Gemanfest

 Thursday, July 27, 2017

Peter and I drove to the Summerfest grounds to drop off the poster that I made of Austrian-Born Americans.  I asked Frank how the trip sign-up was going and he said that so far he has one person signed up.  Henelore said she didn't remember that I gave her the extra copies at the picnic; I said I would make more.

Friday, July 28, 2017

We drove to Sommers Auto in Mequon to look at a Subaru that Peter was interested in leasing. He thought he was going to think it over and make a deal closer to winter.  After hearing the terms, Peter agreed to lease the one we test drove.  Since we were in the area, we went for a fish fry in Germantown and ate outdoors.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

After breakfast and pickleball, I made Peter's August calendar and attempted printing the trip notice.  Printer didn't respond after countless tries.  I determined that I needed ink.

We met at State Fair P & R to drive to our parking area.  We would have done better taking the shuttle.  There was a long back-up into the lot.  Doug was getting anxious, because he had to conduct the Opening Ceremony orchestra.  We handled the booth until almost 9:00 p.m.

On the way home I stopped at Walmart to buy print cartridges.  I thought I left my phone wallet at home with my credit card in it.  I tried using my ECU debit card and it was rejected.  An assistant tried it on another machine, but no luck.  I drove home and when I got to my garage, my phone wallet was on the floor of the car.  I didn't want to go back, even though Walmart is open 24 hours.  I got to bed and couldn't sleep, wondering how I was going to get the trip sheets to Frank.  Finally, I gave up and drove to Walmart for ink.  After a couple of tries, the printer was still not responding, even after printing test sheets.  Then, I looked at the settings, and saw that it was set to print in PDF!  I must have printed in that format when I wanted to send Frank a copy and it saved the setting.  I got hooked on a jigsaw puzzle and didn't get to bed until 2:00 a.m.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

We met on Sunday at the State Fair P&R for the 10:30 a.m. mass, and spent the rest of the time walking around until our shift started at 4:30 - 9.

It was a very long day.  How many caps would I have knitted in that time?  I didn't bring my knitting because I didn't want to take the knitting jar with the cap that was started. We alternated getting something to eat.  Peter managed to get a brat that he was shorted last night, I got a shaum torte at Mader's;  coffee would have hit the spot, but they didn't have any. 

When we finished our shift, Peter had all of his tickets and I had 4.  He wouldn't leave without cashing them in, but now all the stands were closing, including tap beer and pretzels.  We got a can of beer and Peter left for the Goulash stand to see what he could get.  He was gone a long time, but came back with a bag of food he said was gladly given to him.  He really missed working in that stand because it had more activity.  But what would I have done alone in the culture booth knowing nothing about Austrian culture.  We got to the bus and were the only ones on until one of Peter's friends boarded.  The driver asked to make sure we were headed to State Fair because this was the last bus!  We would have had to call a cab if we had missed it.  That would have really tipped the scale with Peter.

After evaluating our time spent at Germanfest, we really didn't need to go to mass if we were going to volunteer; it made for too long a day.  Because we had work passes, we could get in free at any time and not have to spend so much time there.

Apostle Islands

 Monday, July 10, 2017

I got to Peter's house at 7:30 a.m. It had rained hard during the night and it was still overcast.   Peter was ready and we were on our way by 8:00 a.m.  I drove in light traffic and good roads.  We stopped for a satisfying breakfast at Schreiner's; I had eggs Benedict, very good.

At 11:15 it is very sunny, no wind and 79 degrees.

Peter spotted a wayside marked Great Divide.  It was a perfect setting for our picnic, except the mosquitoes were beginning to get annoying.

We arrived at the Washburn Motel at about 5:00 p.m., a  very modest, no-frills place, but it was clean and had everything we'd need.  I didn't waste any time taking a nap after the sleepless night that I had last night.  My sciatic nerve is  causing pain down my leg, originating in my lower back. We stopped at a bar next to the motel that Peter said served food.  We no more than entered the place when a man started talking German to Peter.  He said he used to live in  New Ulm.  We joined him at the bar sharing our experiences of New Ulm while having gin and tonics and chatting with a few other men that joined in. The first man said we have to try the Scottish eggs at The Snug Restaurant.  When we got to this Irish restaurant they had only one Scottish egg left.  I ordered it, Peter had a bowl of clam chowder;  we both had diet cokes. Scottish eggs are hard boiled eggs wrapped with breakfast sausage, rolled in corn flake crumbs, dipped in beer batter and deep fried. I chose a Dijon mustard sauce for dipping. It was pretty good.  We laid out our warm clothes for tomorrow's boat ride 

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

We were up at 6:30 a.m., and headed to the Time Out Restaurant.  Our waitress taught art at a parochial school and was very pleasant. We had scrambled eggs and ham; one serving would have been plenty for both of us.  We found  the Bayfield Marina and drove around the area before lining up for the boat ride. There was 2-hour parking near the marina and Peter had to drive quite a distance to find unlimited parking. Luckily, I got in line while he parked. There was a pretty long line in front of us, but we were fortunate to get on the upper deck. The day was perfect,  I didn't need my fleece jacket.  As a matter of fact, I was almost too warm.Jay gave a lot of local history, pointed out features of the islands, like the fish camp on Manitou Island,

the lighthouse and caves on Devil's Island

and a lighthouse on Raspberry Island that was entered into service during the Civil War.

We spotted some eagles and Jay filled the time very nicely with island lore. We were finished at 2:30 p.m., and walked uphill to the car.  Google found us a Dalrymple Park/Campsite that was perfect for our picnic.  To make our loop, we took Hwy. 13 to Parkland driving with a few intermittent raindrops.

At exactly 6:00 p.m. we were at the Chain of Lakes Motel, no frills, not any of the amenities (housekeeping) as the last one, but clean and comfortable.  Google found Gilligan's Restaurant with a tiki bar right on the shore. It was a perfect evening for eating outdoors.  We each had a salad; Peter, Caesar, I Oriental chicken; Peter had a beer, I had a dirty martini on the rocks, not my preferred clean.  We lingered to enjoy the beautiful lake.  We sat outside our motel until almost dark; it gets dark later here.

Wednesday,  July 12, 2017,

We had a full and twin bed in our room, I slept on the twin, and had a restful night, once I got my left leg comfortable. I heard thunder through the night and we awoke to big puddles outside our motel.  We drove into the little town of Chetek' and decided on the Chetek Cafe, featuring German food.  We had German coffee, which was dark but not bitter, eggs and toast and homemade jam, blueberry for Peter, raspberry for me.  We made a very good choice.  I also bought some homemade German bratwurst.  We walked over to a market and bought a 24-pack of water; we do not drink enough.  Peter got the car while I waited with the water and we drove to the bakery for 2 hard rolls and a peanut square. 

The day is warm, 82 degrees at 11:42 a.m. overcast.  Driving is smooth with light traffic.

After that substantial breakfast, we didn't need any more to eat until we got to Lake Mills and found Bartel's Beach, where we had been last year.  It was still as breezy, but the breeze was refreshingly warm.  We finished off the turkey ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and wine, together with the hard rolls and peanut square from the Chetek bakery.

I invited Peter to share the German bratwurst that I grilled and served with warm potato salad.  That completed our outing.

Croatian Day

 Saturday, July 8, 2017

Peter and I were the first ones at breakfast.  Not too many showed up, but enough to almost fill our table.  Some were at the bike outing in New Glarus.  It rained hard during the night, but the streets were getting dry, which was the case when we got to the pickleball court.  I played fairly well today, but the humidity was very high and I was drenched with perspiration.  We left at 11:00 a.m. to go to the Croatian Park on South 76th Street for their festival.  Light rain was falling as we drove in our respective cars, and Peter must have thought I was out of my mind for continuing in the rain.  The rain stopped when we got there shortly before noon.  We found a picnic table, watched chickens and, pigs grilling on the spit.  Lamb was also featured, and it must have been done already.  We each had a lamb dinner with three slices of meat, cole slaw, bread and green onions.  It was quite tasty.  On the web site it said that the grilled meat was sold by the pound; it did not mention dinners.  I didn't understand what that meant.  Had we known, we could have brought our picnic bag with better utensils and our own side dishes like potato salad, condiments and other snacks, and ordered one pound of lamb or pork or chicken.  When we finished eating, we found a table with an umbrella where we could hear and partially see the cultural show with their ethnic instruments.  We saw Marianne and her friend, also Jan from Vagabonds.  It was a very pleasant even, much better than a church picnic.  We stayed until about 4:00 p.m.  The weather was favorable, even though some dark clouds appeared now and then.