Travalon's Boating Lunch Break and Tiffy's Birthday Dinner

 

Today I took an early, long lunch to go boating with Captain Travalon.

After work I met Tiffy and Travalon downtown, and we went to the Indian restaurant on State Street for Tiffy's birthday dinner. We had gobi mandarin, which is deep-fried cauliflower in a delicious tomato sauce, and garlic naan, and then for my main course I had something with cheese and potato dumplings. So tasty! We all had kheer (rice pudding) for dessert because that's what the other two wanted, and while I wanted rasmalai, they were out of it. We did have to wait awhile for the waiter to come back for our dessert order, and then another while for him to bring the bill, but that's okay, we just chatted.

Here are more screen shots frrom the video of the local train I posted two screenshots from yesterday.

And here is a screenshot from one of Travalon's videos that he made yesterday in Portage.

This screenshot is from a video made at night, so it's harder to see, but I hadn't seen it before.

And more screenshots from another video:

I still have to get back to Travalon's videos from several weeks ago, when we had a day off of work and went to Dupeyville. It's just that people keep posting videos on social media with such awesome graffiti.

Famous Hat

Lake Rest on Rest Lake, Or Where's That Confounded Bench?

 

This morning we went to Dixie's Coffee for breakfast and lattes. This was our view.

We went down to the docks at our resort, and the rowboat sitting there was just too tempting, so we took it out. Travalon didn't like the oarlocks, so we just each took an oar and treated them like paddles.

We rowed back into this shady cove.

There had been a young couple who took out kayaks while we were just looking at Rest Lake, and when we got back to the dock with the rowboat, the woman was sitting on a bench watching us. She struck up a brief conversation with us, so we knew they were in town from Boston for a wedding. 

Our next stop was Win-Man, the mountain biking area where they usually have a food cart. They did not today, so we bought protein bars and Gatorade, then we went to a new brewery called Some Nerve - their logo is a nerve cell! Clever. I had a watermelon habanero sour, and Travalon tried a couple of cream ales. They were all good. Alas, the brewery also did not have food, so we headed to the Trout Lake State Nature Trail without eating a real lunch. Here are a couple of photos. (More to come when we get back home and have better internet access.)

I remembered that there was a bench overlooking Trout Lake, but where was it? That is why Travalon suggested calling this blog post "Where's that Confounded Bench?" We did eventually find it.

The closest town is Boulder Junction, so we went there to get a late, light lunch. There was a food cart, but the people working at it steadfastly ignored us, so we went to the nearby brewery which had a food menu, but they said we had to order it from the food cart. We found another stand "just about ready" to sell gyros, so we gave up on Boulder Junction and went back to Dixie's for some Lotus Drink and macaroni and cheese. Then we went for a hike around Statehouse Lake, where there was a wedding going on. On the trail, this adorable squirrel yelled at us.

And we had to cross this cute little bridge.

That was a lot of hiking, so when we got back to the cabin, I put my feet up while praying a Rosary and then joined Travalon in swimming at the beach at our resort. Then we showered and went to Smoky's, the classic supper club where we always sit in the bar area to enjoy the live music. The musician today was from Denver, and he said he remembered us from last year. We split walleye and the best steak ever, and we also split a Black Squirrel, which is their version of the ice cream drink Pink Squirrel but with raspberry in it. That's what we always order. Why mess with perfection? Tonight is cloudy so we didn't bother to go to the beach to look at stars. The only sour note (besides the food truck people who snubbed us) was that the Badgers lost to Notre Dame 41-13 at Lambeau Field, and they were only down three points at halftime. We're not expecting great things from them this year... again.

Famous Hat

Travalon’s Adventure: S.S. Badger Ferry Crossing and Sleeping Bear Dunes

 

Happy September! Today not much happened for me, except that my THC stuffie arrived.

Also, the train went by in our neighborhood, apparently right after I left for Adoration, and it had some fabulous graffiti.

Now that I've posted the mandatory train graffiti, I'm turning things over to guest blogger Travalon:

On Friday my old college buddy who is visiting from Japan and I met up in Manitowoc and took the S.S. Badger for the first time across Lake Michigan to Ludington, MI. It was wonderful! So relaxing just sitting back and enjoying the cool breezes and just looking at the waves. We also enjoyed playing bingo, although we didn’t win at all. After docking on the other side of the big pond and a nice dinner and drink at a brewpub we had a long two hour drive mainly in the dark through a lot of woods and on backroads with no straight shot, but we made it to our destination safely. Saw the same bright moonrise Famous Hat did back home but didn’t get a picture. Our resort in Traverse City (home of the Pit Spitters baseball team that occasionally crushes our Mallards) was on a nice bay beach but the room was nothing special.

 
On Saturday we drove to Sleeping Bear Dunes Natl. Lakeshore and hiked on the Empire Bluff trail, which was recommended by a guide at the visitor’s center, the views of the lakeshore and bluff were beautiful but we weren’t right on the dunes. The next hike was the Cottonwood Trail located off of a scenic drive and that was way better, we went up and down huge sand dunes and had spectacular views of Lake Michigan and some pretty inland lakes in the park. It was tiring, and we got off the trail a bit trying to find our way back but we made it!

 
Our last stop in the park was at a historic lighthouse at Point Betsie. Unfortunately we missed the last tour before it closed.

 
Had a good nights sleep despite my cough after all that hiking and a nice Mexican dinner.

 
On Sunday we went to the north end of the park, our first stop was at the small historic village of Glen Haven, which looked like a maritime village in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia. We visited a former Coast Guard Rescue station and an interesting Maritime Museum. We then hiked the Pyramid Point Trail, which was a good uphill climb but the view at the end was spectacular ! it included the shorelines of Big and Little Manitou Islands. Our next adventure was a swim (I just waded) at Good Harbor Bay Beach. The water was crystal clear and the sand pristine. A few people were there too but it was quiet and peaceful. No trash anywhere, no loud music, could’ve stayed all day. I have to take Famous Hat there in the near future. Our last stop in the park was at a dune made for climbing. Surprisingly my buddy didn’t have the energy for it, but I decided to. Went up sideways and made it, but at the top of that steep dune was another dune- naw, too much! We went back to town and although my buddy struck out on his quest for a slice of homemade pie ( a rarity in Japan I guess) we had a nice seafood dinner although it was a bit overpriced.

On Monday we had to get up very early to drive two hours again to make the ferry on time, and it was dark and rainy, we also didn’t have coffee before leaving. We made it though. The crossing back to Wisconsin was very pleasant and although we still couldn’t win at bingo we won the trivia contest. My buddy couldn’t believe I knew the 1960 hit Runaway was sung by Del Shannon. I would’ve made Rockin’ John on WORT proud too. We visited Point Beach State Park back in Wisconsin and my buddy and I had pie at a cafe in Two Rivers. We parted ways and I stopped and walked at Kohler Andrea and Harrington Beach State Parks, the harbor in Port Washington and Virmond Park in Mequon. A full and wonderful weekend!

He also took a really cool 360 degree video that Blogspot is not letting me post. I'll figure out how to do something with it tomorrow - this is enough photos for today.

Famous Hat