it’s not like we never eat fast food, but I love that odin prefers to eat the homemade steak Caesar salad we prepared for the trip and doesn’t even ask for fast food available at plaza.
Tag Archives: kris
day 3822: getting trounced by kris and odin while playing cribbage at the driftless cafe.
one of life’s little pleasures in the driftless region – hanging out at the driftless cafe playing cribbage with kris and odin while waiting for local, organic dinner to be served. the lake louie ipa makes the impending defeat just a little easier.
the cafe is a special place and they have a kickstarter thing going to help fund their expansion. check it out and feel free to kick in a few bucks whether or not you live in the area 🙂
day 3669: rolling down the (kickapoo) river!
the kickapoo river is a 126-mile-long twisty turny tributary of the wisconsin river and gets its name from an algonquian word meaning “one who goes here, then there”. rolling down the river the low and slow river is one of the many highlights of the driftless region. because the region didn’t get razed flat by the advancing glaciers then dumped with drift they receded the river offers some spectacular views.
and it’s all the more fun when you roll down the river when family are visiting.
between intentionally goofing around and actually accidentally running into each there was a lot of contact on the river. i’m surprised one of them didn’t dump it. nope, that honor went to their mothers 🙂
it was absolutely gorgeous day. sunny, light breeze, warm but not hot and no bugs!
the ancient geography throws off a serious Enchanted Land where Faeries might Play vibe.
this here is what is known locally as river beer. i think not so much because it tastes like a river but because if you take a spill it’s not the end of the world if you lose a few in the river. but we don’t do that, leave no beer behind is my motto.
on the ride back from the landing in a packed bus of merry ( and tipsy ) river goers, odin notices the sign on the bus has the same number for the half a dozen services on emergency services sign. he thinks someone was trying to make an joke that he doesn’t get. i tell him there was a day when 911 didn’t exist and you had to call a different number for all the different services and the numbers were different from town to town. he gave me the man-the-olden-days-were-crazy look.
day 3341: bedtime stories by the light of the ipad on the treehouse deck.
we didn’t end up camping in the trees last night. the threat of early morning storms brought us down the trees. boo! but the best part about it being in our backyard is that we can spend the night in the trees any ol’ night 🙂 there’s still a threat of thunderstorms tonight and the crickets are loud as all get out, so tonight might just be stories before bedtime.
kris is to odin. if you look closely you can see the light of the ipad. our library has an app that lets you check out books. it’s awesome.
day 3340: camping in the trees!
whoohoo! we were closer to (safely) camping in the trees a few weeks ago, but travel and vacations delayed our first camping adventure.
it’s a perfect night for reading “the lightning thief” and camping in the trees.
update: turns out, at the last minute we checked the weather and there was a chance of thunderstorms in the early morning. we didn’t want to be scrambling down the ladder in a storm so decided to go inside and camp tomorrow night!
day 3339: odin and pushkin enjoy their first ( and maybe last ) drive-in movie.
we’re lucky enough to have a drive-in theater nearby in richland center wisconsin and decided to take odin and pushkin to see turbo because, sadly, the theater might be closing soon.
at the end of 2013 films are no longer being distributed, well, on film. and it costs about $70,000 per screen to convert to digital projectors. the starlight website says they are going to start a fundraising campaign soon, but it seems a bit late in the game. next weekend is their last showing for the season and if they don’t raise the money they won’t open next year.
i hope they raise the money and we’ll certainly kick in some to help because it’s a whole lot of fun to lay on the ground on a blanket and catch a movie!
i thought the movie was funny and cute, but odin said he’s seen better 🙂
Scenes from The Best Birthday. or how to have a great time in madison wisconsin.
after the race it was time to head off for a fun birthday day in madison, wisconsin. we started at the awesome dane county farmer’s market which is on the capitol square so we got to peruse the approximately 300 vendors and go in the capitol and hit the observation deck which offers an excellent view of the city.
the perfect time for a gratuitous ( and rare ) family portrait!
as you can see i was wearing an organic valley coat so i got lots of questions about the fire at organic valley headquarters from concerned folks. lots of love and support in madison!
the rotunda in the capitol building is pretty awesome. odin thought it was mighty impressive. i wish i could have figured out a way to take a better picture. i tried to take a panorama of the entire thing but it wouldn’t stitch together nicely, so you only get to see a small bit 🙂
i’d be lying if i said at this point odin wasn’t really ready to head out and see something other than statues and elaborate rotundas. see that smile? it’s a carefully crafted fake 🙂
so, off to the madison children’s museum we went because while i might be getting old, i’m not too old to hang out with odin at a children’s museum where they have fun stuff like a giant hampster wheel that generates electricity for lights!
and some sort of crazy facial real time facial recognition exhibit…
and pinball, which take a lot of concentration especially when your poppi is taking pictures from funny angles…
and a green rooftop with a chicken coop with a great quote from frank lloyd wright that i might have to steal and put on our own chicken coop for The Girls…
they even had little chicks to pet. of course, odin has lots of practice calming baby chickens and grown hens thanks to tending to The Girls…
the baby chick was so content it eventually fell asleep in odin’s hands! the museum staff ladies were super impressed with his Chicken Calming Powers.
then, alas, it was time to go and we headed to a photography exhibit at madison museum of contemporary art but there was no cameras allowed. at a photography exhibit! boo!
after the exhibit we went to pizza brutta for some of the best pizza in madison. i had the prosciutto with asiago cheese and arugula. highly recommended! kris and odin are more traditional in their pizza tastes and had pepperoni. odin said it was the best pizza he’d ever had which is very high praise indeed.
for some reason, i felt compelled to take a picture of the table sign instead of the food because i liked the colors, fonts, shadows and lines?!
and to cap off The Best Birthday, we went to chocolate shoppe ice cream for a scoop of butter pecan ice cream before heading home very full and very content.
’twas a fine day. odin said it was the best birthday he’d been to even though it wasn’t his birthday 🙂