The Missing Photograph of Cheese Days

The Clock-tower in downtown Monroe, WI, below this building thousands of cheese lovers are swarming. Photo by Kirsten,   I think.

There are very few cultural things I feel really attached to, but cheese is one of them. My dad grew up in the town of Monroe, WI, where the last Limburger cheese factory still operates, and where the biannual Cheese Days Festival draws thousands of cheese lovers from all over the country.

Though my cheese-mania experiences were limited to visits to my grandparents house growing up, I still have a sense of family pride in, and even a snobbishness for, good, Wisconsin-made cheese.

Annie's Cheese and Salami Sandwich. Basic but awesome.

This September, my ENTIRE immediate family (it's only 6 of us, but it's still tough for us all to travel together), went to Monroe, WI to visit my grandparents and attend the Cheese Days Festival.

One of the cheese sampling tables in the Cheese Tent

The festival was all I hoped it would be. Swiss culture, hundreds of artisan cheese makers and other cheese based foods, local crafts (of which I always have a love-hate attitude toward.) We toured the Minhas Brewery which has been in operation for over 165 years and holds the largest beer memorabilia collection in the world (the whole basement room is surrounded by a wooden beam suspended from the ceiling, and on the beam are thousands of tap heads for thousands of beers). It was the quintessential Wisconsin experience...cheese and beer in a town square flavored by red brick and swiss stylings.

Memorabilia Mimics (no flash allowed around the treasures)

But. All that culture, food, and activity isn't what I enjoyed most from that weekend. That Saturday night, my whole family sat down around the table to play a word game...Blurt or something. I remember my sister's voice projecting over everyone else, my dad playing when it wasn't his turn, and my grandpa, who's struggling with short term memory loss and general health, randomly throwing in correct answers when none of us "younger folk" could come up with them. My grandma sitting near, content to watch us be the maniacs that we are.

THAT is the picture I want! I wish I was Cam Jansen. CLICK.

Lesson from Cheese Days: Local festivals are always worth checking out because you get a sense of American culture or history. Also, family wins.