Midwest Monday:New Glarus, WI

While the hubby was gone hunting, my brother and I took a short trip to southern Wisconsin for the weekend to tour the cities of New Glarus and Paoli. 
New Glarus is known as the Little Switzerland of Wisconsin.  It is a very quaint little town with rolling hills surrounding it. We did some shopping downtown and our first stop was at the Vault Market.
I was in love with this place!  It was like a pinterest heaven.  All sorts of old painted furniture, windows and doors, chandeliers, framed chalkboards, and other handmade items.  The building itself was awesome with tall exposed ceilings and old brick walls.  I could have taken home many items to surprise Ryan with when he got home but I controlled myself! 

We found out that the owner also owned another store location in Paoli, so I knew that would be on our list of places to stop next!

Of course any getaway with my brother means lots of stops for coffee.  We found Fat Cat Coffee Works downtown.  They had great coffee and a really neat location.  Needless to say, we made more than one stop there over the weekend.

Just to let you know, there are lot of honest people in New Glarus.  I have the bad habit of leaving things places and didn't realize I had forgotten a purchase from The Vault in the coffee shop till about an hour later.  We went back and the guy had my bag behind the counter!  Wooh!  Somehow I always get lucky and seem to get my things back at least.

New Glarus Brewery was our next stop.  They have a gorgeous, newly remodeled building located on a bluff overlooking the city.  For about $7 you can buy a glass with a sample of any of their beers while you take the free self guided tour.  I'm not a beer drinker, but I tried the new Raspberry Tart flavor for the ladies.  Wasn't bad for a beer!  :)

 'Hard Hat' tours are available for $20 on Fridays which includes an in depth tour of all their previous and current locations along with taste testings. 

Do you have as much fun with your brother or sister as I do?

Besides that there is the New Glarus Primrose Winery, a handful of great restaurants, and many nearby state parks and trails.

Then we headed to Paoli where we visited the Cottage Goddess which was another location from The Vault Market owner.  Its a must see if you are in the area.  The historic old buildings and landscape are enough to make you want to go and check it out!

 The Paoli Schoolhouse restaurant and unique gift shop was another great stop.  They were all decorated with gifts for the holidays that you could buy.  

We brought our bikes along for the weekend so we could bike the Badger State and Sugar River State Trail which runs near New Glarus and Paoli.

We started biking on the Badger State Trail in Belleville at Library Park, just north of New Glarus. 

 About 5 miles south of Belleville you will reach the tunnel.  The tunnel curves making it impossible to see through to the other side, so you will need to bring a headlamp or flashlight to make it through.

We camped at Governor Dodge State Park that night.  It ended up getting down to about 24 degrees so we had a chilly night but it was fun to sit by a campfire again!  You may not want to camp there anytime soon if you don't like the cold, but there are alot of great hikes in the park if you have the time.

Hope you get a chance to go visit New Glarus and Paoli!  Its well worth the stop!