Mom joined us for a day trip excursion to the north, to Wausau, then Rhinelander. Our main purpose was to scope out quilt shops...Sew Smart in Wausau, and its sister store in Rhinelander, also named Sew Smart. We visited the Wausau store first, and admired the toy and vintage sewing machine collection they had on display.
We had lunch in Wausau, then headed north to Rhinelander. The shop was very nice, and had a nice selection of north woods fabrics. Mom found some loon fabric for a wall hanging she wants to make, and I found some flannels and chenille that I intend to make into a lap quilt.
We found something else unexpected in Rhinelander...the hodag. What, you ask, is a hodag? Well....in 1893, an enterprising citizen of Rhinelander broke the news that he captured a mythical creature he called the hodag. Soon after, however, it was discovered that his story was just a hoax, created to bring attention and tourists to visit the town. The town, tho, was not willing to give up it's claim to fame, and the mythical hodag lives on today...it's image in on the city's water tower, many businesses are named for it, a city park is named for it, the city holds a Hodag Festival in the fall, the local High School team's name is...you guessed it...the Hodags. Add to that, we found statues of hodags all around town, painted in various different schemes. So what, you ask, does a hodag look like??
Behold, the Hodag:
I loved this one, painted up like a school bus.
Rhinelander is the county seat. They have quite the impressive county courthouse, complete with dome! It was lovely.
Like I said, hodags on the water tower.
We stopped here for an ice cream treat (this is downtown). They served the best soft-serve ice cream I've ever had. It must be because it is 96% fat free. Great tasting ice cream and no guilt!! A win-win combination.
We had just a great time this day, and I learned something new...all about the hodag. By the way, the hodag is indigenous only to the area around Rhinelander.
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