Exploring Milwaukee

We had a weekend at home to enjoy a bit of our hometown.  Friday night after enjoying a couple of cosmopolitans while debriefing Jo's day at work we heated up some of the Papa Del's pizza to kick our weekend off.

Saturday morning dawned cool and partly sunny so we got out the bikes and headed to the Oak Leaf trail for a two hour bike ride.  Besides the gale force winds that managed to always be in our face, we had a nice ride although it left both of us a bit sore.  We then enjoyed watching the Badgers win against Michigan State - always a good start to the weekend when the team you are rooting for wins.  Later that evening we joined several couples for dinner and a show at the Milwaukee Repertory theater - the musical "The Man from La Mancha".   Neither of us had seen it before, even though it first came around sometime in the 60's.  It was a great performance and interesting set design given the size of the theater.  The only downside was that it was performed without an intermission and two hours sitting in a theater seat isn't great on the joints.

Sunday we laced up our hiking shoes and walked for two hours around town.  Our path, fortuitously took us past Peter Sciortino's Bakery which, at least according to Jo, we have been meaning to visit.  A cinnamon twist and apple fritter accompanied us for a short portion of the hike afterwards.  We spent the rest of the day working on some chores before enjoying homemade carrot soup, made with ingredients from the garden, hot from the oven french bread, and homemade vanilla ice cream.

On the garden front, we harvested all of the acorn squash to stop the birds from continuing to peck holes in them.  If you read the squash attack blog you know we had a bumper crop this year (total harvest was 10 acorn squash -so for the next few weeks dinner is going to be acorn squash themed).  Everything else in the garden is done except for the carrots, parsnips, and brussel sprouts.  Although, as usual, the brussel sprouts look a bit undersized - it might be the last year for attempting them.

Off to Canada

Jo and I spent last week visiting our neighbors to the north.  Our main stops were in Quebec City and Montreal with a lovely drive in between.  We were experimenting with taking a more relaxed approach to our vacations by not packing every daylight hour with something.  My analysis, we were moderately successful.  We did manage some down time but we still seemed to be on the go a lot.



In Quebec we stayed at the iconic Frontenac hotel which really dominates the skyline - as evidenced by the countless pictures Jo had to shoot of it - and provided a really convenient location to explore Quebec.  We enjoyed visiting the old town and we found the food both delicious and quite speedily prepared (always a plus for me).  We learned a lot about the history of the area, especially their problems with the English during the early 1700's, and found the tour of their provincial parliament especially informative.  The boat cruise up the St. Lawrence river was fun and the Museum of Civilization ranked number one as our favorite museum stop.

After several days in Quebec we rented a car and headed to the Ile d'Orleans (an island just down river from Quebec) for a couple of nights at a bed and breakfast.  We spent one of the days hiking in the Laurentian mountains nearby - Jacque Cartier National Park specifically.  We had time for two hikes - one tough and one easy - that provided some spectacular vistas, although only a couple of squirrels to hold up the fauna department.  We also got soaked touring the Montmercy falls which rival Niagara for the height from top to bottom.

Next on our itinerary was a drive down to Montreal stopping in Trois Riviers on the way - small sleepy town on the St. Lawrence, although with a really nice park.  We braved Montreal traffic and turned the car in before heading to our hotel in the old town.  We then had a few days to explore Montreal.  The highlight of which was taking a jet boat cruise on the Lachine Rapids on the river.  I had done this 20-25 years ago while in Montreal for an ACS conference and it was just as exciting this time as last.  Our last day we hit some of the food spots, that had been recommended to us by Bruno and Sheri (Bruno lived in Montreal before his Pfizer days) and hiked to the top of Mont Royal to enjoy the views of the city.

We had a wonderful trip and would recommend either city for anyone thinking of visiting.

Go Badgers

We headed over to Madison on Friday for a portion of our Labor Day weekend festivities.  After dinner with Kathy and John we all took in the women's volleyball team's game against San Diego State.  Besides it being sweltering hot in the UW Fieldhouse, the home team won in three straight sets.  Lots of fun to watch volleyball being played at this level and wishing we were still playing the game.  But we have enough invested in Jo's wrists without her blowing them out setting a volleyball.

Saturday morning we were up early to stroll the farmer's market and pick up our breakfast (morning roll and cinnamon roll) and some fresh cider (both for breakfast and for home).  We then spent most of the remainder of the morning discussing how we might lay out our condo - which led to a complete redesign of one of the rooms.  Then it was off to Kathy's for lunch and an afternoon cheering on our Badger football team as they won a squeaker against LSU.  Lots of tense moments and screaming during the game.  Later, we headed to the Union to enjoy some Spotted Cow while enjoying VO5 (local disco cover band) and a beautiful sunset.

Sunday morning after brunch with Kathy and John in Verona and a quick stop at Target it was time to head home and catch up on a few chores around the house.  Jo spent the afternoon preparing tomato glut from tomatoes from our garden and Kathy's (why is it tomato glut?, not a clue it looks a lot like spaghetti sauce to me).  We enjoyed the freshly prepared glut on some pasta later that night (see why I think it looks like spaghetti sauce).  Our actual Labor Day was spent lazing around until we joined John and Linda for some Kopps frozen custard in the afternoon.  They were in town to catch the Brewers/Cubs game.