Beer and the Brewers

Part of our motivation in selecting last Friday for our biking adventure was that Kathy and John were joining us in Milwaukee for a Brewer's game on Sunday.  Therefore, we could get a ride back to Milwaukee with Kathy.  On the way back into town we stopped to see six Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes on the south side of town - called the Burnham block project.  These were Frank's attempt at providing well designed homes at a lower price point, they were termed the American System, than many of the mansion sized houses he designed.  A non-profit group has purchased five of the six homes and is in the process of restoring them as they have fallen into some disrepair since their construction around 1916.  Was a great tour as we had a very knowledgeable docent and was a fun way to spend an hour and learn a little something in the process.

Then it was off to our favorite beer garden in town, Estabrook, to enjoy a pretzel and beer all the while enjoying the sun and comfortable temperatures.  We were joined by Jo and Kathy's first cousin-once removed who lives in town and we had recently met at the Notre Dame wedding.  It was really nice way to enjoy the afternoon and recover from our calorie deficit from our bike ride (OK, we didn't really have a calorie deficit after all the pizza, but it sounds good).

Sunday we headed to one of our favorite cafes for a cinnamon roll (see the above calorie deficit comment) before heading over to the baseball game.  Unfortunately, while we were in tune with the weather gods this weekend, the baseball gods were ignoring us as the Brewer's lost.  Still we were outside, eating good stadium food, watching a sporting event - seemed like a great way to spend the day.

Our Biking Adventure

The Start in Milwaukee

For several years Jo and I have talked about biking from Milwaukee to Madison, but always managed to talk ourselves out of it due to time constraints and the daunting thought of making the 84 mile trek.  We started that conversation again this summer and this time decided it was just time to give it a try.  After completing a few 40 mile rides over the summer we selected last Friday as our day to head over to Madison.  We started bright and early, as in before sunrise, to try and avoid as much car traffic as possible as we have to get through downtown Milwaukee before we hit the first of our bike trails.  The weather gods were shining on us as we had nice cool temperatures along with partly cloudy skies to keep the sun off of us. 

Almost there in Cottage Grove

We really enjoyed seeing a slice of Wisconsin as we pedaled our way over to Madison.  The fields were high with corn and we discovered that a lot of this part of Wisconsin is covered with marshes and or swamps (when does a marsh become a swamp?) - news to us.  We made a couple of stops along the way to refuel and rest the legs and had only one unplanned stop as Jo suffered a flat tire (although to be fair she has been having problems all year with flat front tires - I think this was number 4 or 5 - initially I blamed her, but we were pretty sure after flat number three that there is something wrong with her front tire).  Fortunately being the good planners we are we had several spare inner tubes and carbon dioxide inflators (which are just too much fun to play with) along and in no time we were back on track.

Made it Madison

One of the challenges is that about 40 miles of the bike path is covered with fine gravel and packed earth.  This slowed us down a bit as we found we were typically off one gear from what we would have expected.  While we saw lots of birds, including one red tail hawk that watched us come and go (we think it was waiting for us to collapse to enjoy a nice afternoon meal) the only interesting animals in the mammal domain were a muskrat and a black squirrel (we aren't counting the numerous chipmunks that have severe death wishes as they always seemed to want to wait until the last minute and then dash right in front of our tires). 

We were both getting pretty tired with about 10 miles to go - Jo's knees and my quads - and probably should have stopped for a longer break but we pushed through and got to Madison.  Kathy helped provide a key portage for us as we neared Madison as there is a small stretch on a busy highway that we didn't feel safe tackling.  We celebrated that evening with Kathy and a robust amount of pizza.  We really enjoyed the trip and have already started talking about making the reverse trek and possibly attempting doing it both ways over a weekend.  Endorphins do funny things to your brain....

At More Wildlife

Jo and I enjoy an evening walk several times during the week.  It is a great time for us to discuss each other's days along with solving the problems of the world as we get in a little bit of exercise.  As we now live downtown Milwaukee our walks are even more urban than in the past.  We are walking past high rises, apartment buildings, and the lake front.  As we were out this last week we noticed a fairly sleek and interesting colored "dog" running along the opposite sidewalk by itself.  This is unusual since most people keep their dogs leashed in the city - keeps them from biting random strangers I suppose.  Then as the "dog" got closer we realized it actually was a coyote.  Understand we were in downtown Milwaukee, although along the Milwaukee river front, it is a fairly densely packed urban area.  Certainly not what we expected to see there - maybe on my trip to New Mexico.  It was pretty healthy looking so food must be good and didn't seem particularly worried about us - or really even that interested in us.  Oh the fun things you can see and do in Milwaukee.  Come for the beer and cheese, stay for the wildlife sightings.

This last weekend after enjoying, and I use the term enjoying loosely, a 40 mile bike ride to Cedarburg and back we hit the Milwaukee Lobster Fest.  We were hoping to score some New England style lobster rolls - which for the uninitiated consist of nothing more than the correct bun (looks like a hot dog bun but a bit thicker), hot lobster, and hot butter poured over everything.  Unfortunately, while the menu online touted New England style rolls they weren't to be.  They did have something close that we allowed to fill in - hot buttered and toasted bun with a smear of mayo and cold lobster.  Still tasty but not what we were hoping for.  Still it hit the spot after the long ride.   

The long ride is in preparation for our attempt to ride our bikes from Milwaukee to Madison via the Glacial Drumlin trail.  More on that later - assuming I survive!

Pretty Cool Wildlife

I spent a week with my folks in New Mexico and got treated to a visit from their local bobcat.  It came right up to the kitchen window to check me out and I managed to snap a few photos before it bounded up on the roof of their house.  Needless to say, Dad wasn't too happy with it using the roof of their house as transit point.  Gorgeous cat and certainly one of the highlights of the trip along with my birthday of Mexican food and sopapillas.  Got home just in time to be picked up my Jo at Midway airport as we headed to a wedding at Notre Dame University.  On our way to Notre Dame we stopped at the Indiana Dunes part of which was just made a national park.  We had a fun afternoon hiking through the dunes, filling our shoes with sand, and as part of my theme for the week, catching some wildlife watching me.  We did point out the raccoon ransacking the trash to a park ranger who said - oh yeah, they love to do that and we can't get funding for raccoon proof trash cans.  Then promptly went back to packing her car. 

This was our first visit to Notre Dame and it certainly is a lovely campus.  Seemed very peaceful and serene - which of course, A) you would expect somewhat as it wasn't in session and B) it is Notre Dame which I think has to be serene and peaceful.  Anyway, it was a nice wedding and Jo got to catch up with a lot of her Quincy relatives.

The WI State Fair

A couple of weeks ago it was time for Jo to get some cow petting in.  As any regular reader of this blog knows, Jo gets a bit twitchy if she goes an entire year without petting some farm animal - with cows being her favorite.  So we saddled up our bikes and headed over to the WI State Fair.  We watched the usual cow judging, which we fully admit that even after eight years, or so, of watching them judge cows we still can't pick the winners out of the line up.  But we always like to see the kids handling their cows and the occasional cow that decides to handle their kid.  Also got to see some goat judging this year in which we remain as mystified as to what qualities a good versus great goat has - much like in the cows.  Thank goodness there is someone out there studying how to judge all these farm animals.  We took in the exhibit barn, because we love to see all the things people are trying to sell - although I miss the ginsu knife demonstrations of my childhood.  And the 4H barn of crafted goods was always an interesting stop as there are some seriously talented youngsters out there creating amazing works of art.  We opted out of taking any rides - the scientist in me just isn't convinced that all those whirly rides set up just for this two week period are actually securely anchored sufficiently (even though there hasn't been an accident in all of our time here) and actually didn't partake of too much of the fair food this year.  We even skipped our usual bacon wrapped tater tots - mostly a combination of expanding waistlines and our tummies not feeling 100% that day.

Later that day we headed over to Madison to make sure our condo was still standing and to enjoy some theater on Saturday.  We did check out our community garden plot that we share with Jo's sister, Kathy - who I should point out has been diligently caring for this year.  We were able to harvest some cucumbers, green beans, and onions for Jo to enjoy the following week as I did some traveling.  

Air Shows Galore

I had to wait until today to post this week, since I wanted to start the August collection of posts and stop adding to my July numbers.  We had a lovely week that included as you might tell from the title seeing some air shows.  Milwaukee had their annual air show (at least it is annual if they can find the funding which is always an annual challenge).  While we weren't in town for the "official" air show portion we did get to watch the fighter jets practicing over the skies of downtown on Thursday and Friday.  As we are now on the 14th story of a building the views of the jets screaming around the sky are quite remarkable.  To add to our viewing opportunities, we were enjoying an outdoor lunch at the Comet Cafe (always worth a stop if you are hungry and on Farwell) with John and Linda and two of their daughters, plus one newly added grandson, when what should go rocketing by overhead - more jets practicing.  Made for an interesting lunch as we constantly twisted our necks around trying to locate them in between having our ear drums blown out from the jet engines.  Oh by the way, there aren't any pictures of the jets flying around because I have found from experience that it is tough to get a really good shot as they whiz by at 600 mph.

After our lunch we hopped in the car with John and Linda to enjoy a long weekend at their lake house which is close to Oshkosh where every year they hold the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) air show.  Once again we didn't actually attend any of the events at the EAA, but we did get to enjoy a few hours of watching the planes looping in the air while out on the lake.  We had a fun time out on their boat and jet skis (although I did manage to knock off one of the mirrors on one of their jet skis due to my poor steering skills when in tight quarters with them - don't let me helm your boat in other words!) and did take the plunge in the lake for the first time to cool off a bit.  Fortunately, we were able to find a place that was relatively algae free as Lake Winnebago tends to get a fairly robust growth of algae - which apparently every year from what the locals have said.

We also found some time on Saturday to attend the Cedar Grove Dutch festival.  John has Dutch roots (his parents emigrated from there) and so it was a must go.  We snacked on festival food, which included the Dutch treat, olie bollen.  Basically a doughnut fried in oil - how can that be bad.  They were especially good as the base under ice cream later that night.  My favorite part of the Dutch festival is the washing of the streets before the clog dancers and parade occurs.  Just imagine hundreds of young kids out scrubbing about six blocks of downtown Cedar Grove.  Really fun to watch.

We also crossed another supper club off of John and Linda's list which while the steak were great, the steamed brussel sprouts left everyone wishing they had ordered the cheesy potatoes.  As always, John and Linda were great hosts and we had a really relaxing weekend.

Another Milestone Gone By

As the end of July rolled around so did Northwestern Mutual's annual meeting.  This is a five day affair for us and involves five days of cocktail parties, dinners, and enjoyably a concert to finish it off.  As Jo will not be with them next July - we hope!!! - this was our last annual meeting.  It provided all the usual fun - 6 cocktail parties where I had to make small talk while trying to remember people's names, eat food without spilling it all over my shirt, and hold a plate, glass, and shake people's hands without spilling something all over them.  As anyone that knows me making small talk with complete strangers is probably my best skill, so I've had sooooo much fun those five days.  The cocktail parties were followed by five dinners where I really ate too much.  I know I should be more disciplined, but I hate leaving food on my plate and since we don't usually start with an appetizer, then salad, then a main course consisting of steak and a piece of fish, followed by dessert, I ate too much and now need to lose a few pounds.  That used to be easy in my 30's, but I'm not in my 30's anymore so it's diet, diet, diet.  Anyway, the Sunday social event was held at the Summerfest grounds and included admission to Italian Fest so it wasn't really all work.

The highlight this year was the concert - NM brought in Jimmy Buffet and his concert was a blast.  Really fun music that had the crowd dancing the whole time along with beautiful graphics playing on the screen behind him of the Caribbean.  It really made you feel relaxed and wanting to be out on a boat in the sunny south.  He definitely has the music you want playing in the background as your ship cruises the warm Caribbean seas.  Kathy and John were able to join us for the concert but unfortunately had to head right back to Madison afterwards (something about John needing to work for a living or some such nonsense as that).  Fortunately for us, we had just a 15 minute walk home (one advantage of living in downtown Milwaukee and yes, I'm rubbing it in a little bit to John). 

So we are now finished with annual meetings and I will probably be able to winnow my cocktail party attendance down to only one a year (if I'm lucky, Jo usually has a different opinion on parties than I do).  We will probably miss having these kind of events to attend in the future as we begin to contemplate what our next stage looks like, but I'm sure we will find new adventures to fill in for them - or we will just spend our time staring at each other on the couch (one of the two).

The Wyoming Family

My brother and clan (sister-in-law, niece, and grand niece - notice how the grand niece has the coolest title) stopped by for a visit during their massive tour of the eastern US.  Starting in Wyoming they headed to Arkansas, then Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota before landing up in Madison.  All this while hauling a 30 plus foot RV behind them - wow.  Fortunately, all the stops went smoothly, the camper kept its wheels on, and the truck pulling all that kept the motor running.

We started the Madison visit with a stop at the Union to enjoy some brats and views of the lake.  While a bit warm, the weather cooperated nicely by providing just enough breeze to keep us from roasting.  After the obligatory big chair photo, Babcock ice cream was in order before heading back to their campground to catch a few lightening bugs.  Saturday morning began with a visit to one of our favorite diners - the Curve - for their omelets before moving  over to the zoo.  Unfortunately, lots of other people were thinking Saturday morning, good time to visit the zoo - so parking was a bit of a challenge.  But we found some street space and had a fun couple of hours taking in the critters.  We must have hit the zoo a perfect time since the zoo keepers were out feeding many of the animals which meant a little more activity than usual for the middle of the morning on a hot, humid day.  The children's zoo was a big hit especially the playground.  Our grand niece kept Jo running around and probably would have spent most of the rest of the day there if the adults didn't finally decide Jo was going to pass out from the heat if we didn't move on. 

After the zoo, we headed to the condo to enjoy the AC and for the little one to catch a nap.  Which is pretty much what all the adults wanted to do, but we landed up talking instead.  Growing up stinks.  Later in the afternoon, we took a loop around the Art Fair on the Square.  Saw some very cool artwork and some very, very strange art work.  Then it was home for our standard lasagna dinner (Gino's deli in Madison has the best lasagna and since we can't really cook yet at the condo - it is our go to meal when we have to serve lots of people, so be warned if you visit with more than 2 people).

Sunday morning we all met in Milwaukee to give them a tour of our apartment and building and then we headed out to Miller Park to watch the home town Brewer's.  Unfortunately, it wasn't their day to shine, but we did enjoy the game.  All too soon, it was time for them to head back to Madison and their camper before making the final push home to Wyoming.  We had a great time catching up on all that is happening with the WY family and it is always amazing to see how much our grand niece has grown and learned since we saw her last.

Viva La France

As July 14 rolled around it was time for our annual visit to Bastille Days in downtown Milwaukee.  Since we are now living downtown we got to enjoy watching them construct our miniature Eiffel tower along with setting up all the stages and booths before the actual event.  Then it was a short stroll over to Cathedral Square for a night of fun and frolicking (well we didn't actual frolic, but we did have fun).  We found one singer that was playing songs from the 70's on an acoustic guitar so we spent a little over an hour reminiscing about our youth.  As a side benefit of living so close to the festival was background music in our apartment for three days as the bands play late into the night.  We discovered that our windows and walls mostly screen out the higher pitched sounds leaving mostly just the drumming bass to enjoy.  Anyway,

We did our usual stroll past all the booths selling items that you don't really need and found that we didn't really need anything - I know, amazing.  We were actually searching for a crepe nutella which, alas, was not to be found.  I know, French festival without crepe nutella, sacre bleu what were they thinking.  Maybe next year? 

And some more Boating

For the rest of the Fourth of July weekend we headed upstate to see John and Linda at their new place on Lake Winnebago.  They are slowly settling in and now have their boat and jet ski launches in place.  It was almost a perfect weekend - just a bit of rain - and having the boats right outside their back door is very nice.  We got right out on the lake on Thursday for what was our inaugural cruise on the lake.  It is a much bigger lake than Lake Geneva and cruising around the entire lake isn't as feasible.  Makes for some changes in our usual lake cruising routine, but we'll figure it out.  As is usual when we visit with John and Linda, we ate too many desserts, had way too many laughs, and in general just relaxed. 

We did hit a couple of restaurants that can be reached from the water which is always fun and got the jet skis out for a long run around one side of the lake.  I also did my first piloting (driving, steering - whatever the term is when you are the one directing the boat) of John's boat.  A bit nerve racking although I managed to not hit anything especially all the people out fishing - I saved that for when I ran into his boat with the jet ski (no damage, thank goodness). 

We tried to have s'mores around the fire ring one night, but the weather conspired against us.  It was very humid so getting the fire started took a while and then we had a Hershey bar disaster as they had all melted before we could even get them onto the graham crackers - the Hershey bars had been accidentally left in a car and got pre-melted, they had resolidified but apparently not correctly.  Anyway,  by the time Jo and I got back to the house we were covered in chocolate from hand to face, but we still managed to get some s'more in our stomachs.

All too soon it was time to head back to reality and for someone to get ready for work - little hint, it wasn't me.

And Another Concert

We came home on the third so that we would have a chance to get to Summerfest before it closed.  We were fortunate in that our friends, Jim and Judy, had extra tickets to the Jennifer Lopez concert that evening.  So after giving them a tour of our apartment digs we walked over to the Summerfest grounds.  Summerfest is Milwaukee's annual music festival that claims to be the largest in the world - how do they know and/or measure that, not a clue.  Anyway, we enjoyed some festival food for dinner - in other words something that can go either into a deep frier (bacon wrapped water chestnuts) or onto a fryer (burgers) before checking out some of the smaller stages before the big do.

JLo's concert was good - not great - lots of great dancing and some fun songs, but the middle third was a bit weird for my tastes.  But it still was a nice evening out with friends and got to hear some fun music.

Another Visit to Madison

Our niece and nephew were in Madison the weekend before the fourth so we headed over to catch up on all the happenings in Omaha and to put a few more pieces into our never ending jigsaw puzzle.  The weather was a bit sticky but we had a great time hosting a dinner at our new place - we had to use our upstairs table as the downstairs table is still covered with the aforementioned puzzle.  Fortunately all the appliances worked - although the ice coming out of our upstairs freezer seems to have a high chlorine content, will have to figure that one out at some point - as we used the ovens for only the second time. 

We hit the Madison zoo and UW's mascots were actually outside sunning themselves and posing for some great pictures - it is a badger for those not in the know.   To fully enjoy the Madison landscape we rented a pontoon boat for a couple of hours one evening to enjoy dinner on the lake while cruising around admiring the lake side houses.  We had a great time and it was fun have an extended stay in Madison for once - not just rushing over for a weekend.

It's Beer Garden Time

Jo took Friday off to enjoy some of the summer here in Milwaukee.  That of course would assume that summer actually comes.  It has continued to struggle to get into the low 60's much less the high 70's it is supposed to be.  We started her day off with our first long bike ride of the summer.  We got for a little over two hours and certainly noticed it the rest of the day.  Afterwards it was a haircut for Jo and then it was off to do some shopping.  We stopped first at Ethan Allen to pick up a lamp for the condo and to the container store where we spent several hours.  What a fun store especially for those of us that feel you can never be too organized.  We picked up some items to get our drawers a bit more orderly along with a few things for the kitchen.

Saturday we decided it was time to visit our favorite beer garden and the weather cooperated with a nice sunny day.  We made the beer and pretzel our lunch (aren't we eating great!) and we were going to head for frozen custard when we found that Jo's bike had suffered a flat.  So after pumping it back up we decided the smart thing was to head back to the apartment before it went flat again.  Shame to miss the custard though.

Our old neighborhood had a block party on Sunday and it was nice to catch up on the neighborhood doings since we left.  Also talked with the new owners of our house.  The garden beds are still intact and the strawberries are about three weeks from being ready for picking - too bad we won't be there to enjoy.

A Week of Concerts

Jo was able to get tickets to two concerts last week at our new arena.  First up was Pentatonix which is an a cappella group that we first saw with John and Linda at Illinois a bunch of years ago.  There were two warm up bands - which apparently is the new normal (the bands were Citizen Queen an all female a cappella group and Rachel Platten) - both of which were very entertaining.  Pentatonix also provided an enthusiastic performance with great singing and a fun show.  Very amazing for the person who does the beat boxing to make all those different sounds and do it in rhythm seems challenging.  The other nice part was now that we are living downtown we could walk to the show and avoid all the traffic tie-ups afterwards.

Next up was Carrie Underwood's latest tour.  Once again there were two warm up bands (although in my humble opinion, the warm up bands for Pentatonix won the battle of warm up bands).  Interesting stage for Carrie as it was located in the middle of the stadium versus being at one end and had all sorts of cool elevators built in to raise and lower the performers.  It was a fun several hours of entertainment along with enjoying some of Carrie's songs that we knew.  I still remain amazed that they would elevate Carrie Underwood fifteen to twenty feet in the air without her being strapped in at all.  Probably because I know I would walk off the edge at some point during the concert.

Binge Posting

Seems like many people are now binge watching their favorite shows online, so I thought I would try to do some binge posting to fill in what we have been up to lately.

A few weeks ago, I headed up to Lake Winnebago to help John put in his new dock.  This mostly consisted of me standing on his boat watching the dock installation company put in the dock.  Unfortunately, it was a wet day and we didn't get to enjoy a ride on the lake, but the new dock looks great and the boat is now all high and dry and ready to go into the lake at a moment's notice.

Later that week we headed to Madison.  We had tickets, with Kathy and John (different John - yes we have a lot of John's in our lives), to the Overture Center to see some improv comedy.  The show was fantastic and I had tears coming out of my eyes within 15 minutes of the start of the show since I was laughing so hard.  We then got up early Saturday morning to tackle the weeds in our community garden beds that we are sharing with Kathy.  The beans are already coming up - you can always count on the beans - but the squash, carrots, and kale was also showing some promise.  There was an amazing number of weeds, but that probably comes from this being our first years in these beds.

It was back home on Sunday so Jo could rest up before another week of work.

Racing Sausages

Jo was in Dallas for business at the tail end of the week.  But with the women's World Cup starting I was all set with things to do and watch.  She came home on Saturday just in time for us to join Greg and Rhonda for a dinner and an evening of cards.  The guys won this time (we were thoroughly trashed last time we played) which is always a nice way to end the day.  Sunday we rose to grayish skies with threatening rain, but it held off long enough for us to enjoy a bike ride out to Miller Park to catch our first baseball game of the season.  While we didn't enjoy a hot dog at the park, we did get to see the racing sausages race around the infield and I figured it has been a while since I posted a picture of them, so here you go.  The game was a thriller as the hometown team came back late in the game to win.  Really fun fact, one of the Brewers managed to belt a home run that bounced off a Toyota that is located in the right field stands.  This won a car for one of the lucky fans (unfortunately, not us as we could really use a new car).  First time it has happened since Toyota started the contest (about 6 years ago).  Would be pretty cool to go to the ballpark to watch a game and come home with a new car. 

Anyway, we had a nice ride home because all the rain happened while we were at the ball park enjoying the game inside.  And while our bike seats were a bit wet we didn't have to bike in the actual rain.

One Weekend - Two Lakes

We spent Memorial Day weekend helping our friends, John and Linda, move their lake house from Lake Geneva to Lake Winnebago.  They now have an actual lake house since their new place is right on the lake - the Geneva location was inland a bit.  Fortunately, there was time around all the packing and unpacking activities to get one last ride on Lake Geneva and one new ride on Lake Winnebago.  Unfortunately, the weather decided to act like March instead of May - so it was long sleeved shirts, sweatshirts or anything to cover up since it was quite chilly on the lake.  Even with all the moving activities it was a fun weekend especially exploring John and Linda's new house and lake.  They are positioned on Lake Winnebago with a view to the west leading to beautiful sunsets from their living room and yard.  A special treat was make s'mores around their fire pit - I even managed to not catch my marshmallow on fire, although I was really tempted to do it just for fun.

We got home just in time to pack back up to head over to Madison for the following week.  Jo had a business meeting in Madison for a couple of days and we decided to spend the rest of the week there.  I spent the time finally getting everything out of the moving boxes and doing a few needed chores - like setting up my new workbench and tool storage (I mostly managed to cram everything into the small storage room we have across the hall).  On Friday we spent the morning working with Jo's sister, Kathy, getting her community garden plots tilled and planted.  It will the first time in 17 years that we will actually have a vegetable garden that is in the full sun - can't wait to see the increased yields!!!  Might actually get enough brussel sprouts to make two meals.  Afterwards, we finished getting our kitchen semi-organized and then spent the evening having dinner and playing pool with Kathy and John.

All too soon it was time to load up the car and head back to Milwaukee.  We both can't wait till we can stop moving things between one of our two locations.  Pretty quiet week ahead, although Jo does have a business trip to Dallas at the end.

The Unpacking Continues

We came home from Carlsbad, unpacked our suitcases and promptly repacked everything for a quick visit to our Madison digs.  We had theater tickets for Saturday night and figured we could get in a little more unpacking.  We spent all day Saturday - well after a brief morning walk and a stop at the now active farmer's market for some breakfast treats (a cinnamon and a pecan roll) - unpacking more boxes.  We made a lot of progress as we got all the boxed up kitchen, living room, and guest bedroom items unwrapped.  There was enough time left over for us to tackle getting the living room bookshelves organized.  Probably about 95% of the way there, just need to figure out how to now arrange them to allow new additional books to be added without having to move everything again.  We did enjoy having the elevator in our unit to transfer boxes between the two floors.  Although it was challenging a few time to actually get a person in it to operate the controls.

We also decided to completely rearrange the guest bedroom.  Jo decided she didn't like the layout of the furniture from what we told the movers.  So we landed up moving 80% of the items in the bedroom - would have been better for my back if we had figured that out while the burly movers were here, but we managed.  So we are making progress and should only need another couple of visits to get it reasonably squared away.

That evening we enjoyed the Broadway production of "A Bronx Tale".  Excellent show and well performed.  It was a nice way to relax after our day on our feet.

What a Cavern

We spent last week in New Mexico for a combination trip of seeing my folks and finally traveling down to Carlsbad Caverns.  My parents have lived in New Mexico now for over 20 years and in all that time we never managed to find the time to drive five hours south through the wilds of New Mexico to visit what has to be one of the largest cave systems in the Americas.  Of course, I haven't visited that many of the cave systems in the Americas so I'm just guessing there.

We had wonderful weather during our visit, highs in the 70's and 80's with sunny skies which was a nice change of pace as Wisconsin is having a pretty dreary May so far.  It has rained 12-13 days out of 22 so far and we have only had a few days where the temperatures have even made into the 70's.  So finally seeing some sun was a real treat.  Naturally, the food was great as we tanked up on our favorite mexican dishes - although Jo did find out the challenges with letting the restaurant pile on the green chiles for you as she suffered through some really spicy cheese enchiladas one meal, let's just say lesson learned.  The evening games of cards were fun, especially since Mom and I continued our winning streak from our last visit (4 games to 2, not that I'm rubbing it in!!!!).  We also got in a few nice hikes and managed to find a new loop route that took us into the back canyons further than we had managed before.  But, all too soon it was time to head south to visit the giant underground hole.

The drive south from Albuquerque was pretty peaceful as there wasn't a lot of traffic on the road.  Not hard to figure out why not, since there really isn't a lot of anything there.  Lots of scrub, a few ranches scattered far apart and the occasional antelope.  Although, at least for the antelopes we did see they weren't particularly "playing" as the song goes, mostly standing around trying to avoid the heat was my guess.  We stopped in Roswell, NM for lunch at a fun diner (really good barbecue, bacon hamburger and sweet potato fries - although no milk shakes, what kind of diner doesn't have milk shakes?) and afterwards took in the UFO museum.  Fascinating place with an interesting story to tell - were we visited by aliens in 1947?  Maybe, maybe not - at least a dozen people seemed convinced we were.  Fun museum with some interesting viewpoints to consider.  Afterwards that thought provoking stop we headed down to Carlsbad all the while debating whether any alien species had visited earth and if so, why can't anyone take a decent picture of them.  We made it in time to see the bat flight from the cave which was truly amazing.  Thousands of bats come careening out of the cave opening near dusk, for about an hour, looking for their evening meal.  Since we weren't at the peak bat time - when the baby bats are also present and the full flock (or whatever lots of bats are called - I just looked it up it is called either a colony or camp) has completed the migration from Mexico - it was must be spectacular during the later summer (when the bat flight can last up to four hours, instead of just one).  The ranger estimated that there are about 200,000 bats currently present - how did he estimate that, he fully admitted it was just a wild guess.

The next day we got up early for our ranger led exploration of Carlsbad cavern.  On this special guided tour we got to climb down to the lower cave with a small group of twelve and two rangers who provided lots of information about the caverns (e.g., how they were formed, who explored them, and the history since they became a tourist destination).  Very special as we got to experience the complete darkness that caves provide - very eerie and very interesting to see what your eyes do when they are open but can't see anything - as well as seeing many of the cave formations up close and personal.  After the tour we took the grand tour of the upper cave and are still marveling at the shear size of the caverns.  Well worth a trip if you are ever nearby. 

After our day in the cave we drove to El Paso for dinner and to spend the night before hopping on a plane and making our way home.

First Weekend Downtown

Friday was our big day - we no longer own a home in Milwaukee (the person between us in the picture is our realtor).  Our closing went very smoothly and the couple who purchased our home helped everyone celebrate by bringing a bottle of Prosecco to the closing.  Not sure we needed a glass at ten in the morning, but it did a great job of capturing the mood.  We then had our first weekend of downtown living and we tried to make the most of our new carefree living.  We started the weekend off with a bang by enjoying some cocktails in our new place - brandy old fashion for me and a cosmo for Jo - after first enjoying a long walk around the downtown lake front.  Then we cooked up some home made pizza - using our newly found pizza skills - and in my humble opinion made our best pizza to date.  Then we snuggled in and tested our technical skills with finding some TV to watch using a variety of streaming and over the air broadcasts.  We aren't quite the expert yet, but have managed to find a way to enjoy a broad swath of "free" TV shows have now "cut the cord" with cable - well at least until we move again.

Saturday, we were up early to exercise and then utilize the free yoga session our apartment building offers, before heading out to watch the new Avenger movie.  I won't provide any spoilers, but be sure not to drink anything hours before the show.  It is almost a 3.5 hour adventure once you figure in the previews, movie, and credits.  Afterwards we decided to walk to one of our favorite downtown restaurants for BBQ.  We picked up some dessert at the Public Market to enjoy as we sat on the shared outdoor deck to enjoy the last of the beautiful day. 

Sunday we decided to take a long walk along the river partly to get some exercise and partly to hit our favorite east side bakery.  The cinnamon twist and apple, caramel turnover made a nice break in the middle of what turned out to be about a 6-8 mile stroll.  We also managed to take our first ride on the "Hop".  This is Milwaukee's new street car system that covers a couple of miles in the downtown area.  We are such city dwellers now. 

New Digs

We spent the last week moving our stuff around Wisconsin.  Most items went over to our condo, so we finally have a place with furniture in each and every room.  We also decided to put all the boxes in one room for simplicity - leading to a room stuffed with boxes that all need to be unpacked, boxes collapsed, paper smoothed, and then recycled somehow.  Last Friday was the big move to Madison and after getting everything off of the moving truck, we spent a couple of days starting in on the unpacking.  It wouldn't appear we had made much progress even though we had piles of paper and flattened boxes to show for it - amazing how much waste there is in the moving process (we were able to get a few of our neighbors to take some of our boxes and paper, there is always someone in need of moving items it seems).   We managed a little relaxing with a great Mexican dinner the first night that involved multiple rounds of margaritas and then enjoyed an evening and dinner with Kathy and John.  Jo and Kathy got to model clown outfits that made for Halloween in high school before they headed to a garage sale - yes they both still fit into their teenage outfits, although apparently Jo is a bit taller than her younger years.

We came back to Milwaukee to start to get settled in to our other new home.  We had to find spaces for all the miscellaneous items we need until Jo is ready for retirement.  Everything fit, but we have things crammed into every nook and cranny leading to many treasure hunts - as in, we know it is the apartment somewhere, but where???  We are going cable free so I have spent a fair amount of time figuring out what is available for free.  Amazing what you can find - about the only we are missing so far is the ability to tape something to watch later.  Small price to pay to not have a massive cable bill for once.

We were also able to enjoy another basketball playoff game courtesy of Jo's employer, especially as the home town team won.  Great seats, exciting game, and pretty good food - plus with our new downtown location we could walk to the game.  Walking home helped burn off a few of the calories from the designer cookies we had at the game.

We also got to welcome our first visitors to our new place downtown.  John and Linda were in town to enjoy a concert their daughter was playing in.  We joined them for the band concert - which had some nice lively selections (which was good since both Jo and I were a bit weary from our moving events) and afterwards, showed off the great views from our 35th floor followed by a very enjoyable dinner at a nearby restaurant.

So far Jo is enjoying her one block commute and I'm really enjoying not having to patch and paint cracks in the walls.  Also, it is kind of nice that when something isn't working right - I get to call someone and it is their problem.  I'm sure there will be times that I'm going to miss having a yard to mow and gardens to weed - but it might be pretty rare. 

Seriously?

We have been enjoying (and I'm using enjoying, very sarcastically) several snow events over the last week.  Last Sunday and then again yesterday, the skies of opened and inches and inches of snow have come cascading down.  Now while that is a wonderful event in December or January with the opportunity for skiing, snowperson making, and peaceful walks - in April it just stinks.  We are ready to be enjoying warm walks in just a shirt or maybe a light jacket - not 30 degrees and weather people talking about wind chill again.

Well that's enough griping about the precipitation - we spent a good part of the week emptying stuff out of the house and into our apartment.  We still don't have much in the way of furniture, but the kitchen is almost fully stocked and we think we have the clothes we need in place.  Although, we are both getting a bit tired of shuttling items around the lower part of Wisconsin, between moving items to Madison or downtown.

Jo started off on Saturday with a root canal, which went smoothly, although not the best way for her to enjoy one of her two days off in the week.  She followed that up with a massage to help ease out the tension from having her tooth drilled.  Later that evening, we had a wonderful dinner with our neighbors across the street, Audrey and John, at the local Italian place that is walking distance down the street.  The snow hadn't moved in as yet, so it was a nice evening walk.

Sunday's highlight was boxing up more stuff and then later that evening we were able to join several of Jo's work colleagues to watch the Buck's first playoff game at the new arena downtown.  The Bucks won so lots of fun for all.