This week I took Tuesday off of work instead of Friday
because Travalon had out-of-town guests coming to visit. They are a couple he
met while on a trip to the Balkans and stayed in touch with all these years.
They live in the state of Oregon but have relatives about an hour away, so they
wanted to come visit Travalon and meet me for the first time. We met for lunch
on the roof of the Monona Terrace, then we toured the Capitol, including the
balcony along the bottom of the dome from which you can get a fabulous view of
the isthmus. The female half of this couple was captivated by the beautiful
Capitol building and the views of the lakes from the balcony, and she took a
lot of pictures. We took a stroll down State Street and had Zanzibar chocolate
ice cream, which they both enjoyed. It is dark chocolate ice cream, and I’ve
never had anything else like it. Digression: once years ago I took a bike ride
to Verona with the Lutherans, and the pastor was singing about this particular
flavor of ice cream to the tune of “White Christmas” the whole way. Anyway,
Travalon and I had thought his friends were staying for dinner, but they had to
head out, so we had a romantic dinner just the two of us on the balcony at
Paisan’s, where we overlooked Lake Monona and got to watch a waterskiing show.
Yesterday Travalon and I joined a bunch of my coworkers to
watch a Mallards game. We did this last year too, and you can’t beat the seats –
right behind home plate! Plus you get unlimited ballpark food and three beers.
Usually they just have cheeseburgers and brats, but last night they had these
really delicious marinated, grilled shrimp. I saw a kid with corn on the cob,
but the only vegetable matter I could find at the buffet was coleslaw. Not to
complain about free food! Best of all, the Mallards beat the Wausau Woodchucks
6-4. Last year during our work outing they lost by a lot. Did you know three
Mallards players from the 2016 season got drafted into the Major Leagues? One
is going to the Cubs. I think the other ones are going to the Marlins and the
Rockies. How exciting! One of them was a hitter that Travalon and I thought we
should keep an eye on, since we thought he was so good that he might have a
bright future in baseball. Looks like we were right!
Famous Hat
1 comment:
One of the Mallards players this year named Jake Randa is the son of former Kansas City Royals player and MLB all-star Joe Randa from Kettle Moraine High School in Wales. I remember him well from the late 80's. Jake had a couple of big hits in this game, maybe he'll emerge as a big star and follow in his father's footsteps making it to the majors.
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