Packers in London and Amazing Views in Wisconsin

 

This morning (our time) the Packers played the Giants in London, but I didn't wear my lucky Packers T-shirt to Mass, the one I've been wearing when they win. After Mass I checked the score, and the Pack were up 20-10 at halftime, so I felt good about things as we went to brunch at the Edgewater Hotel. What a view of the lake! Rich wasn't impressed because they didn't have hot chocolate, and their chocolate milk was only 1%, but I enjoyed my smoked salmon Benedict.

Then Travalon and I headed out to hit the trail - the Ice Age Trail. We're trying to get forty-two miles by the end of the month, and after today we're almost up to fourteen. We hiked along the edge of the Shoveler Sink Segment; this is a nature preserve with a pond on it, and I'm guessing the name means that northern shovelers (a type of duck) are there at some point, but today we saw no birds at all on the water. Here are a couple of shots of the pond.

And this was a cool little hill on the other side of the pond.

Then we went to Crossroads Coffeehouse in Cross Plains, because if we go to four Ice Age Trail Communities and spend money at certain businesses, then we can take ten miles off our total and will only have to hike thirty-two miles total, or sixteen each. I think we can do that in a month! After our short break, we went to the Valley View Segment and hiked a little more. The parking lot was on a road called Moundview, and I can see why! Here are the views to the east.

And here are the views to the west. You can see Blue Mound in the distance.

I was a bit late to Irish class, which on a usual day would have been awkward since it's often just the teacher, another woman, and me, but today there were like eight other people there (most of whom I'd never met before), so nobody really noticed my presence. While I was in class, Travalon ran some errands, and he took this photo of the trees by Warner Park.

Then we took a short walk in the woods across from the bluff in a nearby neighborhood, since I hadn't quite gotten my five miles for the day. It would have been great to get that extra mileage on the Ice Age Trail, but there are no segments less than twenty minutes away, and we had to watch the Packer game before I led Night Prayer tonight. Wow, that was not worth watching! The first half was magnificent, and then in the second half both the offense and the defense stalled. Yuck! We watched two episodes of The Office to cheer ourselves up after that, but I'm still not over it. Packers! Why are you always letting me down??

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