From the simple to the huge: Shopping Day in Eau Claire by bus

Hi everyone! Look at who is here!

This week, we were designated to explore Eau Claire downtown by bus. First we picked it up close to the University and after a few minutes, we dropped down near the Goodwill store. 

 A great way to explore the city with a good price and free wifi

The Goodwill store is a huge thrift shop where you can make donations.  It’s possible to find things with a good quality for a small quantity of money.

And happiness is always surrounding us

We were supposed to go into the store to see and maybe buy some stuff, but things happened a little bit different than we had planned before, as you can see below.

Bernardiana Jones

After some crazy Brazilian ideas, we went to the Target store. The Target is a department store where you can find many kind of stuff inside. You can also find good prices and a huge variety of products.

Super Target and the super diva Paula

 Inside the Target store

We have to admit that was difficult to keep focused on this exploring task, because even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles helmets were a reason to make fun, but We Did It!

 

Time to be a child again

 

Making part of this project of reporting our experiences in exploring Eau Claire was a great opportunity to develop skills in several areas that we would never  think we could do!

This blog showed us a way to express our feelings and demonstrate how exciting is living here.

Biking to Natural Markets in Eau Claire

 On July 22^th we rent the bikes in the Environmental Adventure Center on Campus with the meaning to visit two different stores, a mexican grocery store called La Misma Luna Supermarket and a natural grocery store called Mother Nature’s Food. The route that was proposed to us is to go straight for Clairemont ave. until intersect the Flame Road. We not linger more than 15 minutes to arrive.

Picture of our group at EAC.

The Mother Nature’s Food is right in this corner (Clairemont ave. with London rd.) and when will get there, the store was already closed. We take a picture in the front of it and move faster to the next store that is located very close to that one.

Entrance of grocery store Mother Nature's Food.

A couple of minutes later, we arrived in the La Misma Luna Supermarket we arrived in the store, lock the bikes and enter in it. Inside the store, we start to look at the fruits, vegetables, spices, beans and rice, but all of that products was expensive according Christine Doyle, our intern. We get very surprised when we found Brazilian products like coffee in that store, because that was the first time that we saw a Brazilian product in USA.

Entrance of the grocery La Misma Supermarket

We spend like 10 minutes in this store and come back very faster to Chancellors, because starts to rain.

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More information about how to rent a bike can be found at the EAC website.
Along with the map, I'm leaving some photos of our tour. Please do not forget to comment.




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If Carol could learn how to ride a bike in one day, you should try it too!

Our ride started at EAC following the Chippewa River Trail going to Bellinger St. to visit the Loriental Store and the Egg Roll Plus restaurant.

In front of the EAC

The Chippewa River Trail is a perfect place to learn how to ride a bike and to hangout with friends and family. There is a lot of playgrounds and trees.

Carol showing how to do it, oh yeah!

It was so easy to find the Loriental Store and the Egg Roll Plus restaurant that we got lost. The both places can be found on Bellinger St.. In the Loriental Store you can find Asian food and ingredients of any kind, like vegetables, candies and rice. It is open at business hours.

In front of the Loriental Store

Our final goal was to find the Egg Roll Plus restaurant. They have a big variety of Asian dishes and a greet service. There we can find Pork Egg Rolls, Crabs Rangoons and Spring Rolls. It is open from 11 am to 7 pm.

Showing our strength a long ride

In our way back to the university we passed through the Phoenix Park and we had dinner on the Water Street.

RR Bridge

Walking to Eau Claire's dowtown

Exercising the body and the mind!

On Friday 18th of July our group of Eau Claire's pathfinders went to another exciting experience. Our mission: guided by a simple map we should, by walk, explore unknown places like Just Local Foods, Tangled Up in Hue and Revival Records.   

The start of our path.

The first place we went was the Just Local Foods. This place is a market who sells, as the name says, foods originated from local producers. Furthermore the store is a good place for who wants to buy organic foods, like dairy, coffee, vegetables and fruits. JLF has a familiar aspect and give us a impression of a very quiet place, ideal for shopping in small quantities. 

Just Local Foods store.

The second stop was in Tangled Up in Hue. This place has a Mystic atmosphere. You can by handicraft things like necklace, bracelets, personalized shirts, artworks etc. It's a very nice store for people that like a hippie style or handmade things.   

Tangled Up In Hue, a handmade paradise.

The last destination of our path was Revival Records store. This place is definitely a place for the music lovers, more precisely vinyl addicted. On RR you can find a lot of old vinyls of classical bands. The inventory goes to the pop until the heavy metal. There is a thing for every type of person. More than vinyls, you can also find posters, shirts etc. This music store was the place we liked best. If you like of history of music you HAVE to visit there. 

Revival Records, music heaven!

That's all folks. We hope you can visit these places and enjoy as much as we did. If you take the rout, going from UWEC you can follow the map bellow and find the places. It's very easy!

There is some extra pictures of our exploration. Hope you like it!

Sculptures at Downtown, relaxing a little bit.

Going back to UWEC.

Daniel / Gabriel / Juliane / Matheus.

Two cheap shopping stores in Eau Claire that you can visit by Bus!

 Hey! We are here for one more adventure in Eau Claire! Now, our group took a bus to visit two important stores of the city. Our adventure begins when we had to run to take the bus in time. Then, we took bus line 15 to the bus station Mckinlay, and after we took the bus line 1 to arrive in the Festival Foods. At the end of this post you can see the possible routes to get there.

Group at the bus.

Festival Foods

International students at Festival Foods.

This was the first place that we visited in our third adventure, the Festival Food supermarket, which is a strategically located store that sells food, drink, and fresh fruit. If you want to buy any kind of food in any time you can visit Festival Food, that is open 24 hours in a day. 

Our first impression was that this supermarket is cheaper than the others stores that we visited, as Shopiko and Country Market. The store is so huge and there are a lot kinds of foods, drinks, healthcare products, desserts, fresh vegetables, etc. 

If you want to know more about Festival Foods, the store is located at 3007 Mall Drive, Eau Claire. And you can access the website on this address: http://www.festfoods.com/.

Take a look at our photos to have your first impression of this place:

Tequila time! Here you can buy drinks in a good price!

Inside the store you can find many products like organic products, bakery products, fresh vegetable and fruit.

               

The market provide to us so many options that we can't leave the store without buy some products.

Shopping from international students.

Savers

International students at Savers store.

After going to the Festival Foods, we walked to the Savers, a store located 2833 Mall Dr. The store’s main mission is providing cheaper products to the customers. This store is very different from another that you have gone in Eau Claire until now, because they sell old and used products, but not just clothes, they sell sneakers, appliances, books and a lot of other things in a very cheap price. It’s interesting know that Savers is partner of local charities, then shopping there, you help many local community programs.

To know more about Savers you can access the website: http://www.savers.com/Default.aspx.

Inside Savers store.

Also, as consumers, we could not go there without spend some money!!!

Take a look in our shop!

Buying roller skate at Savers store.

You can follow the map above to get in these stores, also you can show your Blugold to the driver, so you will pay nothing for the trip.

We hope that you enjoyed all the trips we have made. We enjoyed a lot, so we don`t want to stop this, enjoy us in our fourth exploring trip in Eau Claire, but right now, it will be by rollerskating!

Thank you all for watching our trip! I hope you liked it. Don`t waste your time, you MUST visit all of this places when you come to Eau Claire.

Bye bye folks!

A beautiful afternoon at Water Street

Our last adventure was walking through the Water Street, which has a lot of bars, restaurants, pubs, night clubs, different types of stores that sell clothes, shoes, sweatpants, etc. This street is well attended by students every weekend to enjoy the night.

Water Street`s Map and our destinations

Water Street Sign and a beautiful sculpture at this street 

                At the beginning, we went to the Fleet Feet local business, which sells team uniforms, athletic footwear, clothes, screen printing, embroidery, and they guaranteed low prices for their customers. At this store, we found many options with the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire (UWEC) brand with lower prices than the University’s bookstore. Below, we show the store’s hours that is located in 402 Water Street, and for more information, you can call at (715) 835-5897.

Days	Hours
Monday	09:30 A.M.	07:00 P.M.
Tuesday	09:30 A.M.	06:00 P.M.
Wednesday	09:30 A.M.	06:00 P.M.
Thursday	09:30 A.M.	07:00 P.M.
Friday	09:30 A.M.	06:00 P.M.
Saturday	09:30 A.M.	04:00 P.M.

Fleet Feet Store

                Our second task was the Mona Lisa’s Restaurant located in 428 Water Street. This place was established in 1994 and they served a menu inspired by the seasons, and you can found good meat, fresh fish, classic and seasonal pasta, appetizers, cheese, tapas, soup & salad and pizza. Another thing that we found very interesting was that you can build your pizza as you want. We think that they have some cheaper options, but they have meat and fish, which is expensive for us. We were well attended by the waitress of this restaurant, and took some pictures as you can see below. For more details about this restaurant, you can call at (715) 839-8969, or at the menu in the website: http://monalisas.biz/resources/Sample%20Menu.pdf.

               

Restaurant Hours Tuesday – Thursday 04:00 P.M. – 11:00 P.M. Friday – Saturday 04:00 P.M – 12:00 A.M. Kitchen Serves 04:00 P.M. – 10:00 P.M.

Some pictures inside of the Mona Lisa's Restaurant

                Our final objective was the Water Street Deli & Grocery located in 628 Water Street. In this place we found delicious foods like different types of Mediterranean food like falafel, hummus, baba ghannouj, kabobs, gyros and they have American food, like French fries, hamburgers, onion rings, and cheese curds. This store is well organized and decorated with Mediterranean culture, for example, the restaurant has a carpet which is represent parts of Quran words. And even so it is fast as a fast food restaurant. Any doubts you can call at 715-318-2543 for more details, or see the menu in the website http://waterstreetdeliandgrocery.com/. 

               

Hours of Business Tuesday - Thursday 11:00 A.M. – 09:00 P.M. Friday - Saturday 11:00 A.M. – 10:00 P.M. Lunch Special - Tuesday to Friday 11:00 A.M. – 02:00 PM. Sunday and Monday CLOSED

In front of the Water Street Deli & Grocery

Inside the Grocery

Unfortunately, this was our last adventure exploring Eau Claire, and we spent 1 hour and 30 minutes to know these 3 business and finished this route. We liked very much all these places and bought some things at Fleet Feet. 

Coming back to the Chancellor's

Artworks outdoor in Downtown

Is on display in the town a series of sculptures by various artists from North America. Are a total of 32 sculptures scattered throughout the city, 21 of them are in the Bartow Street, 6 in Water Street and the other 5 near of the park Halfmoon.

In this post, we will tell you about some specific sculptures located in Bartow Street.

Vermont Winter Pastoral by Kat Clear

"I have found that metal can be soft and voluminous, transformed into a ruffle or a piece of lace or a couch."

Picture of Vermont Winter Pastoral, a sculpture in Bartow Street.

Picture of Vermont Winter Pastoral, a sculpture in Bartow Street.

The sculpture represents some common mobile easily found in living rooms. The sculpture was made in 2006, to make it, was used found objects and steel. Their measures was 40in x 11in x 4in and its cost $22,000. Vermont Winter Pastoral by  Kat Clear

Grand Slam by Gregory Jhonson

Grand Slam located at Bartow Street

Our group trying to take a selfie in the Grand Slam statue

This sculpture represents a kid hitting a baseball ball. Was used only bronze to make this sculpture, their measures are 48in x 40in x 18in and its cost $11,250. Grand Slam by Gregory Johnson

Inquisitive Eagle by Gregory Jhonson

Inquisitive Eagle, St. Bartow

A attempt of take a picture of all group at the Inquisitive Eagle, St. Bartow

This sculpture represents a Bald Eagle, a bird of prey found in North America. The bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States of America. This sculpture was made only by Bronze and it cost $16,000. Their measures are 60in x 58in x 48in. Inquisitive Eagle by Gregory Johnson

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The map with all the location of sculptures can be found bellow. For more information about the event, you can check this link Sculpture Tour Eau Claire

Walking through the History of Eau Claire

Our mission this week was walking around in the most prestigious neighborhood in Eau Claire, the Third Ward. There we found a lot of historical houses where important people lived, like politicians, architects, doctors, bankers.

Visited places in red

The first place we visited was the Schofield Hall, it was the first place because it is in the campus area. The Schofield House is used by the university nowadays. It is the biggest place we had visited. It is located in the Garfield Avenue in the final part of the campus.

In spite of being a 1890s building, the Bryon Buffington House is very preserved. The simplicity of the construction and the white color makes it one of the most beautiful of the State Street.

As part of the National Register of Historic Places, we expected more of the N.B. Rundle House which wasn’t well conserved. But the higher tower and the different style of the roof make the house stand out among the others.

Due to its brick style and its size, David Drmmond House is pretty impressive. The funny party when we were taking pictures of this house, the people who live in the house was staring at us.

Addison Cutter House 

Roy Wilcox House is one of the more preserved houses we found, the House had an amazing garden and a nice front view, and the place had some trees in the front part and more trees in the back. This House is located in the beginning of the Wilcox Street.

In the way of the Wilson Park, we take pictures of the Dean-Griffin House, this house was one of the less preserved places in the tour, the garden had a tall grass and the red painting was almost brown, but actually the house was amazing in the same way, just to know that this places have been preserved for all of those years. The Dean-Griffin House is in the corner of Farwell Street and the Newton Street.

The last place we visited was the Orlando Brice House, the garden in this house have big trees and a lot of flowers, in the entrance it have a little wall too, just for decoration, The Orlando Brice House is located in the corner of the Wilcox Street and the Marston avenue, in the side of the Wilcox House.

We have been in the Wilson Park too, the park is really lovely, a familiar place to spend some time, with tall trees and some sits and a fountain in the middle.

It was an amazing experience because we had seen a part of Eau Claire’s history. And we also knew a little more about where we are living.