Dragon Mood? -- catching up
It's been eight days since I last posted -- yikes!@@#!@#
S and I traveled to Milwaukee last Thursday via the Lake Express ferry. It's the first time I ever took this high-speed ferry across Lake Michigan and I highly recommend it. The ferry is nicely appointed, the ride was smooth, and most of all, it felt like an overdue adventure S and I needed to jazz up our boring, over-employed and unemployed existence.
We arrived after midnight in Milwaukee and promptly crashed at Yosh's apartment. He worked Friday morning while we caught up on our beauty sleep and moseyed through the morning. S and I walked the few blocks to Alterra, where we enjoyed their fragrant yet powerful coffee. S bought four bags of this infamous Milwaukee "crack cocaine" and a sweatshirt to boot.
Yosh picked us up once again, we grabbed up our things at his place and headed to a nearby Mexican restaurant called Cempazuchi. We sat outside in the sun and enjoyed margaritas, Mexican beers and appetizers. I would love to go back and have dinner there sometime.
We hit the road and headed west to Madison. It was lovely to ride as a passenger and have time to catch up with Yosh. S snoozed in the backseat until a quasi-political/economic conversation caught her ear; then, she couldn't be silenced! Oh well ... so much for the nice conversation with my son -- sigh!
We barged into Lina's place, all cool and tidy with her white-tornado efforts. She has such a knack -- or better yet, a gift -- for creating a welcoming environment. I love her for that! Aaron arrived from Chicago about a half an hour after us. We gathered our sunglasses and cameras and cell phones and bottles of water and hiked over to Capital Brewery for some traditional "bier garten" drinking. Lina had prepared a veritable smorgasbord (to mix our northern European eating/drinking vocabulary) of snacking foods, which we dove into with relish (enthusiasm, not pickles!).
S and I, being the old codgers that we are, cashed it in around 11, went back to Lina's and crashed. It was more hot and humid than one could imagine, so we stripped down as much as we dared, pulled back Lina's lovely chintz drapes and set the box fan in the window. Ahh, lovely late night cool air! I slept so hard I never heard the "kids" come in. About 1:30 though, up for a beer pee, I found all three of them crashed in various poses around the living room, lights on, Comedy Central blaring and half-eaten pizza looking abandoned and forlorn. Curiously, it's a sweet memory, these three young adults, asleep, looking so vulnerable and worn out, as only hard-playing children can.
Saturday morning was rather relaxed. Usually, we're up-and-at-'em right away, but I think the heat and the previous night's beer took its toll. We eventually pulled ourselves together and headed downtown to the Farmer's Market. I love the "ritual" of circling the capital, moving slowly with the crowds, peering over people's shoulders at the inviting produce and baked goods, sampling this, noshing on that. With five of us, we moved slowly, three steps forward, two steps back. We bought yummy cranberry-oatmeal bars and hot cheese bread and ate and exclaimed and tried to exercise discipline and failed and ... altogether, it was a lovely, family time. I can close my eyes and be there, smell the smells, feel the love and enjoy it all over again!
But wait!...there's more!
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