August 25, 2012

We drove into Appleton today.  There was a really large farmers market and the street we needed was blocked off for three blocks.  We parked on a side street and then walked along and bought some fresh vegetables.  The brewmaster and part owner of Stone Cellar Brewing was there selling the soda pop they also make.  We talked to him and he gave us a wooden token to go have a free beer at the brewpub.  We put the vegetables we bought in the truck and then walked to the History Museum at the Castle.  Harry Houdini’s family came from Budapest when he was four years old and he lived in Appleton.  The museum has a Houdini exhibit including his magic implements such as his straight jacket and lets you know how these magic tricks were performed.  There is also an exhibit for Appleton resident Edna Ferber, author of Showboat and Giant.

We had lunch that we packed and then went to the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah.  This museum has a world renowned collection of glass art, including one of the largest collections of glass paperweights in the world.  They had some beautiful paperweights.  It is amazing that everything in the paperweights, including birds, flowers, and geometric designs are made only of glass.  Jim bought two from the gift shop before we left to add to his collection.  They also had an exhibit by glass artist Ricky Bernstein.  He makes humorous life-size collages out of glass and aluminum.

We went to Stone Cellar Brewpub and used the wooden token and also bought a beer.  We left the brewmaster a Hopadillo from Karbach Brewing in Houston.  We found one geocache and then went to Fratello’s Fox River Brewing where we shared a pint of beer.  We were driving back to the Casita and Jim needed gas and I needed a few items for a pizza tonight so we drove to the Wal-Mart in Chilton.  Chilton also had Rowland’s Calumet Brewery so we stopped in and shared a small glass of beer. We ran into the brew master on the sidewalk as we were leaving and talked to him.  We drove back to camp and I made pizzas tonight.  We watched the Texans Saints game on TV.