I hope my readers managed to stay cool this weekend. Friday
Travalon and I went to Dane Dances on the rooftop of the Monona Terrace. We
really enjoyed the first band, which played lots of Motown music and disco
hits, but the salsa band somehow wasn’t as enjoyable. I’m not sure why, since I
love salsa. I had not heard this group before, and they did lots of salsa
covers of hits in English, which may be part of what was throwing me about
them. Salsa should be in Spanish, at least apparently in my book.
Saturday Travalon and I had a leisurely morning, then we
headed to Africa Fest, where we listened to a traditional drum band and a
reggae band and tried some West African food. We had both a baobab shake and
hibiscus juice. Our favorite part of the festival was the Parade of Nations,
with all the flags of African nations. They have some really beautiful,
colorful flags! Also, some people were wearing gorgeous traditional African
outfits. Then we drove to Horicon Marsh and took a sunset boat cruise. It was
so beautiful. We saw lots of pelicans and cedar waxwings and blackbirds, a cormorant,
and several kingfishers, muskrats, beavers, and herons. We even saw a bald
eagle! One pelican had a large carp in its mouth, but as it flew away at our approach, the carp fell out of its mouth. A bad day for the pelican, but a good one for the carp! For our own dinner we went to Mullin’s, a drive-in in Fox Lake dating back to
the 1930’s, then we took a walk in downtown Beaver Dam and discovered a river
walk with a park containing musical instruments as part of the play equipment.
I made a video that I will post soon.
Yesterday Travalon and I went to Yum Yum Fest, which is a
charity event at Breese Stevens Field. You have to pay to get in (not that
much), and then you have to pay for each dish you sample, so it’s not the
cheapest event ever. Some of the food had really long lines, like this gnocchi
with fois gras that was so worth the
wait, and “magic coffee” ice cream that was also wonderful. We saw a Slow Food
person there, and there was live music. We sampled a bunch of things until we
were totally full and out of cash, and then we headed home and played tennis to
work off some of those calories. In the evening our band had practice for the
first time in forever. We had a slow summer for gigs, but now that autumn is
approaching, we have a number of them booked. I already know I can’t make one,
since it’s during our work department’s annual picnic. Several are at farmers’
markets, so if you are interested in seeing us perform, drop me a line and I’ll
let you know when and where.
Famous Hat
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