The weekend after Elyssa was here visiting my mom and Aunt Cheryl came up to visit! They flew in on a Wednesday night and left on Monday at noon. It was a lovely visit, though went by too quickly of course! These pictures are not in order, but display a sampling of the things we did!
Wheat field near the apple orchard
Farmer's Market of course! (:-)
Lots of fall leaves...everywhere...and as my kids would say while throwing leaves... "It's fall! It's fall!"
This is the elementary school where I work.
The three of us at the apple orchard
Sheeeeeeep at the orchard
Bike ride with my mom (check out my down vest...it's keeping me nice and warm, but not too warm)
Of course we had to get beer in Milwaukee (and german food)
Cranberry bogs in northern Wisconsin (WI produces over 50% of the cranberries in America...who knew)
Farm land
It was a wonderful trip. Thursday I had to work all day, but Thursday night we enjoyed dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant downtown which was delicious! We also splurged and got 2 desserts which were both excellent. Friday we did a lot of driving. Cranberry country is about 2-3 hours north of Madison, but it was a pleasant drive. The drive up we got to see the spectacle that is the Wisconsin Dells (think tourist trap times 100). Though the dells started out as a natural beauty (cliffs along the river) it somehow turned into the home of the most water parks in the nation (weird that it's in Wisconsin huh) and the biggest water park. There are lots of other strange and tacky sights there as well. Despite this I would still like to go back and explore more, and eventually want to see the actual dells.
The bogs were really cool to see, such bright red against the blue of the sky. We bought some fresh cranberries of course...mmmm and enjoyed some cranberry ice cream.
The drive home was long and meandering along small country roads. We saw some color change and lots of pretty rolling farmland. Wisconsin still surprises me it's scenery.
Saturday we of course had to enjoy the Farmer's Market. We got some hot cheesy bread and potato donuts (mmmmm). We also did some shopping on state street. Then we went to the Wisconsin Historical Museum. They had lots of cool stuff, some of it very strange. Wisconsin is certainly an interesting state. After that we had to head to Milwaukee for the Andrew Bird concert. We stopped at some outlet stores along the way and as an early birthday present I got a down coat (hopefully it'll keep me nice and toasty outside). We ate dinner at a German restaurant in Milwaukee and then went to the concert venue (the Pabst theater). It was an amazing show. St. Vincent was really good and then I got to meet Annie Clark (the lead singer). Andrew Bird was amazing. He is one of the most talented musicians I've seen perform. He uses a loop pedal to do a lot of layering. This was a solo show, although at one point Annie Clark came out and sang with him and then all of St. Vincent came out and played a couple of songs.
Sunday we got up and made breakfast (french toast with wisconsin syrup and raspberries
and eggs mmmmmmmm). Then my mom and I went on a bike ride enjoying the local neighborhood and more fall colors. We made a stop at Jenifer St. Market (my mom's favorite local grocery store). Then we went apple picking. It was the perfect day for it. The sky was bright blue, the apples crisp, the weather perfect. When we got back into Madison we walked to the Weary Traveler for some dinner and it was oh so tasty. We also played some Yahtzee while there. That evening my mom and aunt made apple crisp and it was delicious!
Monday morning we did some walking and fall leaf collecting. Then we went to Marigold's Kitchen for breakfast. It was very yummy. I got pumpkin pancakes. Then sadly it was the end of their trip. Time flew, but we had a wonderful time!
