I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday was Travalon’s
birthday, so we started the day at MNM Coffee, where he got a free scoop of ice
cream. We drove to Sauk to see eagles; none were out and about, but we had a
lovely hike on the new trail they put in where the defunct railroad tracks used
to be, along the river. Then we drove beautiful Highway 60 to Spring Green,
which is the Birthday Town: Travalon got free lunch at the café, 20% off a book
at the little bookstore and a FREE book at the library, a free drink at Freddy
Valentine’s, a free cookie at the tea shop, and 20% off a journal at another
shop. We walked all over town and got so many steps that day! Then we rushed to
Wollersheim Distillery and got there not long before it closed so that he could
get his favorite drink, an Apple Cream (apple brandy with cream soda). We came
back to town and went through the Zoo Lights, which were magical, and then I
said I would take him to dinner anywhere, so he chose David’s Jamaican. As my
regular readers may remember, they catered our wedding, so they remember us
fondly and gave us a HUGE slice of key lime pie for his birthday.
Saturday Travalon and I met Rich and some other people
downtown for coffee, then we rode the free Holiday Trolley down State Street
and around the Capital. We went into the Capital to see the State Christmas
Tree, then we used some coupons they had given us on the trolley at the State
Historical Society store and Fontana Sports. Jilly Moose had asked if we were
having a party for Travalon; he’s not a big party person, but I emailed some
people to see if they wanted to meet for lunch at McGee’s soul food restaurant,
and almost everyone but Jilly Moose could make it. Even the Married B-Boy came
with his five-year-old daughter, who decided she adored me. What did this mean
for me? That I had to run for several blocks to keep up with her as she held my
hand, and then she still had the energy to run back! Having children would
either kill me or get me into excellent shape! Travalon got lots of great gifts, including a book about historic gas stations by the guy who did the historic tavern one we followed from Jilly Moose and OK Cap, and a shirt that says: "I can't stay calm - I'm Croatian!" from Cecil Markovitch. In the evening Travalon went to a concert with
a friend, so Hockey Girl and I went to the Chocolaterian and then a classical
guitar concert. There was a very loud bat that either loved or hated the music –
we couldn’t tell if it were complaining or singing along. It especially
loved/hated Bach and Japanese music.
Yesterday I was very grumpy, so when the Packers were
stinking it up, I told Travalon that I really had to get outside. Since it was
so beautiful, and we were recording the game anyway, he went on a hike with me
along the Yahara River. Then the Packers were playing better, but when we
started watching them again, they started to stink again. Travalon drove me
downtown for the annual All-University Choir Concert, and we heard the “end” of
the game, but it went into overtime. I went to the concert, and as I was
waiting for it to start, Travalon texted to say they won!! This was good news
for Wisconsin, since the Badgers lost their first game of the season the night
before, and it was a really important one, the Big Ten Championship. They can
never beat Ohio State… The concert was wonderful and included “Tota Pulchra Es”
by Durufle and that old classic “Riu Riu Chiu,” as well as another noisy bat.
That’s the danger when you have concerts in beautiful old churches. After the concert
Travalon and I met back up and went to see the Canadian Pacific Christmas
Train. It had already gotten to Watertown when we got there, so Travalon
suggested we try to beat it to Columbus. We saw it take off and thought maybe
it had beaten us to Columbus, but we saw some other people pulled over by the
tracks, and they said, “It’s just coming now.” Readers, you will be ecstatic to
know that I got a really fantastic movie of the train going by, just feet away
from me. It’s all lit up and beautiful and playing (don’t ask me why) the
Jackson 5. The movie is almost four minutes long, but I should be able to post
it to this blog, so look for that in the near future.
Famous Hat
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