West Bend, Wisconsin

West Bend, Wisconsin. Depending on who you are and where you are located, you probably have never heard of this quaint little town.

I had a few things planned in the area and chose to book an Airbnb for a couple of weeks and had a wonderful time.

I lived in Wisconsin for many years, and for a number of those years I lived about 1/2 hour South of West Bend, WI. It truly is a quiet and quaint little town and not unlike many small towns in the state of Wisconsin.

I have two adult children and both of them still live in Wisconsin, one of them now in Jackson WI and the other in Appleton WI. My son and his girlfriend were moving in together and then my grandson's birthday was planned, so I decided to book a property in the area and found a wonderful place just a little outside of the city of West Bend.

I always do quite a bit of research when I'm booking a property, because I have certain needs for work but I also have certain wants from a comfort standpoint. It hasn't necessarily been a rule for me, but the majority of the places that I book are either with a Super Host or a Guest Favorite. If you want to know what those two terms mean, from an Airbnb standpoint, you can certainly look it up or I also discuss it in my book, Modern Day Hobo (see home page for all details).

The property that I found, was not a Super Host or a Guest Favorite, but she should be listed that way. The reviews were all excellent and after looking at the pictures, and making sure it fit my work needs, I went ahead and booked it.

When I pulled in the driveway, I was pleasantly surprised, but then I walked in and saw the entire property and I was amazed.

There has been a lot of remolding done and it was done well.

Plenty of natural light and a great view of the lake.

It had a nice kitchen, that was large and extremely functional, with all newer appliances.

It also had two good sized bedrooms.

This was the second bedroom towards the back of the house.

As I've mentioned plenty of times, I work when I travel, so I am spending a lot of time at whatever property I am at. There's only been 1 property that I stayed in that I wasn't comfortable, simply because it was really noisy, but there's only been a few properties where I have felt completely at home. This was one of those properties.

The first weekend that I was there, I had lunch with my son and his girlfriend, but there was also a trail that I wanted to go see. I lived in Wisconsin for many, many years and it's not as though I never went around and took walks on trails, but it wasn't a common activity for me.

I found a trail it's in Grafton, WI, and right along Lake Michigan. The Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve.

It’s a relatively short trail, but the views are beautiful. It was a little chilly the day that I went, but the sun was out so it was a comfortable day for a walk.

The trail goes off in a few different directions, but I took the route that of course stayed lakeside.

Towards the end of the trail, you can actually height down to the beach, there are stairs, but I chose not to do that, on that particular day. I had other things that I needed to get done and just didn't have the time.

Once again though, it's a beautiful trail with amazing views.

Wisconsin is truly a state that has an enormous amount of natural beauty. Plenty of lakes, trails, little towns and off the beaten path places to visit. I would be here all day trying to give you a list of places to visit, but a few of the areas that I would highly recommend are The Wisconsin Dells (it very touristy, but plenty of things to see on the nature side of things), Door County (that is the entire peninsula, north of Green Bay. It's another area that can be very touristy in the summer, but it's amazingly beautiful). La Crosse, WI (that entire area along the Mississippi River and on the order of Minnesota is a must see area) and The Northwoods (you can’t go wrong visiting any part of that area).

I have roots in Wisconsin and I will definitely spend plenty of time in and around that state in the future. Stick around and should you check out my adventures.