I am sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you but I have been having so much fun visiting with your Uncle John, Aunt Melody, and Baby Jacob in Madison, Wisconsin. I love it here. I know you live near Washingon, DC but did you know that Madison is also a Capitol City. Here is a picture of me with Aunt Melody and Baby Jacob in front of the Capitol building. It was a beautiful sunny day but a little chilly too!
I learned the other day that Madison is home to the LARGEST farmers market in the country. A farmer's market is a place where farmers bring their vegetables, meat, cheese, and other products directly to the market themselves. You can then buy your food directly from the farmers rather than the grocery store. I hear that in the summer, the Madison Farmers market will have 50,000 visitors in one day. Right now is not summer though and there aren't many vegetables growing in Wisconsin in winter. So the market moves indoors. There is still good food to buy. See the new friends I made at the Winter Indoor Market below.
The other weekend, Uncle John, Aunt Melody and Baby Jacob took me on a trip to northern Wisconsin. Northern WI is very different from Madison. There are no big cities and it is just wide open country. In the winter, everything is covered in DEEP snow. It was beautiful. We rented a cabin in the woods for our trip. I learned that people in Northern Wisconsin have a very odd sense of how to decorate their cabins but I made the best of it.
I learned to cross country ski while I was there. Cross country skiing is very different from downhill skiing. There are no chair lifts. You get everywhere under your own power by sliding the skis under you and pushing with your poles. It is very hard but also lots of fun. We got out into the middle of nowhere in the woods with no one around. It was quiet, peaceful, and I wish you could have been there to play with me. Uncle John pulled Baby Jacob behind him in a ski sled made just for babies. Baby Jacob had it made. I had to move myself which isnt easy when you are flat and stuck to a piece of cardboard.
You can see a picture of me below when I returned back to the ski lodge after a full day of skiing. Dont I look relaxed?
The next day I was TOO tired to ski so I tried something different- snow mobiling!!!! Look at me zipping through the woods on my super fast snow mobile. This is like a motorcycle except that it has skis instead of wheels. Uncle John says he hates snow mobiles because they are too noisy, use too much gas, smell and break the peace and quiet for cross country skiers. I LIKED it!
My last new Wisconsin activity was ICE FISHING. You have probably heard of fishing on a lake or river. However, in Wisconsin, they even fish in the winter! The problem is that in the winter, the lakes are frozen. This makes it hard to get to the fish. But Wisconsinites are creative. They have found a way around this.....
In this picture you can see me walking toward my new friends, the ice fishermen..... Yes, this is a frozen lake I am walking across. And YES, that is a small house ON the lake. I really mean ON the lake. It is on the ice. It is called an Ice Shanty. Ice fishermen use it to keep warm when it is really cold.
This is right before I met my new friends. You can see that they travel across the frozen lake on a snow mobile. Luckily I now know how to drive one from the other day......
So this is how they fish........ They actually cut a hole in the ICE to get to the fish underneath. The ice is sometimes 2 feet thick or more. They have special drills to cut through the ice. Then they use these special small fishing poles. Look at me fishing. I was very good at it.
And I caught dinner for that night for everyone. All my new friends were very proud of me and we had a big fish fry that night back at the cabin. What a fun time. I hope you will come back with me next winter to Wisconsin to visit with Uncle John, Aunt Melody, and Baby Jacob. They miss you and would love for you to visit any time
I am heading back now. Uncle John put me back in my envelope and mailed me. I should see you shortly. I cant wait for my next adventure.
With Love,
Flat Stanley
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