Ideas for places to visit in the Midwest
The iconic boathouses of Lake Minocqua create the character of the area. The lake is well known for its sport fishing. Also, the lake surrounds the town of Minocqua making the boathouses a major source of activity.
Photographing the boathouses is best done by boat but a lot of good scenes can be captured from the shores. I took this photo while on my way to dinner by water.
One hot summer afternoon in 1954 I was bundled onto a waiting train in St. Louis’ iconic Union Station. By noon the next day I was crossing this trestle leading to Minoqua, Wisconsin’s station. This was the beginning of my love of this small town in Wisconsin’s Northwoods. Minoqua is an Island City (town) surrounded by Lake Minoqua and lined with rustic boathouses.
In the early days the area was frequented by movie stars, U.S. Presidents and eccentric millionaires. Earlier it was a hideout for gangsters like Al Capone or John Dillinger. People did not travel by car but “went into town” or visited friends by boat. Today I visit to relax, walk my dogs on the Bearskin Trail (the Trestle and railroad beds are now part of a trail system) and dine at one of the area’s Supper Clubs. Some still have bullet holes from shoot outs between the gangsters and FBI.
This is a tree shot HDR photo processed in Lightroom and Photomatix. Click here to see my photos of Minoqua’s boathouses. Click here to see the the town and the Northwoods.
These ruins are part of Ha Ha Tonka State Park near Camdenton, Missouri.
Not really a castle but more of a mansion, this structure was built in 1904 by a wealthy St. Louisan. The owner did not live to see it completed. Over time it fell in disrepair and was eventually sold by his family. In 1942 the main structure and others around it were destroyed by fire.
This is a difficult photo to capture because directly behind me is the edge of a bluff with about a 150 foot drop. To get the photo, a tripod was used and then 5 pictures were taken of the left side of the building at different exposures and then 5 of the right. There is a special function in Lightroom that will combine all of the photos into one RAW file so it can then be edited in Aurora HDR.
Doc is a B-29 Superfortress and one of 1,644 manufactured in Wichita during World War II. Since 1987 when Tony Mazzolini found Doc on sitting and rotting away in the Mojave Desert, plans have been in the works to restore the historic warbird to flying status to serve as a flying museum.
Over the past 15+ years, hundreds of volunteers have worked on Doc and the restoration project. Skilled workers and retirees from Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems, veterans, active duty military and others wanting to honor those who served, have spent tens of thousands of hours on Doc’s restoration. Countless individuals and organizations also made financial and in-kind contributions to keep the project going. Below is a brief timeline of Doc’s military service and the restoration effort.
This photo was taken at Spirit of St. Louis Air Show in St. Louis County.
The business end of a F/A-18 Hornet. Designed and built by McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri. This aircraft serves both on land and aircraft carrier. If you drive near Lambert Field (Lambert International Airport) you might see the Hornet’s doing test flights.
A friend was a manger for the development of F/A-18. When asked what that meant, he indicated that he was in charge of the left wingtip….. There must have been a huge team required to develop the aircraft.
Just feet from the runway, a crowd watches this F-16 as it does a “touch and go” on the runway. St. Louis County has revised its fantastic air show at Spirit of St. Louis Airport with two days of amazing displays.
I like this photo since you can get a sense of the power and speed of the aircraft from heat trail behind it. There was a lot of noise that day.
I had a red door in a previous post so this is “Another Red Door” and another alley shot in St. Charles, MO. This is actually near an entrance to an antique shop hidden away off Main Street.
This is a three shot HDR photo edited to enhance the color while giving it a kind of fuzzy look
This little B&B is trucked away on busy Main Street in St. Charles, MO. This area is a restored part of 19th Century Missouri and has a lot of historic buildings and shops. From here you can visit excellent restaurants, wineries, shops an more. Two blocks away you can view Missouri River.
While poking around some side streets in St. Charles, MO I found this little display of a Lemonade Stand. No one was really there selling anything, it was just sort of an artistic display.
There are a lot of antique shops in the area and this was to something to draw your interest.
This is part of the scenic Cave Point County Park. Exploring the shores of Door County (a peninsula) you find a lot of the stacked rocks you see on the beach. Cave Point is full of low bluffs and water swirling under the rock.
The rock piles are called cairns. These have become more numerous and higher over the years now there are some restrictions.
Great Rivers Imaging 