A personal Wisconsin To-Do List
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. Who needs that kind of pressure? Furthermore, the calendar new year is kind of an arbitrary time to consider being a better person.
Yet, I do believe in considering goals and to-do lists. These written devices keep you on track and put you on a more focused path. If you care about something, you owe it to yourself to plan for it. Assign space for it in your life.
With that in mind, I’ve come up with a list of Wisconsin things that I want to do in 2019:
Go eagle viewing.
In the 1970’s only a hundred pairs of eagles nested in Wisconsin. In 2017, there were nearly 1,600 occupied eagle nests, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Go anywhere along the Mississippi River, between December and March, and you’ll likely find some eagles soaring. They’re huge birds and a huge thrill to see.
Spot a snowy owl.
Each winter, the Wisconsin photographer and birder groups that I follow on Facebook are littered with photos of snowy owls—known affectionately as snowys.
It is easy to see why. They’re brilliant looking birds with stark yellow eyes. These birds spend most of their lives in the arctic, but each winter a few head south and end up in Wisconsin.
I’ve never seen one in person and that needs to change.
Check out the Fiserv Forum.
Milwaukee has a brand-spanking new sports arena with a huge scoreboard. The Fiserv Forum, home to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the rising Milwaukee Bucks, might deserve a visit.
Heck, the Bucks are pretty good these days, too.
Visit a new brewery.
I could go to a new brewery every week and not run out of breweries this year. It might be the golden age of suds and it is hard to keep up.
It is also easy to go to your favorite, and comfortable, watering holes over and over again. For the sake of new experiences, I’m making it a point to order a flight at a brewery that I haven’t been to before.
That brewery might be Working Draft Beer Company in Madison or Cercis Brewing Company in my hometown of Columbus.
Buy Brewers tickets.
While I watch a lot of baseball on TV, I don’t go to Miller Park too often. It just isn’t that convenient most nights to drive from where I live in Madison to Milwaukee.
Most of the time when I do go to the games, it is a spur of the moment situation or someone gives me a ticket.
Given that Brewers are actually good right now, it might be worth scheduling a few games.
Hike the Ice Age Trail.
Not too long ago I read a book (“Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail”) by Wisconsin travel writer Melanie Radzicki McManus. The book chronicled her hike across the entire trail (That’s more than a thousand miles) and the reasons why others hike the National Scenic Trail.
McManus made it seem like a crime to be a proud Wisconsinite and to not visit the trails. It is time to knock off a few sections.
Learn at a historic site.
I’ve been meaning to visit more of Wisconsin’s historic sites.
While I would jump at the opportunity to visit a historic site while I am traveling, when I am home it is too easy to think I will get to it soon, but then never make it.
I’m looking forward to visiting one this year. Perhaps, it will be the site of the ancient town of Aztalan near Lake Mills or Pendarvis, a historic site made up of several 19th century cabins build by Cornish immigrants who came to Mineral Point to mine lead.
CRAIG SAUER is a writer, communicator and former journalist living in Fitchburg, Wis.
