Halfway to One Hundred and Seven

 

Today was my half-birthday, and as my regular readers know, I often celebrate it. I hadn't thought much about it this year until Tiffy asked about it. Two Christmases ago Travalon had given me a $50 gift card to Ishnala so we could go for my half-birthday, but I forget why we didn't go last year. It was on a Wednesday, so that may have been part of it. This year I had no meetings (for once), and everyone else was taking it off, so both my bosses said I could have it off. 

In the morning Travalon and I went to Ogden's, a little diner on North Street that we pass every Sunday when it's packed. We thought if we went early on a Thursday we'd be okay, but there was still a 20-minute wait, so we took a 20-minute walk. I ordered a quiche, and Travalon said it was a quiche muffin:

I should have looked at the specials board, because they had a smoked gouda omelette today, and I love smoked gouda. Then we walked across the street to the bakery/coffee shop/brewery to check it out and bought a couple of bakery items we haven't eaten yet, plus Travalon got a mocha. When we got back home, I did DuoLingo while he got ready for work. I got this comment:

Travalon sent me a photo of a toy where he works that looks like Stalin:

Propaganda?? He says this is the train conductor. Speaking of trains, we heard one as we were going back to the car, and yesterday I saw one on campus. 

I went downtown to meet Tiffy, and we had lunch at the Globe, got bubble tea, and hung out on the top floor of her sister's building until Travalon was back from work, and then the three of us drove to Ishnala for my half-birthday dinner. They told us it would be about a two-hour wait, which turned out to be very accurate, and that sounded perfect. We went to find a hiking trail, since the restaurant is in Mirror Lake State Park, and a rowdy trio of middle-aged women in a convertible followed us and asked if we were leaving so they could have our parking spot, but we said no, just going for a hike. We couldn't find the path, so we went down toward the beach and sat around a barrel to have a mocktail and listen to "Dennis," who was singing and playing the guitar. The rowdy trio of ladies were going to sit at the next barrel, but a man in a high-vis vest told them they couldn't, someone else was going to sit there, and they said, "You're the guy who said we couldn't park in the spot we found either!" He ushered a couple to the barrel, and Tiffy said, "Are these barrels by reservation only? Did we take someone else's barrel?" so I gestured at the two barrels side-by-side nearby and said, "I reserved a double barrel!" One of the rowdy ladies, apparently named Heidi, got up and sang with Dennis at his invitation, and she was actually really good - "I'd rather listen to her than him," said Tiffy. Heidi was a pistol, and the Dennis and Heidi show was pretty entertaining, probably lubricated by the old fashioned cocktails they were both drinking.

It was quite hot out, so after we finished our mocktails, we tried to find somewhere to sit in one of the indoor, air-conditioned bars, but they were all packed. We found a shady spot on a patio overlooking Dennis, who also played the fiddle quite competently, and we chatted until the buzzer went off, letting us know our table was ready. I had the daily special, a filet mignon in a pistachio pesto with goat cheese, and the sauce was delicious, but the meat was too good for a sauce. Travalon and Tiffy had surf and turf, a tenderloin with butterfly shrimp, and then we all had ice cream drinks: I had a grasshopper, Tiffy had a chocolate brandy Alexander, and Travalon had a salted caramel one. They even gave Tiffy and me tote bags for our leftovers! 

As we were leaving, we saw a little golf cart that must take people to and from the overflow parking lot, since it's quite a ways away. Travalon said that might be a fun job, so we imagined him wearing a high-vis vest, driving a golf cart, and telling people what barrels they can and can't sit at. We saw a lot of deer along the side of the road heading back home, but downtown was very quiet so we had no problems with pedestrians while dropping Tiffy off. Then we got to our area of town, and there were police barricades everywhere, and a very rude policeman wouldn't tell us how we could get home when they were forcing us to go south, but Travalon figured it out. Still, a twenty-minute drive from downtown took us an hour! But then I came home to an unexpected surprise: the guy who leads that secret club I'm in had sent me a Happy Half-Birthday video! He said be sure to celebrate it because Adultitis hates that. Believe me, I've been celebrating it all day! But I appreciate the message.

Famous Hat

Travalon's Rainy Half-Birthday in the Marshes

 

Sorry that I haven't blogged in several days. Thursday I worked on campus and walked with my colleague, then in the evening Jilly Moose, two other ladies, and I had a wonderful dinner sitting outside at the Globe while discussing the Church Fathers. I did take this photo of a tiger swallowtail on campus, to make up for all the ones we missed at the George W. Mead Wildlife Preserve.

Friday I worked at home and didn't walk with my neighbor, who is out of town. Travalon and I had dinner on the dock, and a neighbor came and joined us. We watched the parade of boats coming in for the evening, and one had purple lights along the side.

Usually we forget about Travalon's half-birthday until June is half over, but this time I remembered it. I asked what he'd like to do, and he said go to Horicon. Today was very rainy, but Travalon and I headed to Horicon with great optimism that it would let up. We did stop at the Schultz Cheese Haus for the Platonic ideal of a peanut butter cup, and we ran on that all afternoon. By the time we got to the boardwalk, it was raining softly enough that we decided to take a walk in it. On the drive we saw a young buck who crossed the road in front of us.

On the boardwalk we saw two male blue-winged teals chasing each other around.

Then they landed in different areas. Here is the one that landed close to us.

We saw a patch of swamp irises.

And this tree that looks like a portal to another dimension.

And we saw vetch in bloom. It is much prettier than its name implies.

On the auto tour, we saw an egret being harassed by a red-winged blackbird. You can see them both in this photo.

I love this photo of an egret we saw on the auto tour.

We also saw a lone swan.

Then we went to the path that is only open June-August. We saw this massive snapping turtle on the path.

We saw - and heard - a lot of yellow-headed blackbirds. They sound like a squeaky gate.

We saw a pair of red-headed ducks.

And we saw black-necked stilts.

We saw a pair of goldfinches. Travalon got a photo of the female, but the male was too quick.

This kingbird was posing so nicely for us.

We didn't eat lunch until almost four, and then we went to the nature center where we sometimes see the white-headed goose. We didn't see him today, but they have purple martin houses, and we saw lots of purple martins.

The lupins there were a much deeper purple than the lavender ones we saw on Monday.

This is a red-winged blackbird sitting on what looks like a wood duck nesting box.

Here is a mammoth statue.

I saw a robin singing on top of another statue, and barn swallows were dive-bombing him. What was with all the birds fighting today? Two male teals, the red-winged blackbird dive-bombing the egret, and then that? I think it's because they'e all nesting.

We drove to the hill from which you can see most of the marsh, and we saw two more huge snapping turtles. Here is one of them. I think they're females coming out of the water to lay their eggs.

We saw a pair of swans with some cygnets that you can't see in the photo.

Here is a view of the marsh.

We weren't sure what this contraption was but guessed it was for clearing weeds.

We saw a pair of sandhill cranes, but no whooping cranes today.

There were also purple martin houses there, with lots of occupants. I think the darker birds are the parents, and the ones that are lighter below are juveniles.

This sparrow that had caught a dragonfly was hanging out with them.

We stopped by Patrick Marsh, because we hadn't seen pelicans at Horicon. Along the path we saw a couple of common yellowthroats.

And there were pelicans!

Suddenly they flew away.

Isn't this tree swallow pretty? It's so blue and shiny!

I suggested we drive the road along Patrick Marsh, because sometimes we see great blue herons there. We did see two, but they flew away before Travalon could get a photo. He did get this action shot of a wood duck and her babies fleeing from us.

After our successful birdwatching day, and walking six miles, we just came home and hung out. Travalon really wanted Mariner's clam chowder, so he went over and got some for both of us. I think he had a really good half-birthday, now that we remembered it for the first time.

Famous Hat