Salad for Lunch

 

Today was my first official day of vacation, and it was also the first day that Travalon goes back to his school-year schedule of working in the afternoons, so we took the morning to walk on Governor's Island. I saw the Killer Building across the lake and joked that my coworkers might be looking out the window and see me, and they would be all, "Famous! Get into work!! We can't get anything done without you!" Then he left for work, and I met Anna Banana II and Jilly Moose for lunch. We sat outside at Cafe Hollander, and we each had a different kind of salad. I thought it was funny because I had recently seen an article about what each sign of the zodiac should order for takeout, and everyone else had some delicious choice like Mexican, Italian, Mediterranean, etc., but Capricorn is just supposed to order a salad. At the time I thought, "F--k you, random internet astrology blogger! I like delicious food as much as the next sign!" but then I did go and order a salad today, so there you go. Then again, so did the Leo and Virgo with me. (Yesterday Tiffy was getting a bit impatient with me because I meant to google what restaurants were open for the holiday, but I got distracted by an article about what color nail polish each sign should wear during Virgo season. I'm supposed to wear emerald green. What? And Tiffy was like what? What restaurants are open??)

After lunch we went for a walk on Governor's Island, and again I looked over at the Killer Building and wondered if they were looking over at me. Then we went for a walk at Jackson's Landing, since both loops are almost exactly a mile, but then we were getting eaten alive by mosquitos. We did see a cute rabbit at Jackson's Landing and some crazy party boaters at Governor's Island, in Three-Foot Bay. Even on a Tuesday there are people there partying! And I couldn't believe how many pre-retirement age people seemed to be wandering around Hilldale this afternoon. Do they just happen to be taking a vacation day today like me, or what are they doing with their lives that they can just hang out on a Tuesday afternoon? I think some of them might be trophy wives. Once Hardingfele and I were talking about trophy wives, and she said it sounded like a really sweet gig, but I think it would be boring. Your only job would be working out all the time to look good so your husband doesn't dump you for yet a younger woman, like he dumped his first wife for you. And guess what you would eat every day for lunch? Salad!!! To that I say, No Thanks!

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The "I'm Not a Virgo" Necklace

 

This weekend Travalon and I went our separate ways. He went with his buddy up to Hayward, where they went tubing for over three hours on the Namekagon River and stayed at a lodge right on beautiful Little Round Lake. This is his old college buddy who lives in Japan, the one whose wedding we went to in Hawaii. He misses Wisconsin fish fries, so they went to an excellent one on Saturday night at Long Lost Lake Lodge. Today they did a long hike on Rib Mountain on their way back south. He had a fantastic time.

Meanwhile, Saturday morning I sat on our porch, listening to the rain and watching the hummingbirds. When Tiffy came to town, we had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then hiked on the boardwalks that are part of the Ice Age Trail out in Cross Plains before heading to the outdoor theater in Spring Green. We saw an adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility which was very enjoyable. We went to our hotel in Dodgeville, which seemed a little sketchy in that everyone who worked behind the desk always had a big, grim dog with them. However, it was a perfectly serviceable hotel.

Yesterday we went to Mass at St. Joseph's in Dodgeville, and it was a wonderfully short Mass because it seems the organist never showed up - they had hymns listed on the hymn board, but there was no music. The priest was young and lively. Then we had a light brunch at a cafe in town before heading to Galena. Tiffy really liked Galena; she had thought it would be a really bougie town like Kohler when I said there were a lot of boutiques there, but she loved how old and historical it was. The red brick buildings set into a hill overlooking the river really are very pretty. We shopped and bought crystals, then we sat on a balcony drinking chocolate avocado smoothies and listening to a woman folk singer do 80's pop songs. We had Tiffy's (early) birthday dinner at a Japanese restaurant, where we split a rainbow sushi roll and a hibachi for two and tempura green tea ice cream for dessert. We went back to the hotel and indulged in the hot tub (there was no pool), then we just talked for hours.

This morning we drove back to town and had brunch (and way too much Kona coffee) at the Pancake Cafe, then we took a two-hour hike at Cherokee Marsh with Rich and Kathbert. They were joking about the (imaginary) aboriginal marsh people, and Rich said, "They're Marshians!" (You might have to say that joke out loud to get it.) Tiffy and I recovered on my porch with bananas and sports drinks, and we watched the hummingbirds. One always makes happy squeaky noises, so I call her "Squeaky." There is another female one who never squeaks - at least I assume it is a different bird, because there are at least two that I have watched chasing each other. Now and then I see the male, who also makes no noise. Then we went to a Venezuelan restaurant for dinner, and then Tiffy headed home and Travalon returned and told me about his adventures. I got him a Yellow Submarine shirt at his favorite shop in Galena. One other thing I got worth noting: one shop had stone necklaces for each zodiac sign except Tiffy's, which she noted, and I said, "They're probably sold out because it's your birthday month," and she said, "Oh, yeah." I got the Capricorn one, which is snowflake obsidian (I'm wearing it now), and the proprietress asked if we needed anything, so I said, "My friend can't find the necklace for her sign." She said she had a secret stash, and Tiffy didn't like the carnelian necklaces, but I loved one and bought it, even though I am not a Virgo and in fact have no Virgo in my chart whatsoever. The proprietress said she could barely keep carnelian in stock because of a TikTok craze, so later I looked it up, and the TikTokers claim carnelian makes you irresistible to the opposite gender. I said, "Are you sure you don't want this necklace, Tiffy? I already have a husband. Besides, it has a Virgo symbol on it," but she doesn't like the color. She said, "Take the symbol off and wear it yourself. I don't like it." So maybe at some point I'll model my "I'm not a Virgo" necklace for my gentle readers.

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Beach Boys Hawaiian Shirt

 

Today was crazy as I prepared for my vacation, but I did get to work from home, so I saw the hummingbirds. One kept having a fight with a wasp, and then two of them were chasing each other, and several times I saw the male with his beautiful dark red throat. They are so much fun.

Travalon had the day off of work, and he went swimming, hiking, and fishing and actually caught a couple of fish, but he didn't keep them. He also went antiquing. At the antiques mall in Columbus I had seen a very cute little doll, but it was in a case with some weird racist stuff, so I was afraid it was racist too. Then I saw the same sorts of dolls at Africa Fest - they are African dolls made by Africans for their children, so not racist at all. They are made by the Ndebele people of South Africa. Travalon actually found two at the antiques mall, and he sent me photos to make sure they were what I wanted.

Yes! I wanted them! Here they are together at my house.

An exciting thing came in the mail today - Travalon's Beach Boys Hawaiian shirt! We went to a fish fry with a couple of neighbors, and one took this photo of us. (They both LOVED the shirt!)

Poor Travalon was the only man in the group, but he said he had a pretty good time. Then he and I went to Capitol Brewery to see the Red Hot Horn Dawgs. They were so good!

Here we are, listening to them.

They played a bunch of tropical songs in their last set, so we danced. Maybe that worked off a fraction of the fish fry... When we came home, I did DuoLingo, and here are some weird sentences.

There are weirder ones. Stay tuned... And here are some shots of fungus in the North Woods. First are some impressive yellow mushrooms on a tree on Mount Zion in Ironwood.

And here are some cute mushrooms we saw near the waterfalls.

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post, because it might be the last one for a few days. Tiffy and I are going to Galena for the long weekend, and after that Anna Banana II is coming to town, so it's hard to say when I will next get a chance to blog.

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Famous Hat, Scary Tennis Player (If You're a Crane)

 

Today was another crazy day at work, then Travalon came home and we played tennis. At first I thought I was doing pretty well, but soon I was back to my usual mediocre self. The cranes were watching us with their teenage offspring, until I missed a shot and hollered, "OH!!" really loudly. Then they flapped their wings and quickly fled. Guess I'm scary while playing tennis! This isn't the first time they've been really interested in our activity while we were playing, and I'm always glad there's a fence between us. A lady cardinal also watched us for a bit. Then when we were going back into the house, I noticed that the mandevilla that stayed at Rich's house all winter is blooming. Check it out.

And this happened today as I was doing DuoLingo. It's kind of faded - I should have made a screenshot before doing the exercise. You're supposed to pick which term in Column 1 goes with the one in Column 2, but in this case they were all right across from each other. Sometimes this happens. Next time I'll try to notice it before doing the exercise and then do a screenshot when the words are easier to read.

As you can see, I matched them all correctly. Sometime I'll make a screenshot of a really out-there sentence. In French the sentences aren't too odd, but Irish has ones like, "The lion eats the clothes" and, "The woman is in the refrigerator." And everyone's favorite: "The dog yells." What breed of dog is that?? Who knows, maybe in Ireland the dogs do yell. The ones I saw were herding sheep, and I don't remember them making much sound at all. They were just so wonderfully efficient.

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Photos of Our Apostle Islands Cruise

 

Today Travalon got done with work early, so he went to the Union Terrace, and I joined him there. Then I got busy with random stuff, including checking my email address that I always forget exists until people tell me they sent me email that I never got at my usual email address, so of course I am once again blogging way too late. But at least I can sleep later tomorrow because for the first time in what feels like ages, I can work from home!

Here are photos from our Apostle Islands cruise. First, the marina by where we caught our boat.

Doesn't the town of Bayfield look so cute from the water?

These are blocks of brownstone that were abandoned when the bottom fell out of the market for them.

See the volunteer waving to us from the old Manitou Island fish camp?

We saw wildlife, some eagles that Travalon didn't get good shots of, and here are cormorants.

The sea caves in the red stone of Devil's Island were truly spectacular.

This one even looks like a skull! 

This one kind of looks like a face too.

Here is the lighthouse on Devil's Island.

I took this shot with my cell phone. Not too bad, ey? The natives called this island "Evil Spirit Island" because in the caves the wind sometimes sounds like a woman wailing. (We didn't hear that.)

I don't know why my photo of Travalon, taken at the same spot, is so dark.

The lighthouse on Devil's Island is the last one in the Apostle Islands with this kind of lens.

Here are shots of the lighthouse complex on Raspberry Island.

The sun was starting to sink in the sky as we returned to port.

I like this church on the hill. I have no idea if it's Catholic.

Here is a view of the port.

In the background, you can see a building with blue umbrellas on the roof. That's the Bayfield Inn, the restaurant where we ate dinner. They must get a lot of business from people who see them from the boats, because lots of our fellow diners had been on our cruise. The food is very good.

This is the ferry to Madeline Island, which we have taken before.

Madeline Island is not part of the National Shoreline, because too many people lived there for the government to buy all their property to make the island part of the park. The other islands were lightly populated, and the properties on them were grandfathered in so that they could be registered to one person until that person dies. This happened right around the time I was born, and people were busy registering these properties to their babies, but now those babies are middle-aged so soon all the islands but Madeline will revert to government control. However, Madeline Island has a lively scene with Tom's Burned-Down Bar, which I have featured on this blog before, so you can always move there.

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Waterfalls in Northern Wisconsin

 

As promised, here are photos of the Northern Wisconsin waterfalls we saw on Sunday. The first is Interstate Falls on the Montreal River. The other side of the river is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I thought this was one of the prettiest waterfalls we saw.

Next is Kimball Falls on the Montreal River. They aren't quite as spectacular, plus the creepy guy who lives across from them was staring at us. (We didn't take a photo of him.)

Saxon Falls is far more scenic. It is also on the Montreal River. Montreal is a small town west of Hurley that doesn't appear to have a mountain. However, there is a mountain that seems to tower over Hurley as you approach from the south. I think it might be Mount Zion in Ironwood.

We also stopped by Saxon Harbor.

The water was so clear there!

Superior Falls on the Montreal River were truly spectacular, cascading 90 feet.

This is the Bad River as seen from Copper Falls State Park.

Copper Falls is on the Bad River.

And so is Brownstone Falls.

In the same state park, we debated about going to Granite Falls, but it was a longish hike, so we just sat on the shores of Loon Lake and admired the bluff across the way.

Upson Falls on the Potato River were so pretty that I'm posting two photos. Here's a closer shot.

And here's a shot from the road.

So here are some more photos, which of course Blogspot loaded in reverse order. First, the pastel bakery in Ironwood where we had a pasty yesterday.

Here is a shot I took of Superior Falls.

This is from the lookout point on Mount Zion in Ironwood. We actually started the day there, going before Mass, and then we went back with the good camera.

I loved this hill you could see in the distance. This is zoomed in on it.

And here you can see it as part of the vista from the mountain.

Stay tuned tomorrow, when I will be posting photos from our Apostle Islands cruise!

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