Saturday I drove to Racine to visit Tiffy, and we went to lunch at a place called Sooshi Bay that was so much fun. You sit in a booth next to a conveyer belt, and pieces of sushi come by on candy-colored plates so that you can choose what you want to eat. The colors denote the price of each plate of food; there are light blue, light green, yellow, pink, and confusingly, two shades of orange. Better yet, those are the cheapest and most expensive colors, so easy to confuse. Why didn't they use lavender or something? We tried all sorts of sushi and three kinds of dessert, and I had a seaweed salad.
We weren't far from the Mars Cheese Castle, and I had always wanted to visit it, since I love the Schultz Cheese House on the way to Horicon Marsh. That is where you can get the platonic ideal of a peanut butter cup - you'll never want Reese's again! I imagined the Mars Cheese Castle was a bigger version of the same thing, but Tiffy said it was just a tourist trap. I thought some friends had said there was homemade ice cream there. Here is a shot of the outside.
Inside it smells wonderful, probably because of the fresh-baked cinnamon bread, but we were full after all that sushi. The ice cream was just some brand, not homemade. I did get a T-shirt that I may model for my readers if there is any demand.
Then Tiffy and I went to the beach in Racine and waded along the shore.
We went back to her place and swam in her wonderful pool, then we showered and got dressed up to go to a foodie restaurant downtown called Vero. It features small plates for sharing, and we tried mushroom toast, duck wontons, coconut shrimp, scallops, pistachio-encrusted lamb lollipops (our favorite), and almond cake with horchata ice cream for dessert. On the way there, we had seen a taco truck with a scrolling sign announcing, among other things, quezadillaz and beands. On the way back, Tiffy noted that the truck was gone, but I pointed out that it had just moved. I said, "Maybe making more beands," but "beands" doesn't sound that different than "beans," so I had to exaggerate it: "beandzdzdz." For some reason that made us laugh all the way back to her house, then it had finally cooled off so we sat out on her balcony and talked.
Yesterday morning I got up and went to Mass at a nearby church, where the priest apologized for the lack of air conditioning, but I was perfectly comfortable. We had enjoyed Sooshi Bay so much that we went back for lunch again, and our waiter said, "Welcome back." I was hoping we would go back to the beach, but it was even hotter than the day before, so we walked at the mall. We swam in Tiffy's pool again, then we went to a supper club (Hob Nob, which I have blogged about before), but we didn't have reservations, and they said there would be a long wait. We went to a Mexican restaurant, but they didn't have quesadillas spelled like Godzilla, or beands. I had seafood enchiladas with beans (not beandzdzdz) and rice, then back at her house, after a walk in her neighborhood, we had smoothies she made with strawberries, bananas, almond milk, and Malibu rum. We sat out on the balcony and talked again, because once the weather had cooled off after the sun set, it was beautiful out.
Meanwhile, Travalon was hanging out with his buddy who lives in Japan. This is where they stayed:
He took a lot more photos of the North Woods, which I will try to post tomorrow. They went tubing in the Peshtigo River and went swimming in Lake Metonga and went to a drive-in with amazing burgers and pistachio shakes. So he had a wonderful weekend.
This morning Tiffy and I were going to go out for brunch, but I called the restaurant and there was a 45-minute wait, so she made vegetable scrambles for us. They were so good! Then I drove back to Madison, and Travalon and I went to Labor Fest. We had never been, since we are usually out of town until the last possible minute on Labor Day, but he had actually gotten back late last night. Labor Fest was very lively, with horchata and corn on the cob and lots of other food and drink, and local disco cover band V05 were playing. They are always so good. Appropriately enough, one of the songs they did was "September." I saw a number of my union peeps, and the chair from the committee where I'm vice-chair. After Labor Fest wrapped up, Travalon and I went for a hike on Governor's Island, then we went to the splash pad at Lakeview Park, but it had turned off at 7:00 for the season, so when we got there at 7:01, there were just little dribbles of water coming out of it. Then we went to Marshall Park, and Travalon swam a bit, but I was too lazy to get into my swimsuit (especially since there are no dressing rooms or showers, just a bathroom), so I just waded. It's sad that everything is shutting down for the season. Summer isn't quite over, but everyone acts like it is. Tiffy said they might be shutting down her pool too.
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