I am told that my memories of Aqualand are the color of my childhood. Bright with sunshine and always rose-colored. But after Aqualand, the pride of my childhood years is the quality of the north woods people. As I have traveled away, lived in many places, I am amazed that there is a mistaken notion that the people of the north woods are hicks, rednecks, and somehow special in that "not so bright", "not the sharpest knife in the drawer" sort of way. Those of us born in the woods know a different truth. The people who live in Northern Wisconsin are in the woods because the choose it, because they find in it value that less observant might not see. It takes strength, wit and sacrifice to stay. Above all else, it takes the ability to make peace with the voices within. Living at times in the city, I observed that the hustle, bustle and busyness provides a way to escape oneself. Hurry and worry and distraction give the opportunity to remain blissfully unaware if unaware is the way one wants to be. You cannot avoid yourself in the woods. The positive side of this is, you can hear yourself think. The woods holds tight to the poeple who wish to know themselves well. Visitors who come, come back again and again because the special draw. Like drinking water from a cold mountain stream, the refreshment is unlike any other. A retreat of self-discovery can happen in a very short amount of time while sitting with a fishing pole, walking in the woods or biking along a lakeshore trail. The real truth about the northwoods people is that they have taken the time to know themselves well. They have often moved through the world and chosen to return home. Some of them have been among the strongest successes in the business world, some have been wounded by careless mis-treatment of the unappreciative in their past, but all know why they are returning. I have never been able to call another place home. Though my place has been at my husband's side for thirty years of military career travel, whenever people ask me where home is, the answer has always come easily- the northwoods of Wisconsin. I tell people I am earning my right to come home. I truly believe that to be the case, and two years ago my husband Dick and I began the shift. Starting with a "not so big" cabin in the woods, we are now on to the hair-raising risk of a northwoods business. The Aqualand Ale House is a dream come true for both of us. This long, snowy winter in the north has been my husband's first opportunity to really see what I have always known. There is beauty in the solitude and peace in the quiet. A white north woods winter is sunnier and brighter, far more beautiful than the winters farther south. I am so happy that my soul mate has embraced the woods I love. I am looking forward to meeting all the residents of Boulder Junction who do not know me, those who have made a full or part time home in my home town in the thirty plus years that I have been away. My husband is enjoying meeting my old friends and making new ones. We long to earn your trust as we join the community of the north woods.