even with the Ringling Brothers Circus shut down, Baraboo is still full of circus related sites to explore such as the Circus World Museum and the Al Ringling Theater both of which are open year round. When we have time, it really would be great to go back and visit the circus attractions and the Mid-Continent Railway.

The Friday evening of our trip, we went to eat at the Glacier Rock(we had a Bucky Book Coupon) which is a restaurant connected on to the Clarion Hotel. Our dinner was really good. Joel had walleye and I had salmon. There was also a friendly guy in the dining room with a guitar playing some good ole country songs that I hadn’t heard in a long time!

The Saturday of our stay we went to the farmer’s market and looked through the the really neat diverse shops downtown before heading to the North Freedom Park for the reception.. The park looks like a great place to launch a boat into the Baraboo River. There was a $3 charge to put your boat in there.

The reception was fun. It was a sunny cool day and it was great to be outside by the river.

After the reception, we went to the New Life Lavender and Cherry Farm which I loved. They offer tours for $12 and they have many lavender and cherry products for sale. In the cafe, I had a dish of homemade lavender ice cream and Joel had a frappe.

At the lavender farm- Joel had a frappe and I had homemade lavender ice cream!

After that we went back to our quiet room and read/took nap/caught up on email etc.

Then we went to Mama Mia’s which is a great Italian restaurant downtown on 3rd Street. I had lasagna that was absolutely excellent and Joel had a calzone that looked pretty good too. After that big meal, we felt the need to take a power walk around the block!

Sunday around 11, we went to the Green Vine Restaurant and had smoothies and split a roll up with a side of chips and salsa - all of which was very good!

After that we headed home — BACK TO REALITY.

“And all at once…summer collapsed into fall”

Oscar Wilde

And now into winter. YIKES.