Day in Milwaukee and Ride in the Baidean

 

Sorry for the long silence. I forgot to mention that the neighbor I always walk with and I went out on our dock for Thirsty Thursday; nobody else joined us, but we had a fine time by ourselves. Friday Richard Bonomo and I worked out together for the first time in eons, and he was merciful because it had been so long for me. Then I talked to Tiffy.

Yesterday morning I took a walk with my neighbor, but we didn't go very fast because we kept running into other neighbors and talking. She took this really cute photo of me.

Then Travalon and I drove to Milwaukee, since it was going to be a very hot day but in Milwaukee they always have lake breezes. We parked on one end of Brady Street and then walked down to the lakeshore. Here are some photos.

 

And some photos of the harbor.

I love this one, because the water is so blue, and the trees on the breakwater almost make it look like a tropical scene.

We saw some boats with interesting names.

My favorite - I thought this one was so clever!

Then we walked back up Brady Street and saw a live rooster dressed in pajamas sitting on the cab of a truck, but we couldn't take a photo because the guy who owned the truck would have charged us. We also saw the Bucks beat the Miami Heat in the last seconds of overtime in a playoff game. We went to a chocolate shop and tried some truffles, then we walked all the way to the end of Brady Street, and a little beyond, over the river, where we saw this artwork.

We went back to Brady Street, to a Mideastern restaurant called Casablanca, and we met Tiffy for dinner. After dinner we were bad and had dessert, then we were worse and smoked a hookah. What a lovely day! I should have taken a photo of Travalon or Tiffy smoking the hookah, but I was too much in the moment to think of it, and Tiffy probably would have killed me anyway. And believe me, in a fight she could totally take me.

Today after Mass and brunch with Rich and the Single B-Boy, Travalon and I drove to the part of Lake Wisconsin where we had seen loons. No birds today, but we did take a walk on the path to Paradise Island, and he took some other photos.

Hardingfele says these flowers are called lady rockets and that they are invasive.

Then we drove past the spot where you can see the two islands. Here is the larger one.

We drove across the causeway to Tipperary Road, but the only birds we saw there were a pair of mallards. We drove along Tipperary Road and stopped at the park across from the cottage we stayed at last year for our anniversary.

On the way home, right near our house, we saw lupines! They appear to be wild. In all the years we have lived here, I have never seen any lupines before.

The weather had cleared up, so we went on a boat ride, but as you can see from this photo, the clouds started gathering again, so we got off the water after forty-five minutes and just missed the deluge.

I was surprised at Irish class to learn that the others in my class don't like boats. I told them how our boat is so little compared to all our neighbors' boats, and the teacher told me that ours is a baidean. Now the word for boat in Irish is bad, pronounced like "bod," but "little boat" is baidean, pronounced "bah-jean." I thought that was a super cute word, and when I told Travalon, he liked it too. So now we can say, "Let's take a ride in the baidean." Her name is still the Megan Jaye, but now she has a nickname too.

Famous Hat