More Pictures of My Summer

Here are some other pictures I have taken lately. First is a petunia growing between the curb and the street in Reedsburg.

These are a couple of shots from the 14th story meeting room in my office building: the view out of the window, and three bass balalaikas that are stored there.

Here are some shots from our trip to the Railroad Museum in East Troy.

And here are some shots from our boat ride on Pewaukee Lake.

The Viking boat is back in our neighborhood, with more decorations:

A coworker brought me these things from Germany. The box of mints says, "Sunshine for you" and the coaster says, "Everyday Heroine." This was to thank me for a big favor I did for her.

Here are pelicans, a bald eagle, and the sunset from our sunset cruise on Horizon Marsh:

In Beaver Dam there is a restaurant that appears to be called "Ng's Garden Buff," although it is actually called Ming's Garden Buffet.

This is the stick figure statue on a building on the Square.

Here are some shots Travalon took on his trip up north: a pizza place he went to overlooking the lake, and the view from the cottage they rented.

Here is a shot of me taking a picture of my succulents in the kitchen window:

Finally, some videos. First is a steel drum band doing "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire.

This is the carillon playing "On, Wisconsin."

And finally, here is a video of Travalon demonstrating all the instruments in the riverside park in Beaver Dam. I know it is kind of dark, but you can get an idea of all the instruments.

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Photos of Our Straight Lake Road Trip

Here are some photos from our recent road trip. This first one was a cute picture on a truck ahead of us. At another point we were behind a boat called "Garda Madra," which is Irish for "Police Dog," but I didn't think to take a picture of that.

This next picture is a cairn someone built in the Red Cedar River along the path Travalon and I followed:

Here is the overlook at Kinnikinnic State Park:

Travalon took this picture of me on the St. Croix River cruise:

This is the adorable island in Straight Lake:

Here is the overlook in Interstate State Park:

The waterfall in Merrillan is beautiful:

Here are a couple of shots of the charming coffee shop we had lunch at in Black River Falls:

Here is a shot of Lake Wauzee from the overlook in the county park:

And finally, here is the view of Round Bluff covered in mist from Mill Bluff State Park:

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Journey to Straight Lake

I hope my readers enjoyed the long holiday weekend. Friday Travalon and I took it easy, just walking to Mariner's for fish and then going maybe two miles away to the Parched Eagle. Saturday we also had a relaxing day, sleeping very late and then driving to Eau Claire in time to go to Mass at Sacred Heart. We stopped for a beer at the Lazy Monk Brewery in the shadow of Sacred Heart, then we drove to Menomomie, where Travalon went to school, and took a walk along the Red Cedar River. We ended the evening with beer and pizza at Lucette, a relatively new brewery in Menomonie, then we drove back to our hotel in Eau Claire.

Yesterday Travalon's evil cell phone, which as I have mentioned has a mind of its own, set off an alarm at 6 am, and I couldn't get back to sleep. We started a project: I had begun collecting the artistic Life WTR bottles, but somehow a few got recycled by accident. Travalon suggested that dollar stores in small towns might have older bottles, and he was right! We had so much fun stopping at various dollar stores and finding older Life WTR bottles as we went about our travels. We drove up to Kinnikinnic State Park, which a bartender had once told us was a boring state park, but in fact it had a beautiful overlook on the St. Croix River and a steep path down to a beach. We got nine flights of stairs worth of exercise coming back up! Then we took a brunch boat ride on the St. Croix, which was wonderful. It was raining a bit when we started, but at that point we were inside eating. This brunch had the best waffles I have ever tasted in my life. The weather cleared up, and we went out on deck and watched sailboats racing, with their colorful spinnakers. Then we drove to Straight Lake, the last state park Travalon had not been to yet. We hiked around a smaller lake called Rainbow Lake and then followed a long trail down to Straight Lake to find a vista worth the trouble, with a small island in the middle of the lake. We would love to come back and canoe out to that island! Then we drove to Interstate State Park, which also has a spectacular view of the St. Croix River. We stopped at a really good pizza place called Pizza Planet, like the Married B-Boy's old business, in Somerset. Then we went back to the hotel for a refreshing swim.

Today we continued our Life WTR bottle project as we drove along Highway 12. We stopped at a park in the very small town of Humbird and walked along the lake. We stopped at a gorgeous waterfall in Merrillan and had lunch at a charming little coffee place in Black River Falls. We went to Lake Wauzee County Park in the Black River State Forest and hiked. We found a beach there where you could swim out to a small island, but it was cold and drizzly so we didn't swim, though we saw some people paddle boarding with their dog. We will have to go back and visit this island too! Since we had to pay $5 to get into this park, we explored it thoroughly, including a point called Sherwood Forest and a basin created by old lead mining activity. There is a herd of elk in the forest, and we were hopeful that we might see one, but we were not that lucky. After that we drove to Mill Bluff State Park, one of our favorites, and waded in the pond before hiking around the bluff. We drove through RockyArbor State Park, and it was a bit flooded in places. The Mexican restaurant where we wanted to eat in Mauston was closed for the day, so we found one in the Dells with a spectacular view and mediocre food. Now we are back home with so many bottles of Life WTR that we can barely fit them all in the fridge.

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Secret Park

Sorry that I cannot blog about making collard greens, because last night Travalon and I decided to go to Banzo to use a $5 off coupon, and then we walked around Tenney Park to see the flooding. What I did forget to blog about yesterday is when Rich, Kathbert, and I went to the Secret Park after we were done hiking in the Arboretum. This park is not visible from the street; it is completely enclosed by houses. Yet it is a good-sized part with a playground area, a basketball court, and a small soccer field. I remembered going to it years ago with another friend and knew it was in Kathbert’s neighborhood, so she went exploring and found it one day. It is called Midland Park because one of the sidewalks to get to it is on Midland, and it technically has an address on that street. I suppose because the park is so secret, people feel more secure about leaving toys there, so we saw some toy dump trucks, a soccer ball, and two basketballs. We used the basketballs to shoot hoops, and Rich and I were pretty terrible at it. Kathbert was much better. Anyway, now the secret is out.

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Bachelorette Weekend

I hope that my readers had a good weekend. I was a bachelorette myself, except for Friday evening, when Travalon and I went back to the Cherokee Country Club for their amazing Puttin’ on the Ritz Cod, and then we went to the Dane Dance. Unfortunately it was inside, at the Alliance Center, but the disco cover band was great. We missed the salsa band.

Saturday Travalon went up north to hang out with his friend who lives in Japan but is visiting for a few weeks. I met Rich, OK Cap, and that woman who doesn’t have a name on this blog for coffee, then OK Cap and I prayed the rosary. Rich, Kathbert, and I went for a hike in the Arboretum, then in the evening I met the Slow Food crowd for dinner at a ramen restaurant. It’s different than our usual style, when we each get a small plate and share with each other, since it isn’t too easy to share ramen. We all had a good time anyway.

Yesterday I had promised to spend the day with Hockey Girl, so she and I had brunch at Lazy Jane’s, then we heard a steel drum band (the same one Travalon and I heard on the Union Terrace) at the Orton Park Festival, then we went to Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse and ended with an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Middleton that does serve cactus as a side – always the sign of a good Mexican restaurant! We had originally been planning to go to a Mexican festival in Milwaukee, but she had a dance practice pretty early in the evening, so we wouldn’t have had much time there. In the evening I had band practice, and our guitarist gave us all produce from her garden. I took collard greens, so tonight I should have an adventure figuring out how to cook them. Maybe tomorrow I’ll blog about how they turned out.

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"Spare Time"

Sorry that I haven’t blogged much this week; nothing that exciting had happened to me, and so I was going to upload pictures but never seemed to have time. On Monday evening Travalon and I took a perhaps ill-advised trip to the health club to swim, considering all the flash flood warnings, but nothing happened to us. We were lucky – a gentleman on the west side was swept away and drowned by the floodwaters! Tuesday I just didn’t feel like blogging, and Wednesday Travalon and I were too busy playing tennis for me to get a chance to blog.

Yesterday we did have a more interesting evening. We went to Bierock, the new brewpub near our house, for dinner, and then we went to campus to get the beer that a faculty member had given to me for my help in getting her reimbursed. We took a walk along Observatory Hill, which has a wonderful view of the lake (and an actual observatory), then we went downtown so I could show Travalon the funny statue “Spare Time,” of a stick figure sitting on the roof of a building up on the square. If you don’t know it’s there, you might never notice it. I took an okay picture of it, although it was dark by then. In case you are looking for it yourself, it’s on top of the building housing Candina Chocolates. Then we took a walk along the Square and stopped for some mochi at Tavernakaya. Mochi are little balls of ice cream covered by bean curd, and we each had a green tea one and a coffee one. They were so good! So that was a fun weeknight evening.

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Horicon Marsh Boat Ride

I hope my readers managed to stay cool this weekend. Friday Travalon and I went to Dane Dances on the rooftop of the Monona Terrace. We really enjoyed the first band, which played lots of Motown music and disco hits, but the salsa band somehow wasn’t as enjoyable. I’m not sure why, since I love salsa. I had not heard this group before, and they did lots of salsa covers of hits in English, which may be part of what was throwing me about them. Salsa should be in Spanish, at least apparently in my book.

Saturday Travalon and I had a leisurely morning, then we headed to Africa Fest, where we listened to a traditional drum band and a reggae band and tried some West African food. We had both a baobab shake and hibiscus juice. Our favorite part of the festival was the Parade of Nations, with all the flags of African nations. They have some really beautiful, colorful flags! Also, some people were wearing gorgeous traditional African outfits. Then we drove to Horicon Marsh and took a sunset boat cruise. It was so beautiful. We saw lots of pelicans and cedar waxwings and blackbirds, a cormorant, and several kingfishers, muskrats, beavers, and herons. We even saw a bald eagle! One pelican had a large carp in its mouth, but as it flew away at our approach, the carp fell out of its mouth. A bad day for the pelican, but a good one for the carp! For our own dinner we went to Mullin’s, a drive-in in Fox Lake dating back to the 1930’s, then we took a walk in downtown Beaver Dam and discovered a river walk with a park containing musical instruments as part of the play equipment. I made a video that I will post soon.

Yesterday Travalon and I went to Yum Yum Fest, which is a charity event at Breese Stevens Field. You have to pay to get in (not that much), and then you have to pay for each dish you sample, so it’s not the cheapest event ever. Some of the food had really long lines, like this gnocchi with fois gras that was so worth the wait, and “magic coffee” ice cream that was also wonderful. We saw a Slow Food person there, and there was live music. We sampled a bunch of things until we were totally full and out of cash, and then we headed home and played tennis to work off some of those calories. In the evening our band had practice for the first time in forever. We had a slow summer for gigs, but now that autumn is approaching, we have a number of them booked. I already know I can’t make one, since it’s during our work department’s annual picnic. Several are at farmers’ markets, so if you are interested in seeing us perform, drop me a line and I’ll let you know when and where.

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