This morning Travalon felt really rotten, so we were glad we didn't have to go to Mass. Neither of us slept very well in the hotel room. However, we did want to see the lakeshore while we were in Sheboygan, and we needed coffee, so we went to the South Pier and stopped at an ice cream shop that served coffee as well. Man, was it some delicious coffee! They had a train running around the edge of the ceiling.
We saw a restored boat from the 1930's.
We saw a blue heron.
It flew away as we got closer.
Here is the lighthouse at the end of the North Pier.
In this photo Travalon took of some ducks, on the horizon you can see the two mysterious things we saw in the distance. Travalon thought they were boats, but they didn't move.
We also passed a very cute church called St. Vincent's on the way to the pier, and I thought we could have gone after all, since we could no longer do the errand we were planning to do this morning on account of Travalon's cold. However, he said he was too miserable to sit through Mass this morning, but after the walk he did feel a little better. He said it was the fresh air, although as you can see from the photos, there was plenty of haze from the Canadian wildfire smoke.
On the drive home, we saw this water tower with a picture of a water tower on it. So meta!
Today was my last Brazilian drumming class; it wasn't originally scheduled to go this long, but we missed one when one teacher was out of town and the other was sick, so they kindly had a make-up one. I brought Miss Mandy with me because there was an Irish slow session after that, and the guy who plays the cute little instrument in the Brazilian band asked to see her, then he asked to play her. Now I don't let just anyone play my antique mandolin, but as I said to him, "Of course! You can probably play it better than I can," and I was right about that. He played a little bluegrass. He and some other experienced drummers joined us for this class, where we all played really heavy drums, and afterwards we had delicious chocolate cake made by one of my fellow students. She and the other two ladies in the class and I chatted for a bit afterwards - I think we kind of bonded over being so outnumbered by the guys. One thing that surprised me was that they had said this lesson would be jersey-friendly, but only one other guy wore his besides me. Another thing that surprised me was that they said these jerseys are a secret and shouldn't be worn in public until a performance on the 23rd, and don't post photos on social media before then. Too late - I had already worn mine to the Irish session the day I got it, and I already posted a photo on this blog.
Travalon had been listening to a really great band at the East Side Club, but we figured when he came to pick me up that there wasn't time for me to go hear them before the Irish session. We went to Garver Mill and had a slice of pizza, but oddly the people right before us had ordered the same two flavors (drunken ravioli for me, sausage and pepperoni for Travalon), so there was some confusion over whose pizza was set out. This isn't the first time our weirdly specific order was the same as someone else's; longtime readers will remember when we got someone else's pizza because we both ordered a large with one side vegetarian and one side sausage. What are the odds? The Edgerton Little League team came in to get ice cream, and I said they probably didn't care about the drumming jersey, and since five people read my blog, that didn't seem like a high-risk activity either. Even though everyone at the Irish session already had seen this jersey, I did ask if Travalon had anything else sitting around in the car for me to wear, and guess what? He had an Irish rugby jersey he was going to wear to the Shamrock Club picnic that was postponed due to weather. So I put that on once I got to the music club. I said, "You aren't supposed to see this jersey I'm wearing so I have to change," and they all thought that was pretty funny. What are the odds that I'd change into something so apropos?
The Irish session went really well. My Irish teacher and the red-headed flute player were both there, and we all talked about the upcoming Irish Fest courses. I am enrolled in an "Intro to Irish Fiddling" course which said "No beginners," which seems weird for an intro course, but I assume they mean no people who have never picked up a fiddle before. I am also taking Intermediate Irish because my Irish teacher assured me that I'm too advanced for Beginning Irish. "That's for people who don't know the language at all," she said. She did try to talk me into taking the advanced Irish class she's taking, but I don't think I'm ready for that. Speaking of languages, this morning DuoLingo finally figured out that I know some Spanish, so it kept giving me placement tests. I got the following stickers all within ten minutes.
Crazy, huh? Usually it takes me about half a week to go up an increment of one, and today I went up forty units in ten minutes!
When Travalon and I got home, we went out on the dock to watch the sunset. It was beautiful and strange because of all the smoke in the air.
The lotuses are blooming now.
They probably smell good, but we can't smell them over the smoke in the air. For some reason in our neighborhood it smells very smoky. I didn't notice it elsewhere in town, or in Sheboygan. It must have something to do with the lay of the land around here.
Famous Hat
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