We awoke early to a bright, shiny day, grabbed a quick con­ti­nen­tal break­fast from the lobby of the Super 8, packed our bikes, and headed out of town. Destination? Shotgun Eddy White Water Rafting!

We rode back through Shawano past the Menominee Indian Casino before hook­ing a left onto a nice curvy, hilly, tree-lined coun­try road for about 10 miles before reach­ing a gravel entrance for Shotgun Eddy. On the way, I spot­ted an Bald Eagle fly­ing grace­fully above us.

The Midwest’s largest zipline tour, Ozone Zipline Adventures, reopens for the sea­son on April 1. Much like zipline tours in exotic des­ti­na­tions, Ozone Zipline Adventures is an eco-adventure that com­bines the thrills of fly­ing through the tree­tops at heights of 200 feet above the val­ley floor, with out­door recre­ation, envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion and his­tor­i­cal awareness.

Celebrate sum­mer with a week­end of wine tast­ing, food pair­ings, and spec­tac­u­lar Garden vis­tas. The Fourth Annual Chicago Botanic Garden Wine Festival allows novices and expe­ri­enced oenophiles to develop their palates with sem­i­nars and demon­stra­tions con­ducted by event spon­sors, exhibit­ing winer­ies, Chicago area chefs, restau­ra­teurs, and spe­cialty food shops.

Illinois hosts the largest pop­u­la­tion of eagles out­side Alaska in January and February; there are many great places to see them in flight through­out the state.

Dress for the weather and get set to watch majes­tic eagles by land or Lake dur­ing the 12th annual Lake of the Ozarks Eagle Days, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 9 and 10 am. – 3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 10. The event will be spon­sored by the Lake of the Ozarks Convention & Visitors Bureau, Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and Osage National Golf Club.