I hope my readers had a good Memorial Day weekend. I had a
fabulous one, starting with Thursday evening, when Travalon and I brought
Rodney to a doggie event at Mickey’s Tavern. There was a costume show, and the
lion won, followed by Princess Leia and Cher and maybe the shark. One dog (not
in costume) did a bunch of clever tricks, including putting giant plastic coins
into a piggy bank. I struck up a conversation with a girl sitting beside me,
who was fascinated by my many musical ventures. “I want to follow you around
and have your life!” she said. It is a good life, I’ll agree. Music would be a
terrible career in my opinion, but it is a wonderful hobby.
Friday evening the Northside Ukuleles had their usual fourth
Friday jam, and then since it was the hostess’s birthday, we had a party
afterwards. I brought my balalaika, having practiced “Happy Birthday” in the
key of A (what was I thinking??) but of course the ukuleles played it in C, so
I had to scramble to figure it out. I must have fooled everyone – they said I
sounded really good! After that Travalon and I went to Brix 340 for their Wine
Day special, and he had an amazing Riesling by Schloss (?) – so tasty!
Saturday morning Travalon, Rodney, and I met OK Cap and Cali
for coffee at Crema Café, then the boys and I hit the road and drove to Mill
Bluff State Park for a hike. We got to Eau Claire just in time to go to the
vigil Mass at Sacred Heart, and then we drove on to Chippewa Falls to visit the
Leinie Lodge, since it is a stop in our book of 70 historic taverns. The last
tour of the Leinenkugel’s brewery was full, so we took a walk on a beautiful
path along the river, and then we came back to the lodge and tried five samples
of their various beers. We had dinner at a very brightly colored Mexican
restaurant in town, then we headed back to Eau Claire and visited a tavern from
the book called the Joynt, that had big name jazz acts playing there from
1974-90. The owner would snag them on weekdays when they were cheaper, as they
traveled between Minneapolis and Chicago. Unfortunately the stage is now a back
room, but they have photos on the walls of the acts that played there, like
Dizzy Gillespie, and also some R. Crumb cartoons. They also had really cheap
beer there, I think it was only $1 for a half-pint domestic tap.
Sunday we went to the free breakfast at our hotel, but it
was pretty picked over, so we drove to Menomonie to see Travalon’s old school (including
a sculpture in front of the Union they call “Stout-henge”), and we found a café there.
We drove on to River Falls and a third tavern from the book called Emma’s,
which was unusual in that it was owned by a woman back in the 50’s. They had a
canoe paddle on the wall that said: “YCJCYADITJB” so I asked what it was and
was told, “Your curiosity just cost you a dollar in the jukebox,” but they did
let me choose the song, so I chose “Jump Around” by House of Pain. The bartender
was really friendly, and when he found out we were planning to head to
Kinnikinnic State Park, he said that one was really boring and we would be
better off going to Willow River State Park. We heeded his advice and ended up
on a long trail but were rewarded at the end with a very large, beautiful
waterfall. I will post photos of this and all our adventures soon. Then
Travalon and I headed down the River Road, stopping at a beautiful park on
Douglas Point and at a restaurant in a historic building in Red Wing for
dinner. We drove alongside Lake Pepin and got to Winona just as darkness was
falling. Travalon stopped at one of the three Sinclair stations in town (two
are right across from each other!) to see if they sold T-shirts with their
dinosaur logo on them. The girl working there had one, but she said they were
just for employees. However, I did take Travalon’s photo with a big cardboard
smiling green dinosaur. The girl working there said we were her favorite
customers all day, even though we just bought a couple of drinks, and also she
told us she is a Packer Backer. Since darkness had fallen by then, we just
headed back on the interstate instead of trying to take a scenic route home,
and we got home around midnight.
Yesterday Travalon and I had coffee on State Street before
my adoration hour, then we went to the Monona Terrace Café for lunch, but it
was closed, although the website had not indicated that it would be. We ended
up getting tacos at Q-doba before meeting Kathbert for a long walk out onto
Picnic Point and beyond, to Frauschi Point. In the evening Travalon and I went
to the East Side Club because the Tiki Bar had opened for the season, but it began
to rain as we headed there, and so they must have closed it just before we got
there. At least we saw a rainbow. We had burgers and sundaes at Michael’s and
then stopped at the Nau-Ti-Gal before calling it a night, and the bartender
there was very friendly. We had a conversation with him about the popularity of
boys’ names in different generations. He says all the guys his age are named
Jacob, and they were all jealous of the one guy whose name was Jakob, because
at least he was a little different. Interestingly, he had never heard of Toni
as a girl’s name, and he said he knew two guys his age named Casey and a
bazillion girls with that name, though they generally spell it some weird way,
like Kaysea. He didn’t know a single girl his age named Stacy or Jenny, the two
huge girls’ names when I was in school. It’s funny how much it has changed in
just a generation.
Famous Hat
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