Monday, November 28, 2016

Thanksgiving Weekend Hiking and Jazz


Sorry for the long silence. I hope my readers had a good Thanksgiving – mine was very relaxing! Wednesday evening Travalon and I started off our four-day weekend by going to Octopi for their Trivia Night. Our team (“Famous Hats”) came in fourth out of eleven, and that was just the two of us versus teams with about six people. We want to try it again sometime!

Thanksgiving Day Travalon and I spent a few hours with his mother, then we went for a hike on Tivoli Island in Watertown, and then we went to Rich’s crazy dinner. There were about twenty people there, including most of the Rosary Ladies, two little kids and a whole enclave of vegetarians at one end of the table. A political discussion did break out among the vegetarians, but I was able to avoid it from where I was sitting just at the edge of their section, and some random singing broke out too, but that I don’t mind as much. I spent much of my time talking to a delightful woman from Nicaragua. As always, I provided the turkey and other people brought all sorts of things, including at least three types of sweet potatoes and half a dozen pies.

Friday Travalon and I took the day off of work, slept in, and made chocolate croissants for breakfast. We drove to Reedsburg to visit the Corner Pub and took a long hike in Mirror Lake State Park. Anna Banana II was in town briefly from North Dakota, so we met her, Jilly Moose, and OK Cap for dinner at Himal Chuli. Some of them went on to Rich’s house for leftover dessert, but by then Travalon was really not feeling too well, so we just went home and had a quiet evening.

Saturday Travalon was really under the weather, so we did not travel to Ma and Pa Hat’s house. I met the Rosary Ladies and Rich for brunch at Crema Café, then we went to the craft market and the pottery place in the same strip mall. I had been hoping to get Kathbert to come up to Cherokee Marsh because I knew she would remember how to get to the boardwalk, and indeed she did! We went for a long hike in the marsh, running into a bandmate of mine, then we went to Rich’s for leftovers. Thanksgiving Part Two!

Yesterday we went to brunch at Sofra in Middleton, then Travalon was feeling well enough to go on a gentle hike in Cherokee Marsh, so I was able to show him the boardwalk. We also went to a memorial concert for Doc DeHaven, a local jazz trumpeter and high school music teacher who had died this summer at the age of 85, and that was great. Different groups played all sorts of jazz, and it was all the kinds I like. (True confession: I am not an Ornette Coleman fan.) So it was a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and Travalon was recovered enough to go to work today.

Famous Hat

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