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You probably think summer is a time to relax and enjoy the nice weather.
Wrong! It's the time to pick up the pace and make up for the months we sat around thinking about what we could be doing — hiking, biking, camping — if only we lived in Arizona or Florida.
By May, those places are sweatboxes and our time in the sun has arrived. We’ve got Lake Superior at our doorstep, rivers and lakes everywhere and the best bicycle trails in the nation. So go!
As if we didn’t have enough pressures in our lives, now we have “1,000 Places to See in U.S. and Canada Before You Die'' as well as the best-selling "1,000 Places to See Before You Die’’ (See A thousand times, go).
I've been to some of the places listed in those books, but I'll never see them all in my lifetime. I’ll have a fine time reading about them, though. Then I’ll toss some clothes in a bag and be perfectly happy on my orbits around Lake Superior and the Mississippi.
Our own back yard, while not particularly glamorous, contains some wonderful places, and you actually have a good chance of
seeing them all in your lifetime.
Patricia Schultz’s best-selling book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die’’ was grand entertainment for armchair travelers. It’s unlikely that many people read the book, then ran off to raft the Mangoky River in Madagascar or bask on the beaches of Bora Bora. But she let us dream about it.
The New York writer's current book, however, is about places to which people might actually go — and about places they
know. It's called “1,000 Places to See in the U.S. and Canada Before You Die.''
She couldn’t visit every place she chose, so she relied on the help of friends and relatives, other travel writers, the Internet and tourism bureaus.
When it comes to small towns, there really is such a thing as love at first sight.
In 2000, Joy Gieseke was traveling to Madison from her economic-development job in Kansas when she stopped for a few hours in Mineral Point, Wis. She went about her business, but eight months later, she started looking for a job there, found the chamber position open and grabbed it.
"I don't know why Mineral Point hit me so hard," Gieseke says. "I had never heard about it before, but I stumbled across it and couldn't get it out of my mind. I've stumbled across a lot of little towns and just thought, well, that was cute.
There are certain towns that are so adorable and have so much that appeals to tourists that you just have to call them show towns (Also see Best little towns that charm the tourists).
They're real towns, of course, but they're always on their best behavior because tourists are always watching, and many have evolved in lockstep with tourism.
There's no question about what goes on the top of this list — especially midweek and in April, May and September — Galena, Ill. This 1850s lead-mining boom town snoozed for a century before it was rediscovered and turned into a playground for weekenders, especially from Chicago. They dabble in history, but they dive into shopping; boutiques line Main Street, and the hillsides are dotted with 50 B&Bs. It's a great place to visit — especially midweek and in April, May and September.
Some nifty little towns just haven't made the A list — or any list, so far (See Chasing the Top 10).
That means now is a good time to explore them, before the other tourists flock in.
Tops on this list is Viroqua, a southwest Wisconsin town that caught the eye of
expatriates from Madison long ago but recently has become more tourist-friendly with the opening of Main Street Station. This
indoor public market houses a cafe, organic ice-cream parlor, shops and the Greenman Music Hall, which holds regular concerts
and events. And the Driftless Folk School teaches classes in such homespun arts as spinning and sausage-making. Once, Viroqua
was notable mainly for having the only stoplights in scenic Vernon County; those days are over. Details: www.viroquapublicmarket.com.