State Parks in Wisconsin offer year-round recreational and educational experiences. During the winter months, you can enjoy more than 700 miles of groomed cross-country ski trails or have the bracing experience winter camping in parks and forest. During the summer, you and your kids can enjoy nature programs at state parks or rent an inexpensive cabin. Opportunities for camping and hiking, horseback riding and fishing, boating and birding abound.
Held annually in August and dating back to 1851, the Wisconsin State Fair is the state's largest yearly event. It incorporates the traditional agriculture celebration and livestock judging with an International Bazaar, 30 stages featuring top-talent. It is held at the Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis.
Hosted annually in Milwaukee, Summerfest is billed as "the world's largest music festival." Spanning 11 days, the festival includes 13 stages where world-class musicians perform. Additionally, comedians perform their stand-up routines daily, children have their own play area and thrill rides are on-site as well as food.
Held toward the end of July in Hayward, the annual Lumberjack World Championships feature 21 events. The participating lumberjacks compete for a purse valued at more than $50,000.
Wine aficionados can take the self-guided Fox River Valley Wine Trail, a route in eastern Wisconsin that carries visitors to five different wineries to sample the local wines. In total, there are 51 Wisconsin wineries.
Door County is home to the Simon Creek Winery, the state's largest vineyard, famous for its Door County Cherry wine and the Orchard Country Winery & Market that makes 30 grape and fruit wines. Wineries in Glacial Hills produce fruit wines such as blueberry, apple and mulberry while the Three Lakes Winery in the Northwoods region is renowned for its Wisconsin's Original Cranberry Wine.
No tour of Wisconsin wineries is complete without a visit to the Wollersheim Winery situated above the Wisconsin River Valley. Listed as a National Historic Site, Wollersheim was established before the Civil War and produces nationally and internationally recognized wines.
If you like to hang ten and experience the thrill of catching a curl, then you'll want to experience the annual Dairyland Surf Classic in Sheboygan on the shores of Lake Michigan. The largest freshwater surfing event in the world, the three-day Classic attracts surfers from around the globe to participate and compete in this Labor Day weekend event.
With Chicago nearby, Wisconsin's backwoods and forests became popular with gangsters from the Windy City. Chief among the hoodlums who sought cover in Wisconsin was bank robber John Dillinger. His narrow escape during a shootout with the FBI took place at the Little Bohemia Lodge, which is still an operating restaurant. Additionally, in Lac du Flambeau, Baby Face Nelson hid from the FBI after a daring escape. Chicago tough guy and bootlegger "Polack Joe" Saltis had a huge estate in Sawyer County on Barker Lake and Al Capone's brother Ralph owned and operated The Rex Bar in Mercer until his death in the 70s. All of these events and locales and many more are part of the self-guided Wisconsin gangster tours.
