The Maple Syrup Festival...

...was held today, & while Jennie couldn't go, as she had a function in Eagle River yesterday and today, my brother, brother-in-law, sister, Mae & I all went. This lady was really interesting to listen to, as she explained that she and her family have a large sugarbush in DePere. ("sugarbush"=  a grove of sugar maples, though in her case, it's acres of maples). She showed us how to tap the tree, insert a tap, place a bag to collect the sap, the best time to tap the trees, how often to empty the bags and how many days to collect the sap. The sap all gets boiled down into the syrup. Inside, there was a "syrup tasting" area (yes, there are different subtle flavors to syrup), games for the kids, food (most of it made using maple syrup in some way), raffle baskets, crafts, etc. And while there, we ran into a cousin of ours who lives up in the area. I haven't seen him since we were kids running around at our grandparents' cottages (his grandma and my grandpa were brother and sister, and their cottages were next to each other, so there were always cousins running around to play with). A really fun day. :)