Steel Drums at the East Side Club

 

This morning Travalon and I went to Mass in the gym, and afterwards we talked to the woman who always seems so happy to see us. Now we know she is from the South, but we still don't know her name. Then we went back to the section of the Pheasant Branch path that starts at the dentists' office, and this time we walked further on it than yesterday. To our surprise, it really wasn't that far to where we could go to see the pond. Here are some photos along the path.

We saw an egret by the edge of the pond.

We could see another, bigger pond, but the trail turned away from it so instead we went to a parking lot with a good view. Along the way we saw this industrial thing. The four things on top looked like crenelation from a distance, so that it looked like a castle tower. 

By the side of the pond we saw a pair of sandhill cranes. 

And we also saw this Canada goose in its cute but awkward tween stage.

Here is a shot of the pond.

We saw a mallard duck with two adorable, tiny babies.

Here is the mallard family among the geese.

This is a picture of Pheasant Branch Creek from the bridge that goes over it.

Then we went back to the main part of Pheasant Branch, thinking we'd go to the springs. Instead, we went to see the eagle's nest again. You can see the young eagle perched above the nest.

We did stop for Culver's custard because the flavor of the day was chocolate heath crunch, and while we enjoyed it I checked my emails for messages about band practice tonight. There weren't any, but to my surprise there was an email from a pizza place in a city in Iowa saying they missed me. I didn't remember the pizza place or even the city, but I wondered if it were from our trip to Nebraska two years ago. Travalon did some internet sleuthing and found this pizza place had closed over a year ago, in March 2023, so it must have been some sort of scam. It said "Click here to find out what's new," so I most assuredly did not. Who knows what it would have done?

Then we went to the East Side Club to see Panchromatic Steel, a steel drum band, and Jilly Moose joined us. Unlike the last few days, the weather was perfect. Here are some photos Jilly Moose took with her phone of the view across Lake Monona. Her phone can really zoom in!

We had really good soft pretzels and cheeseburgers, so a healthy day of eating all around. Here we are, posing with angel wings on the side of the East Side Club Tiki Bar:

For some reason Travalon did not pose with the angel wings. Jilly Moose took a photo of the sunset.

There was going to be a bonfire at sunset for the solstice at Olbrich Park right next door, and I was a little curious, but we drove by and it was a bunch of people much younger than we are. Also, it might have been really pagan. I am not the best Catholic, but I only celebrate celestial events as reflections of the glory of God; I do not worship them. Marking the longest days of the year by sitting next to a lake and listening to steel drum music is probably a good enough way to commemorate the solstice.

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