Visit to Wisconsin

Last weekend, I took a trip up to Appleton, WI to visit friends Lynsey and Jeremy and their son Jack. It was a great visit and we did all sorts of fun Wisconsiny-type things, including a trip to a cheese store (yay!!!), a visit to a Farmer's Market downtown, and lunch at a restaurant called Pullmans. At the cheese store, Lynsey and Jeremy introduced me to the wonders of cheese fudge -- yes, cheese fudge! I never knew such a delight existed! We bought fresh cheese curds, these ropey-type cheese things, string cheese, and of course cheese fudge. In the evenings as we relaxed and chatted, we sampled from the fine cheese platter before us. I made sure to buy some to take home with me.

Our trip to the Farmer's Market amazed me with the almost 3 blocks of vendors. We each tried some Gelato, bought some kettle corn, and ate a BBQ pork skewer. Fabulous! Later in the afternoon, Lynsey and I took off for a lovely lunch at a local restaurant called Pullmans which overlooked the river. Naturally, we sampled some of the cheesecake! Then we headed off for a little shopping!

Before I knew it the weekend was over and I had to head back to Iowa. I was sad to leave them all, including Rigby the dog, who became my new BFF while I was there. Jack and I also became buddies and spent a lot of time playing with all of his fun toys in the basement. Believe it or not, during the whole weekend, I only managed to get one picture from the visit. Here I am with Lynsey and little Jack. Lynsey says she has some pictures of me, Jack, and Jeremy dancing downstairs to some Beatles music. Will post those sometime in the future.

There was one other surprise to the weekend! Lynsey and Jeremy surprised me with a sign whose story dates back to the nineties and some early college days fun. I'm thinking about putting it in my office.

Finally, the day after I arrived home, I received a call saying that I had flowers to pick up. My Kenny did it again! It looks like he's going to send me flowers pretty regularly while away. He's now overseas and will be making his way to his next more "permanant" destination soon. The last time he was deployed, he arranged to send me flowers once a month to help the time pass and let me know he was thinking about me. I got my "July" flowers on Monday with a very sweet card. What a guy!