Prior to Saturday, the closest my son Charlie’s girlfriend Tara had been to Wisconsin was Northeast Philadelphia.
So, when the New Jersey native agreed to venture to the west side of the Great Lakes, we knew we had to convince her that the state Charlie has been calling #heavenonearth really is worthy of the hashtag. Perhaps you’ve been following her journey on Charlie’s active and well-hashtagged Instagram account under #Taringupthemidwest?
In four days, she tasted every type of cheese we offer, from squeaky curd to 10-year old cheddar; she even went nose-to-nose with a calf on a dairy farm. She went Up North and downtown, enjoyed an evening float down the Oconto River and an afternoon swim in the North Shore pool.
She ate walleyed pike and sipped a brandy old-fashioned sweet. She learned to play Sheepshead during an intense lesson on our dining room table and talked sports smack around the campfire at our cabin.
As much as we had fun introducing Wisconsin to Tara, we appreciated even more the opportunity for Charlie to introduce Tara to us. She’ll be taking a few mosquito bites back with her when she and Charlie head back to New York today, but she’ll be taking our best wishes with her as well.
We’re already looking forward to Taring up the Midwest round two, the winter version.
