Urban Hiking

A fairly standard work week without many surprises.  Jo had a business trip to Kohler, WI for three days during which she had some free time to spend riding Sam - I think Sam looks a lot more comfortable that Jo does.  Apparently though Sam was more in control of direction and speed than Jo as there were a couple of times in which he fell behind the other horses and suddenly decided it was time to catch up - regardless of Jo's feelings about the speed at which he was doing that.  She came through it unscathed and did find a little time for a nice soak in the Jacuzzi in her room.  I spent the week tending things around the house including putting in another crop of beans in the garden and replanting some of the beds that didn't sprout robustly.  Lastly, we had new metal doors put on our screened in porch in the back since the wood ones that we had installed a year ago just kept warping.  This naturally involved me having to do some more painting, my favorite task.

 Friday afternoon we headed to our favorite beer garden in a park to partake of some Hofbrau beers and a soft pretzel with cheese dip, which is the real reason we go.  We were joined by our nephew, Drew, and his significant other, Amy.  They were just finishing up with their teaching duties for the year and looking forward to a summer of rest and relaxation.  As always, it was wonderful to catch up and hear the activities that 20 somethings are engaged in.  We decided to keep with our summer tradition this year and after having our beer/pretzel combo we headed to Culvers for their version of a blizzard - a concrete mixer.  Seemed to us the perfect Friday evening dinner - beer, pretzel, and a concrete mixer.  Fortunately, we biked to the park and Culvers so we are sure we were calorie neutral for the evening.

Saturday after a morning run for me and elliptical for Jo, we biked to a park near the Milwaukee Water Tower to do some yoga with a teacher we met earlier this year.  She has decided to do Saturday yoga outside for the summer and we are looking forward to re-engaging in a little yoga practice.  The weather was beautiful with the sun shining and a cool breeze coming in off the lake.  Afterwards, we headed to the gym to complete our morning of exercise with a little weight lifting.  As you might expect, the afternoon was spent relaxing around the house and planning some 2015 vacations - because you can never have too many vacation plans in the works.

After our trail hikes over the last few weeks, we decided to do an urban hike this week through some of the neighborhoods north of us.  We started out first thing Sunday morning in 52 degree weather.  We hiked about 12 miles total with an enjoyable stop along with the way at Benji's diner for brunch - chocolate chip pancakes and a spinach and cheese omelet.  Then it was back home to nurse our sore feet, again, and catch up on several days of newspapers that had accumulated.