Wausau pics

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

Nice town! Some bigger buildings then I expected.

and too think not long ago the Palladian and the Dudley Tower didn't even exist.

Nice pics

atrain5371 said:

and too think not long ago the Palladian and the Dudley Tower didn't even exist.

Nice pics

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Yeah, last couple of years it's been pretty busy downtown. They just got done building the new Wisconsin Eye Hospitol but I don't care all that much for the building and I wasn't on that side of downtown.

Glad you all liked the pics!

Very nice!

The funny thing is my firm uses products from Wausau Tile in our buildings. Not sure if they are located within the city, but I always wondered what it was like after seeing the name on a regular basis.

Wausau sorta looks like Bayshore Mall, anyone see it?

I can sort of see it. ESPECIALLY with the way Wausau Center Mall is integrated into downtown, and the similarly sized town squares. But there are a couple key differences. Wausau's buildings are more than cheap facades. Wausau doesn't have those stupid Christmas light hooks hanging all over the sides of the buildings looking like shit all year. Wausau's parking meters don't have a typo on them. And most importantly the stores in downtown Wausau are WAY better than the crap at Bayshore.

I miss Wausau, my mother's up there visiting my grandmother this weekend. I really wish I could've gone.

PS - how's that behemoth freeway construction going? Is the 2510 Restaurant officially impossible to get to yet? Last time I was there, the new ramp practically devoured that poor restaurant.

Very nice town. Thanks for sharing with us! Greetings from Brazil! kay:

Frederico Fraga said:

Very nice town. Thanks for sharing with us! Greetings from Brazil! kay:

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Hey thanks Frederico!



Eastsider, I would hope no one thinks Wausau looks like that Mall, YUK!



Hey ajknee!

I miss Wausau, my mother's up there visiting my grandmother this weekend. I really wish I could've gone.

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But there's nothing going on in town right now so why would you want to come up here? I would rather go down to Milwaukee! Of course, did you notice that picture of the old Rogers Cinema? That's now home to Wausau's own Fillmore! Bands play every weekend. It just opened and I haven't been there yet so I don't know what it's like. You do know that they tore down the old Scott Street Steak and Pub and all those buildings on that side of Scott st. right?

PS - how's that behemoth freeway construction going? Is the 2510 Restaurant officially impossible to get to yet? Last time I was there, the new ramp practically devoured that poor restaurant.

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2510 is still there and will remain. I have no problem driving around there, I don't know if you wouldn't though. As for the freeway construction, it's going slow, we had a hard winter up here and they didn't get as much done over the season as they werre hopeing to. by the way, we still have snow on Granite Peak! We had so much snow for the season and they made so much snow on the ski runs that there are still big snow patches up there. Usually it's all melted by the start of may.

Very nice. I had no idea the town's downtown was this well done. Do you have more pics of the downtown and city?

ragerunner1 said:

Very nice. I had no idea the town's downtown was this well done. Do you have more pics of the downtown and city?

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Hi ragerunner1 and thanks. If you want to see more pics you can always look at the bottom of this page and check out some of the older threads I have made.

Otherwise, the same person who took that first photo also took this one. If you look closely, on the other side of the river/dam their is a bluff that runs along the length of the river with a street that hugs the edge. That is where I took alot of my pics. Also, that tall hill off in the background is granite Peak, a very popular ski area.

I hate that they changed the name to Granite Peak. Rib Mountain is in no way a peak of any sort. And it's not as though the mountain changed names... Granite Peak at Rib Mountain is just needlessly confusing. Despite that, it's a great ski area and one of my favorite state parks.

ajknee said:

I hate that they changed the name to Granite Peak. Rib Mountain is in no way a peak of any sort. And it's not as though the mountain changed names... Granite Peak at Rib Mountain is just needlessly confusing. Despite that, it's a great ski area and one of my favorite state parks.

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LOL, you're right, Rib Mountain is in no way a peak but is equally in no way a mountain. :doh:

Sweet pics, Wausau looks great!

Nice little city that looks clean:rock:

Paule said:

Hi ragerunner1 and thanks. If you want to see more pics you can always look at the bottom of this page and check out some of the older threads I have made.

Otherwise, the same person who took that first photo also took this one. If you look closely, on the other side of the river/dam their is a bluff that runs along the length of the river with a street that hugs the edge. That is where I took alot of my pics. Also, that tall hill off in the background is granite Peak, a very popular ski area.

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Thanks. After looking at the other threads and videos on the city development website, I think Wausau looks like one of the nicest small/mid cities I have seen. Downtown is really moving in a very progressive manner. I hope to visit this town one day.

I would definitely agree with you on that. I wouldn't even consider Wausau to be a mid-size city...it's very small. But for it's size, it sure has a whole hell of a lot going for it. Downtown is amazingly vibrant, clean, and urban. Rib Mountain (the municipality) has all of the standard strip stores like Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Michaels, etc. Rib Mountain (the bump) is a fantastic park, and when the city grows it's integration will be comparable to South Mountain in Phoenix (but with skiing). Marathon Park is impressive. Being only a mile from downtown, it's so secluded and wooded that they have camping. I remember camping there once as a kid and completely forgetting that I was in the middle of a city. The Wisconsin River has adjustable rapids made possible by the dam to create the most ideal Kayaking course. They host the USACK (USA Canoe/Kayak) Nationals, USACK Junior Olympics, and the Midwest Freestyle Championships. The art museum is very respectable for the city's size. And it's location at the crossroads of I-39 and Hwy 29 make it an ideal midpoint. Wausau definitely has a lot going for it.

Don't get me wrong, it's without a doubt a small city...one night of watching the news will give you a feel of how far it is from becoming a cosmopolitan metropolis. But for a city of 38,000 it's got the feel of a city of 100,000. Wausau is on the rise.

ajknee said:

I would definitely agree with you on that. I wouldn't even consider Wausau to be a mid-size city...it's very small. But for it's size, it sure has a whole hell of a lot going for it. Downtown is amazingly vibrant, clean, and urban. Rib Mountain (the municipality) has all of the standard strip stores like Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, Starbucks, Michaels, etc. Rib Mountain (the bump) is a fantastic park, and when the city grows it's integration will be comparable to South Mountain in Phoenix (but with skiing). Marathon Park is impressive. Being only a mile from downtown, it's so secluded and wooded that they have camping. I remember camping there once as a kid and completely forgetting that I was in the middle of a city. The Wisconsin River has adjustable rapids made possible by the dam to create the most ideal Kayaking course. They host the USACK (USA Canoe/Kayak) Nationals, USACK Junior Olympics, and the Midwest Freestyle Championships. The art museum is very respectable for the city's size. And it's location at the crossroads of I-39 and Hwy 29 make it an ideal midpoint. Wausau definitely has a lot going for it.

Don't get me wrong, it's without a doubt a small city...one night of watching the news will give you a feel of how far it is from becoming a cosmopolitan metropolis. But for a city of 38,000 it's got the feel of a city of 100,000. Wausau is on the rise.

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You're getting close to convincing me to run out and take somemore pics.

Thanks for being our Wausau Chamber of Commerce tour guide for us ajknee you're doing a great job. , I'm JK, you do seem to know alot about Wausau, where did you say you're from?

This maybe spliting hairs but the US census estimate for 2007 has the cities pop now at well over 39,000, or just under 40,000. That may not be much of a difference but it should be pointed out that the city of Wausau is not the only city, town, or village that makes up the Wausau area. With Weston, Rothschild, Rib Mountain and others crowded around Wausau it adds significantly to the areas pop. So the reason why the city may seem like 100,000 to you is because Marathon counties population is actually at 130,000, 2007 estimate, and according to the US Census, Lincoln County is now added to the metro to make the Wausau metro's population 160,000. I agree though, still not close enough to consider it a midsize city.

One thing that Steely Dan and I always agreed upon here in the forum was that urban metro is what counts the most, or rather, what we think shows the true size of a city or metro. That means only estimating towns and cities within the metro, not the whole counties. If we did this for Wausau, the metro population would be right around 80,000. In Milwaukee's case, with a metro of 1.7, the urban population for the metro would probably be only 1.3 million. Twin Cities with a metro pop of 3.1 would actually only be around 2.3 million, or something like that.

Wausau is a pretty nice little city. I went to school at UWSP and MSTC a few years back, and my parents recently retired into their vacation home on Lake DuBay, about 15 minutes south of Wausau.

What I really enjoy about Wausau the most is just driving through it on the interstate. With Rib Mountain to the west, and the way the freeway kind of wraps around it, it makes for a nice change of pace compared to how flat the rest of central WI is. Also, the valley scenery to the east once on the north side of town is quite dramatic.

My mother swears that the shopping in Wausau holds a back seat to no one, and she should know being the expert that she is. This is in comparison to a lifetime of shopping in MKE prior to moving up there. Granted it doesn't have a huge mall to compare to the ones around MKE or other cities, but apparently it has a culmination of stores around the city that make for a good shopping xperience...but I hate shopping so whatever.

Wausau does have a distinct feel to it. The rolling hills doted with commerce and housing give it a distinct look along the lines of some of the scenery in Madison, but without the political hangover and liberal snootiness. There is a good sense of progressiveness when one visits the town and an emerging vibrance that just never seems to go away. Could I live there...no...but I do always enjoy visiting.

A few years ago a friend was in town when I still lived in Point and we ventured up to the fire tower on Rib Mountain. I took some panos. I will have to see if I can dig them up and get them scanned in. If I find them I will make sure to post. (I learned that day that my friend, who is a jet pilot, is deathly afraid of heights and couldn't make it but half way up the tower, gave me a good laugh...Rib Mountain claims another victim!)