40. Wisconsin's Northwoods - Mercer

We just spent 5 cozy nights at Birchwood Point Cottage on Wilson Lake and it was pure bliss! In this episode we talk about this gorgeous rental, what we did in the Northwoods in the middle of winter, and highlight some dog-friendly establishments.

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Transcript

0:11

Hello everybody. And welcome back to a, another. Episode of on the road with that Wisconsin couple episode 40. As always I am Hayden. And I'm Julia. And today we are taking you to one of our favorite areas of Wisconsin, the north woods. And we are specifically talking about Mercer. We're the Mercer area. Cause we did venture out or Mercer area for sure. As always. You wanna hit him on the front back? I will hit them with a fun fact. So Mercer is known as the loon capital of the world because it's got a high concentration of common loons. And as you drive through town, there's a 16 foot. Tall loon called cleared alone. And it's just like this cute little statue that you pass as you drive through the Northwoods. I love it. But then in August they also have like loon day, which is like their festival in town. So those are your fun facts. Absolutely. I always love hearing the fun facts. Good great way to start the episodes. Thanks. You're welcome. That was a very good little feature we put in. So a little bit more about the general area here in Mercer. It is an iron county. From us, it is three hours and 25 minutes. 219 miles. And we have been there the last five days. Yeah. So if you're listening to this the day it comes out. We were there yesterday. We came home from this trip yesterday. But full disclosure, this was a hosted stay. And all of these opinions, our own, like nothing is. You know, scripted. This is just us chatting about this five day. Luxurious trip. We just had absolutely. So before we kind of deep dive into the episode, I just wanted to touch base on the fact that winter tourism is looking very different this year. If you look out your window, you're probably not seeing. A lot of snow. So for a lot of the counties in Northern Wisconsin, including iron county there ice fishing and snowmobile tourism. Has come to a streaking halt. But. They're still open for business. So these small towns are still full of life and have lots of things for you to do. We're going to obviously talk about what we did, but if your funds allow, if you have it in your budget, we would encourage you to take a day trip somewhere up north, maybe a little overnight weekend getaway to. You know, somewhere in the north woods that could use a little bit of tourism right now. So if your funds allow, I would encourage you to venture off. Maybe if you just take a day trip to try a new restaurant or a brewery or a winery that's been on your list for a while. Maybe that's in your future. Just try to plan something up in the Northwoods because the towns are still open. Just their tourism isn't coming in the way it usually does, but they still need your support. just something to think about. Absolutely. Hey, and if you're ever having trouble like finding Mercer on the map, We have this really cool little thing. It's called Google maps. And Julia. Created ours. It is a one-time fee. You get to keep it for your entire life. And every single week. That we talk about areas on the podcast recommendations on the podcast. You get a new pin every time that we mentioned something on the podcast. Super helpful. Super helpful in the Northwoods, if you don't have service because it works offline. Once you have it. So the super helpful tool that we really appreciate you guys reaching out and Ordering. Yeah, so you can purchase it. On our website, there's a link in the show notes. There has an episode recap and kind of just links to everything. But. In addition to our Google map. This Google map is really kind of fun because you can see all the places we've recommended, but like if you're on a road trip somebody said that you literally used it to pick out pit stops. On their way to their destination this past weekend. So it's just a useful tool. And like Kane said, it's right on your Google maps app. So it's nothing additional you have to have on your phone. You probably already have this app and it's just a little. Little tab you can add to see. The places we've recommended. Absolutely. Well, let's get into the meat and potatoes. Shall we dear? Yes, I'm so excited. You start us off. Okay. So this trip was in celebration of our one-year wedding anniversary, which was this past Sunday, February 11th. And we celebrated with this five nights, stay at the Mercer cabin, collectives, Birchwood point rental. I know that was a lot of words, but the. Rental is called Birchwood point and it's the cutest cottage. It had the kitchen of my dreams. It had this beautiful kitchen with the large island and then views like lake views out the window, it was stunning. I liked it. Cause it was like secluded, like views. Like we could see the spots we wanted to see, but like people couldn't see us. Yeah. Like from the road, they're our neighbors. But this property is like perfectly out kind of like, I want to say, like on a mini peninsula where you have views from multiple sides of the cottage. As well as a little bit of property, like we could walk the dogs like out in the front and the back. And to the side, down to the lake. And there is like a little dock in the summer. You could bring your boat. Beautiful outdoor fireplace, but then inside it's two bedrooms. One room has a queen size bed and bunk beds. And then the other room is, has a queen size bed as well. The coziest living space with a fireplace inside, we cuddled up by the fire every single night we were there. Again, the kitchen of my dreams. I just will never like that's that set the standards so high. Those views of the lake from the kitchen. If you don't know, cooking is like my passion. I love to cook. And just being in that beautiful space made me so happy. Yeah, it had a nice little summer screen porch, too. Oh, yeah. Like building or anything. But I imagine. In the spring and the summer and the fall. It's a great place to like, Play cards. From the bugs. I couldn't sit out there. It's cold. Well, right now, yeah. Awesome. But, yeah, and just a really nice space, this like sun porch. Again, would it be great to like play cards in the summer? They did have a little, they did have a little, like a. Canopy garage to out there. Yeah, for like snowmobiles four wheelers side by side boat. If he got one that could fit in there, like just. A nice little extra area. To store some stuff too, if you're there for a rather extended period of time. Yeah. This rental is new. So they looked like it. Yeah. It's very very like, it felt luxurious. It's a very cozy, but everything was just like so nice. And the attention to detail was immaculate. We loved it. It was a dog-friendly rental. But in addition to all of that, Like. This, when word gets out about this cabin rental, I feel like it will be booked. So if you're looking for like a week long, stay this summer, that's a reasonable price. You could bring your dogs. And just like looking for like a week at a cabin in the north woods, I would highly recommend checking this out. We are going to try to go back either. This fall, like the September. Or this July with my sister and brother-in-law. But like, honestly, A beautiful, beautiful spot. Like gorgeous. Ah, let's move on down the list here. Oh, we should mention they have a special so Mercer, Mercer cabin collective again, it'll be linked in the show notes, but. If you're listening to this to the day it comes out or close to the day it comes out and you're looking for like a last minute, get away. If you book at least two nights between February 22nd through the 26th. You'll receive a hundred dollars. And gift cards to the local businesses and that's up to$300. So a hundred dollars per night, you book and gift cards to use. At like in town. Steel, absolute steel. Take you a long way, Mercer. Yeah. So a hundred dollars back right away for the night you booked. So it's a two night minimum. So you're going to get$200 to spend back. Honestly, I have nothing but amazing things to say about this place. So if you're looking for a last minute, little getaway between the 22nd and 26 scoop up two of those nights. I can't say enough. Good things. You bet. Yeah. I would. I'm very intrigued to see it in its full bloom in nice weather. I know. I can't wait to go back. I can't. And like also. We don't always say that. Like sometimes we go to a place and we checked all our boxes and we've done that. We want to do. And we don't always feel the need to go back. This one, like we are literally just came home and are itching to go back. All right. We'll move on down the list to some spots that we enjoyed to eat at. We'll start with home slice. So this was Cool. A little spot. That we took a takeout pizza, but their menu looked really good. And the. It looked like it was an old gas station, converted to a bar slash pizza slash sandwich shop. Yeah, so sweet. A lot of their reviews. Talked about subs. We did do a pizza to go, and we actually picked it up on our way to some nerve brewing, which we'll talk about in a little bit, but it's kind of just like right off the main road. I'm a little pit stop, but yeah, the pizza was really good. It's a thing for us. It smelled really good when I went to pick it up in there, just like. Chicken parm sandwiches. Next time I want to try a sub. Yeah, it looked, it looked really good. And the pizza we had was pretty darn delicious as well. You. Yeah, the sauce was a bit sweeter, but I really liked it. That was what we went with. I suggest it. Yeah, but next time I would like to try a stub because a lot of the reviews were talking about the subs. So I'd like to try that. But yeah, really good place. It was also in other recommendations from the rental, from Birchwood points, like gas book. So, you know, they speak to it too in their local. So that says a lot and they do deliver to an extent. It seemed like they didn't deliver to some nerve. No, they did. Oh, they just didn't have a delivery person. At that time. Yeah. But it's right on the way. If you're coming from Mercer to stop and pick up home slice. Yeah. On your way to some nerve. So maybe just call it in on your way. And then one of the nights we. There are no, this was for lunch. So one of the days we walk up and we. Aye. Me and my way into town to muskies bar. Where they are famous, four foot long, hot dogs. Yeah, they have this thing called the muskies challenge and it's$40. Unless you can eat four foot long hot dogs and like the side. Within 30 minutes. So we know that. We didn't try that. But if that's your jam, if you're like a food. Competitor. Competitive food eater. Yeah. That you could try, you could try it, but we did get foot long, hot dogs. Good. They were really good. I highly recommend the Wisconsin dog. It's a foot long, hot dog with beer, cheese, and caramelized onions on it. So good. I will go with the traditional foot-long chili cheese dog. And that was really delicious. Yeah. That was hard to eat as I thought either. Like, cause you could kind of pick up one side of it, leave the other side on the plate and like eat it down to a point where you could pick it up with your hands and eat it. Interesting. Okay. I never gave that much thought into it, but Chili cheese dogs, messy. But just a really cool local spot that I thought the Fulani hotdogs were like a fun creative touch. And it was just a lot of food. I, neither of us finished it in our first sitting. We had it as leftovers as well. They serve like Sidewinder fries. If that's your jam. They also, I had a really good soup as my sad. So, yeah, just like a good bar bar. Well, sticking on the same. Topic of bar bar around the corner pub. Was. On the inside of bar bar, but their menu and their food was. Fantastic. We got the fried chicken. Bucket a bucket of fried chicken, which was eight pieces. And. It was absolutely fantastic. And when, when I went in to pick it up, there was a guy next to me at the bar, there was eating a rack of ribs. That looked absolutely fantastic as well. They rave about those two. The ribs or the Saturday night special there, but This place had just a lot of like good food reviews. And we had our dogs with us, so we were kind of only going, like doing takeout or eating up plate. Like we picked up home slice and aided at some nerve brewing, which is not friendly. So like we just picked up this chicken while we were out and brought it home and both of us were super impressed. It was so good. And for eight pieces of chicken, the price was super affordable. All right. Impressed for how much food we got for that. I think it was like,$14. Yeah, it was it was incredibly affordable. For sure. Yeah. So that's around the corner pub. All of these are the. Mosquito and around the corner art, both in downtown Mercer. So like the cute little downtown area. The next place I want to mention is snow is family market. This is like the local grocery store. This is where we bought our firewood. And just like anything that we forgot to pack with us We also, they also have great fire starters. We used their fire. Sorry. The fireplace Firestone. So that was nice. But then I just wanted to mention, they have a bakery, like, you know, most grocery stores have a bakery. This is a locally owned bakery that makes fresh pastries there. And we picked up a bear claw that was all mend and a cinnamon roll that we had as little treats throughout our stay and both were phenomenal. So if you want like a little pastry for breakfast in the morning, I highly recommend stopping there. Locally made treats are always a gem for, to find. And I, I really loved them. We can move on down the list to the drink portion. Oh, we got to start with the ice Tiki bar. Tiki ice bar. Yeah, the Pines. Yeah. So the Pines restaurant has this like massive patio where they have like a stage and outdoor fire pit. More of a yard. At a patio. That's a good point. Yeah. And then they had like, they have like this wooden Tiki bar, but they put a big tent over it for the winter and heat. It. So you can sit outside with your dog in the winter and it's heated. There was like other UTV years and there. Kind of like taking a break from the trail. So maybe that's like what it's like, you usually normally use horse snowmobilers to stop in, but it was honestly such like a fun, like they call it the Tiki ice bar. Cause in the summer it's the Tiki bar. Now it's the tea ice bar. And they had like fun, like boozy, hot cocoas. They had fun shots on the menu. Just like, seems like a fun little party spot, and then they had the fire going outside. Again, just a cool place to hang out with your dog in the winter. I can't recommend it enough. Definitely a unique experience. I don't think we've ever been anywhere like that. Yeah. I don't know if we really done any. Outdoor winter bars. Outdoor. Yeah. I guess. But yeah, that was definitely a cool spot. I'd like to see it. In the summer. I'd also like to see it bumping on like a heavy snowmobile day. Oh yeah. Well, you're not going to get that this year. But I find that this year, but but the next one is some nerve brewing. This has been on our list for a long time. We've passed it so many times going to the UOP or just going up north in general. And they have a dog-friendly taproom. The taproom. Yeah, they were super nice. Yeah. Yeah. The bar is dog-friendly. We sat at this little table that had this like tiny couch behind it. The love seat, two seater couch. And they're like, yeah, the dogs are welcome on the couch. So like our literally Hayden are sitting in a high top bar table. Playing sequence drinking our beers, eating our pizza, and the dogs are just like cuddled on this little couch together. It was like the nicest dog friendly establishment experience we've ever had. They had some pretty like unique names for their beers too. Like they had. Like a cream ale that was called Kareem. Abdul Jabbar. You know, they had some. That's some pretty cool fun. Twist on their, on their beer names too. And the beers were good. I didn't have a sink. I think I had three beers and I didn't have a single one. I didn't like I had two beers. I had the car. The cream ale. And then I also had their citrus sour. Was so good. They also had a blueberry sour on the menu for my fellow sour lovers. I sampled it. It was good, but the citrus. Was fabulous. And. Growlers to go as well. Cam cam growler. Oh, yeah. You can get beer to go. Also, I would say I had a beer at Muskie's that seemed like a cool place to go. Just get a drink. I have a night to drink. It would have been a cool spot. I think, to watch a super bowl. Have we. Decided we wanted to do that, or we had the option. We didn't have the dogs. Also around the corner, I had a shot of Jameson in there while I waited. Oh, there you go. Ever told you that, but. We were, that was a cool, that was another cool. Just let's go have a drink and grab dinner spot too. So. Those places. Also can be on your drink list as long along with your eat list as well before people come for us, people always get really mad when we like say this episode is about Mercer and then mentioned something outside of Mercedes. So we don't care. Yeah. And just also, this is, this is our experience while we were staying in Mercer. Okay. So the drive to some nerve is I think, what was it like 20 minutes. But it, some nerve brewing is technically a managed to wash waters. So. To us don't really well, just so you know. We are aware of that, but this is just us sharing our experiences from our stay in Mercer. Our trip to mercy. And also we haven't spent much time managed to wash water. So we were kind of excited to cross this off our list. But again, it's so close at the Mercer pizza restaurant delivers there. So literally the same road. Yeah. It's not that far. So why don't you kick us off with some places to explore? So, yeah, exploring wise, just like if you're, if you're trying to make that trip the up there this year. No, that the UTV and ATV trails are open right now. The snowmobile. There's not snow, there's no snowmobiling. So they opened them up already to the ATVs and UTVs. If you're staying at Birchwood point, like we were, it's a very short drive to the trails. So you could jump on right there. In looked like they had all sorts of fun things going on in town. If that's something you're into and are just itching to get your UTV out there. We've said this for years now, but one of these times we're going to go to the Northwoods and rent a UTV for like 48 hours and putz all around. Yeah, I'd like to see the trails, see what they look like. See how deep into the woods and what you can't see from the road. Yeah. So we'll take recommendations from you guys about that. This is not something we've ever done. Neither of us only, like we've never owned a UTV. I grew up four wheeling. But never like on big, long north woods trails like this. So I would love recommendations because that's on our summer bucket list. In addition, just like putz around downtown Mercer, there was some cute little shops. I went into wham pum. Wampum wham-bam wampum wampum. Okay. Wampum shop. And it's like a cute little gift store. They had stuff for the dogs. They had like cute merge in pajamas. I got a patch for my denim jacket that says Mercer with Aluna on it. So just like kind of the stereotypical like tourism shop. I hear it's a local gem favorite per se. Impulsive necessities is kind of just like, you never know what you're going to find, but you're going to exactly what it says. Exactly. And then she reached on. I saw on Instagram, but the sunflower project was one that I would like, I will check out when I go back. So put it on your list as well. Mercer's location being tucked into the north woods or what it is, it's only 30 minutes from the border. So 30 minutes, two day trip to Ironwood. We did day trip to Ironwood. We want it to go to stormy Kromer because the last time we were in Ironwood it was a holiday weekend and they were closed for the holiday. So we didn't get to check them out. Super cool. Shop the shop is dog friendly. And they sell doggy stormy Kromer. I know we kind of dropped the ball. We should've bought, we should've bought two of those. Why didn't we do that? But we tried them on the dogs and it was the cutest thing ever. In Ironwood, you can also go on the north country trail and you can do. Reasonably linked tyke and C5 waterfalls, or you can drive from parking lot to parking lot and see all the waterfalls. And then you'll end up on a beach on lake superior. It is a beautiful walk. We've done this. Before. And then in downtown Ironwood, a dog friendly taproom again is cold iron brewing. Places. Cool. Huge. Huge huge, huge space. Like plenty of room to give your dog. Space. They have indoor cornhole. Pool ping pong. Yeah, great shuffleboard. The sand, like the hand. Cool. Maybe it was just ping pong. Yeah, it was like, I don't know if I saw full. Well, but they have fun merges. Well, and then also I love their shandies. They had a cranberry Shandy this time I had the lemon one this summer. Yeah, good beers. Yeah, super nice guy. That was bartending too. He was a. Full of knowledge and a good conversation. Yeah. So if you are staying in Mercer and want to do like a little day trip, like if you're there for a week or five nights, like we were, you know, you could branch out a little bit. Another practical day trip would be like 45 minutes south. You could visit Managua. Or stop there on your way up or stop there on your way. Upgrade, call. But just like a little day trip idea from Managua is you could walk on the bare skin trail. You could go to Managua popcorn, which I absolutely love. They have really good little puffs too, like highly recommended Aquapod corn. And then after the trail you can hit up a Rocky reef brewing and Woodriff, which will be on your way back to Mercer. Also a dog-friendly taproom. Without we absolutely love they have the best hours ever. Yeah, we've been there a few times. Well, we'll, we'll go back there whenever we get a chance every time around the area. So. All right, well, here's the question that everybody always wants to know. What are we going back for the year? Okay. So it's not technically in Mercer, it's in Manitowoc waters, but when we go back to stay at Birchwood point again with Haley and Billy. We will dine at little Bohemia lodge. It has been on my bucket list for freaking. Since before we've met. This place has been on my radar. So little Bohemia lodge is this really iconic supper club that still has bullet holes in the walls and windows from the shootout the FBI had with John Dillinger. What's that movie? Public enemy. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. But yeah, so that movie also filmed there. It's just like this iconic supper club. I have no idea what the food is. Like. All I know is that the history is so fascinating to me. I would love to eat there. So technically managed to wash waters, but a very reasonable 20 minute drive from this cabin to again, on the same road. On management to Manitowoc waters to eat there. So that's my number one. There is a couple of golf courses that we pass one for sure. The trout lake golf club. That's like probably closer to 40, like closer to Managua. It's a little bit further south, but if Hayden, like the next time we come up, Hayden wants to do a round of golf. There's plenty of trails for me to occupies myself and like hike around while he does that work. And right along with you. Tahoe links. We stumbled upon them when we were driving to the cottage, it's like kind of off of the road. It's really close to the cottage. And I was just like, we were driving. Covered in snow. And I was like, man, that looks like it could be a golf course. And she pulled it up on Google maps and was like, yeah, it's top holdings, a golf course. So that looks like a, another cool thing that I would be interested in doing as well. Along with everything else that we just do every time. Cool up there. Yeah, there's no shortage of fun to be had up there. But the last one is lake of the falls county park. I would like to hike there. This was recommended to me by a friend who's familiar with the area in addition to. It was in the guidebook from our rental hosts. Like in the welcome booklet thing. So that's like a local, I always value, local recommendations. So yeah, like on the falls county park, if you're looking for more hiking, we honestly just kind of played around the property with the dogs. And. Out the lake. So. That's super nice. But if you're familiar with the Mercer area, where else do we need to go? As you can tell, we're planning a trip back and we would love your recommendations or when we go. Yeah. What else you got for them, babe? Per usual, you know, we're looking for well, I guess what she just said and what, what we should add. What's your favorite spot? Let us know. With the hashtag on the road with TWC. Let us know the cool spots that you guys have been in the Northwoods in general, Mercer mantra, waters Manaca all those places. Also. Give us good reviews. Oh yeah. We'll always take your reviews. She deserves it. Just stand there and look pretty. But yeah, just to remember that if you want to stay up or to a point, they have that great special next weekend. Otherwise book that family trip for this summer, it's going to be beautiful. I'm S. I literally am obsessed with this place. Do you bet? All right, we'll see you next time. Guiding along guys.