Colorado road

Apostle Island Inline Marathon - 2012

Apostle Island Inline Marathon  - 2012

Apostle Island Inline Marathon

Apostle Island Inline Marathon -2012

Green Bay Progressive Dinner

All images were taken with an Iphone only show

Friday's Green Bay Progressive Dinner

How we enjoy a progressive dinner is we normally start at a restaurant and have an appetizer and a drink. Then moving on to another restaurant and sampling another appetizer. Sometimes we eat a cheese platter and then an appetizer, it just depends on the restaurants that we find for the night. We have found it is best to share so that you don't get too full before the entree restaurant. We even found that sharing an entree works out the best. And finally moving on to another restaurant to enjoy dessert. Depending on how much you share throughout the night, you might not make it to this point. And dessert is always the best part of the meal.

Before heading out I check the local restaurant's websites to see what places sound good for either appetizers, desserts or entrees. I usually have a list of extra restaurants to fall back on. For this trip I had two nights worth of restaurants and a few extras to pick from.

The plan was to start with Caffe Expresso for a pick me up and a stop at the Tapas Room for a cheese sampler plate and wine. Then heading to the Black and Tan restaurant for pumpkin soup and a drink. Next stop Fusion Lounge for appetizers and another drink. Then stopping at the Republic Chophouse for the entree, making sure to check out the desserts along the way for a return trip.

So we started our plan with a stop at Caffe Espresso, but we added a small dessert to our coffee round. We had three cups of Pretty Boy, which we were told tasted like pumpkin. A Pretty Boy was Chai latte with Irish cream, white creme de cacao, espresso and cinnamon. We shared the Cranberry Orange Biscotti which was not too dry like so many biscotti before have been. A great treat to start the adventure out right.

On our drive to Caffe Espresso we saw that the Tapas Room was closed. I had noticed a posting on the web stating it was closed, but we just had to find out for ourselves This restaurant was excellent for small plates to share and we were sad to hear about the closing. So after having coffee we walked down the block and crossed the street to the Black and Tan Restaurant. Each time we have eaten there we just sit in the bar. On the website they listed a Pumpkin Bisque on the menu, but that ended just two weeks before we got there. But they did have a Creamy Acorn Squash with Bacon soup. We ordered the soup and also an order of Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Bruschetta, which is the best Bruschetta I've ever had. The drinks there are also very good.
After finishing we drove a couple of blocks to Chefusion and headed upstairs to the Fusion Lounge for sweet potato fries with Bleu Cheese dipping sauce. The lounge menu has a lot of small plates to choose from. And the drink menu is so wonderful, they make a number of special drinks. We had thought of maybe having a second appetizer and then moving on to the Republic Chophouse, but after hearing the dinner specials I knew we weren't leaving this restaurant at all.

The Arctic Char over a bed of pasta and the Halibut over rice were unbelievable. I should have written down word by word how it was described by the waitress. You could tell just by how our waitress read the specials that it was going to be amazing and it was... The Halibut, rice and sauce was more of a sweet sauce and the bed of pasta a little on the good salty side. So different in taste but so complementary to the fish in it's dish. After having such great dishes we decided to stay there for dessert too. We ordered the Lemon Butter Cake and the Mascarpone Cheesecake. The lemon cake came with homemade ice cream. The lemon cake was the best dessert I have ever had. It just melted in your mouth.

Next time in Green Bay I am stopping and staying for the whole meal at Che Fusion. It is my favorite Green Bay Restaurant.

Springbrook Nature Center

 Springbrook Nature Center

 One cold morning

Keith Lunde's toys

Keith Lunde's toys from when he was a kid.


Keith is Larry my Husband father who has kept so many of his childhood toys. We were blessed to see so many wonderful he has kept toys. Keith family owned a creamer near Mitchel, South Dakota.


The black truck was a White Company. The tank is a Louis Marx & Co World War I tank. A couple of John Deere and McCormick farm equipment was his father's toys made out of cast-iron.

Mr Pork Chop

Mr Pork Chop

Mr Pork Chop

One of the vendors on Ragbrai

Mr Pork started serving back in 1982 when it passed though Paul Bernhard’s hometown of Bancroft. He was asked to serve his pork chops. The next year it passed close to his home town and again he was asked to serve his pork chops. The riders just loved his pork chops and said he should follow the riders and serve the pork chops. So he did. They have been serving Pork Chops ever since that. Paul’s son Matt helped him for many years and then took over the business. Paul has retired but still makes appearances on some of the stops. Paul has been known to yell “Get your po r k chops”, where you can hear it down the road.


You can find Mr Pork Chop everyday on some part of the ride. “Location is everything” says Matt. He tries to find a location on the top of a hill, visible from the road, where you can see and smell the pork chops for miles. Got to have great shade for the riders to want to stop. Matt also tries to find a place near the meeting town. The weather can affect the amount of pork chops sold each day. About 800 pork chops are sold each day on a good day. About 40% of Ragbrai riders stop to eat his pork chops at least once during the week. He loves to hear people talk about his pork chops and how they just had to stop. Out of all of the vendors, Mr Pork Chop is the most known and most talked about on the ride.

Matt talked a little about how they cook the pork chops without giving away all of his secrets. The frozen pork chops are put into a metal grate which has another grate that closes over them so they can flip all of them at one time. They use corn cobs for fuel to cook the frozen pork chops. The cobs burn at a higher temperature to seal in the flavors. You can’t miss the pink pig old school bus parked next to the road. Next to the bus are the grills with big bellowing smoke to catch the bikers eyes. The bus is filled up like a silo full of corn cobs for the whole week.