#Gates50States

Open daily from 10-5pm, this is the place to learn the history of aviation with many hands-on activities for kids. For those families with children 8-17, check out Pioneer Airfield behind the museum offering free introductory flights to give kids an authentic flying experience. For our family of 5, the $31 family rate was a huge plus. Individual rates -$12.50 adults/ $9.50 kids. Allot several hours for this stop and feel free to leave for lunch then come back. The break was necessary for the kids to recharge and come back ready to listen and learn with a full stomach.

Once everyone has a good understanding of paper production head back to make your own paper from start to finish. Open Mon-Sat. 10-4pm, this definitely needs to be on the itinerary.

It may seem expensive, but getting a true behind-the-scenes tour of this operation with gelato and cheese samples, time with the goats and a fabulous lunch at the Creamery to finish things up, it really is a steal. The only downside was probably the children trying to smuggle a goat kid back on the bus.  🙂  Really, we cannot say enough good things about the Creamery’s gelato, lunch, cheese selection and farm tour. Well worth the time and money, even with a larger family.  Tours begin at 10am sharp and last for about 2-2 1/4 hrs by the time lunch wraps up.  Reservations are required and it’s best to arrive at least 15 minutes early. As of this writing, tours were $40 adults/ $25 kids 10 and under.

Arriving just in time, we grabbed seats on wooden benches in a clearing not too far from the parking lot. This non-profit, volunteer-run organization does a great job showcasing their passion for birds of prey in an educational and fun way. All raptors present were injured or have medical/mental issues preventing them from being released back into their habitat. Training for ambassador animals is conducted without food deprivation and really seems to be on the birds’ own terms. Owls are a favorite of our family, but we found the turkey vulture to be a fascinating, although not pretty, creature. Remember to have cash on hand for the entry fee of $7 per person and a little extra if possible to make a donation. A stop well worth 2 hours of our time.

Next on our list was a blitz of Cave Point County Park (free admission) and Whitefish Dunes State Park which happened to be just down the road from each other.

Hit Cave Point for the dramatic crashing of waves against the limestone cliffs  and opportunities for the kids to build rock towers. Kayaking is also an option, as we saw several tours come through, but I wouldn’t suggest it for kids. You could easily spend several hours here hiking, jumping off the cliffs when the weather is calm and having a picnic. We stopped for maybe an hour and that worked, too.

Whitefish Dunes State Park entrance is less than 10 minutes away. Options for entrance include a 1 hr pass for $5, Daily pass for $11 or an Annual WI State Park pass for $38 if you have out of state plates. The Nature Center is open from 10-4 daily in the summer but the real reason people flock here are the beautiful dunes sloping down to fine sand beaches. The water was pretty cold, even in August, but there were still a decent number of people even on a cloudy day. Several beach entrances are available. If you don’t mind walking a bit, huge sections of empty beach are available. The dog-friendly beach is the furthest away and was virtually empty when we were there.

Door County-in-a-day worked for our time constraints but I do wish we would have had time to explore the Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay. We got a glimpse of the tug John Purves docked right outside the museum when we stopped to get photos of amazing storm clouds, but it would have been really wonderful to tour the tug and the museum if we had another day available.

Taking it easy after our 14 hour Door County blitz the day before, we chose to leisurely hike High Cliff State Park on the eastern banks of Lake Winnebago on our last day in Wisconsin. The 40 ft observation tower was pretty neat but the trails were pretty average for us. Maybe with bikes, kayaks or time at the beach we would have found this stop more interesting, but it was mostly just something to do outside since the weather was decent.

With rain forecasted again in the afternoon, we chose an indoor waterpark –Tunda Lodge – in Green Bay. Not too far away and fabulous rates if you go after 12:00pm. Was $60 expensive for a couple of hours? Yes, but the kids had an awesome time and we had to do at least one waterpark in WI. It was very similar to Great Wold Lodge -not too big but enough to do for several hours without getting bored.

And with that, we wrapped up our Wisconsin travels. Overall, a wonderful state to which we could easily return and find many more things to do and places to visit. I highly recommend delving into the interesting museums and experiences highlighting this state’s unique contributions to the the United States as a whole. I’m sure a week of vacation could easily be spent at a lakeside resort, however much would be missed.

Join us next in visiting the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as we continued our 50 State exploration.