Rained Out at American Players Theater

I hope my readers had a good weekend. I had a slightly disappointing Friday evening. Tiffy came to town, and she and I had some dinner at Brasserie V, then we drove to American Players Theater and met the Dairyman’s Daughter there. The three of us settled in to watch Death of a Salesman, but about half an hour into the play a big wind blew up, and then they interrupted it to tell us to take shelter. We had all just gotten under the shelter when the rain came down in sheets, and worse, there was tons of lightning. We waited half an hour more to find out if they would restart the play, but eventually they concluded the bad weather was not going to move on, so they canceled it. Most of the people left, but some of us were too scared (including the three of us) to brave the lightning, so eventually they collected us scragglers and put us on the shuttle that goes up and down the hill for people who have trouble walking. I had never been on it before, but it was kind of a fun party atmosphere. We still had to dodge the lightning to get across the parking lot. Finally Tiffy and I were safely in my car Noelle, heading back to Madison, when Rich contacted us to ask if we wanted to come over. We stayed way too late talking to him.

Saturday Travalon and I met Tiffy and Rich at the Original Pancake House in Monona for brunch, and I may never go there again because that one meal just about used up my calories for the day. Fortunately you do earn calories back for doing exercise, and I have to get in 10,000 steps a day anyway, so I did earn enough back for dinner. Travalon and I went for a hike at the Mackenzie Nature Center, then we went to Pardeeville and explored their lake. There was a classic car festival going on at the park there, and a band played what I would call “mountain music,” only instead of traditional Appalachian tunes, they were doing hip hop and heavy metal songs in that style. It was very entertaining to try to figure out what song they were doing. In the evening we met the Slow Food group for dinner at Field Table, a restaurant up on the Square that uses organic, locally sourced ingredients, and it was wonderful. Then Travalon and I walked all over the Square, stopping at the Argus Bar for a sour beer, and then down to the Union Terrace. We ran into Pete the Sailor Man and talked to him and his equally entertaining friend for a while. It had been Pirate Day for the sailing club, so the shelter was decorated with little Jolly Rogers. We walked up Langdon Street and stopped by the redone Edgewater Hotel to check out their patio overlooking the lake. Travalon said it reminded him of something in a much bigger city. I was nostalgic from seeing all those sights from my college days.

Yesterday Travalon and I went to Horicon Marsh to hike, but we hadn’t realized the boardwalk is down for the season. We hiked on a trail that goes through a field and some woods, which isn’t much different than what you can do in town at, say, the Arboretum. We did see lots of butterflies and goldfinches there. Then we drove to Fox Lake and took a pleasant drive around it, ending up at a restaurant called the Boat House where we sat outside by the lake and had shrimp pizza. Yum! We had to get back to Madtown relatively early because I had band practice – we have a couple of gigs coming up. If anyone is free from noon-one on Tuesday the 21^st (the Solstice), we will be playing in front of Hotel Red. I will be taking that whole week off of work because Anna Banana II is coming to town, but that day she is busy so I am free to play with my band. It hardly seems worth going to work for just one day, anyway.

Famous Hat