Gone Explorin'

La Crosse, WI is a gorgeous town on the Mississippi. The bluffs are tall and the winters cold. The downtown oozes with classic Americana and charm. Every day this city feels more and more like the place I will settle down. This is my home.

I moved to La Crosse three years ago. What I love about this city is that there is always something new — sometimes a restaurant I never knew existed, other times a brand new microbrewery downtown.

When I first moved here, I knew little of the city. I was dating someone up here and visited on weekends, but was never exposed to the best of it. Learning that has been a series of trial and error. I'm figuring out what's good and what's bad. What lives up to the local hype, and what falls short.

This blog is a guide for living in La Crosse. More than Yelp or Google — a real tool for the city, specifically for outsiders to the area. Too often it can be tough to know where to go, what to see, and what to read. My promise to you, the reader, is to make your life in this city better. Here I'll review restaurants, bars, theaters, festivals, news articles, and more. I'll be straightforward, honest, and highlight the good and the bad.

So who am I? What do I know that makes me qualified to speak about this city?

Well, I'm an outsider. I grew up in the small town of Plano, about fifty miles outside of Chicago, IL. I graduated high school with around 76 of my peers, most of whom I'd known my entire life. La Crosse has around 50,000 residents, but it still feels like that small town I grew up in — everyone went to school with someone who is your cousin's first husband, and he was best friends with the guy next door. I feel a certain kinship with this city for that reason.

I attended college at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, IL. For those who don't know it, just follow the Mississippi south for several hundred miles and you'll get close. Carbondale has its fair share of bluffs, forests, and waterways — not the endless cornfields most Wisconsinites imagine when they think of Illinois. Carbondale is also a college town, and the city wouldn't be what it is without the influence of SIU. You see that same relationship up here. The higher ed institutions give so much culture and variety to La Crosse. I can't imagine the city without them.

Finally, I've traveled all over the country, and on a few lucky occasions, left the continent. La Crosse is the city I keep coming back to. The winters can be rough, but the people are good, the scenery never gets old, and there are establishments that rival their big-city cousins — and an Oktoberfest that is unlike anything I've experienced anywhere else.

I want to help other transplants get a feel for the town, and maybe point some locals to things they've never seen. Thanks for coming along, and let's start this adventure.

— Mike