A friend in need...

Karabo and I decided to visit Tyler after hearing he was a little under the weather, this was asking my host parents for their medical advice and them asking are you sure it’s not just a hangover. We stopped at Walgreens to pick up some meds to hopefully help him out. Knowing that Tyler hates Spongebob it gives me great pleasure to buy him various obnoxious yellow items with Spongebob on. He usually laughs at how ridiculous I am so I figured since laughter is the best medicine...this could actually work. I found a cute drinking cup that had flashing disco lights built into the base. Tyler was feeling really sensitive to light (seeing a problem) and had a major headache. So we walk in, I get the headache tablets out pour some water in the glass to take to him (by this time he is in man mode, laying in bed trying to look like he is dying for maximum female sympathy) I walk into the room and turn on the cup to show him how cool it is, needless to say this was not received too well, but I think the silliness did help to get a few laughs out and laughter is the best medicine after all.

The Spongebob Cup

Aren’t we supposed to be watching the game?

A favourite American tradition is Tailgating, which has nothing to do with closely following another car, but instead involved games, eating excess (for some) drinking. So the plan is you are supposed to get to the park like 3 hours before the game starts (when they open the parking lot) Park your car and set up ‘camp’, which involves a grill and some form games (occasionally drinking ones.)

The sausage races

You hang out drinking, eating, blasting music and doing pretty much anything fun. Then about half way into the game people start making their way towards the stadium to watch the end of the game which is pretty pointless by that stage as it’s almost over, but I guess it’s all about the build up and spending time with friends. Tyler arranged a group of people to share in the fun experience of this American tradition and even offered to be the DD, Thanks Tyler :) The boys had the grill going, and the girls were hanging around setting the table and just generally having a good time. Then someone brought out the football and decided that we needed to learn to “throw the olde pigskin.” Um, I feel like we have gone thought this many times and yes...I throw like a girl, actually I throw like a rugby playing girl because everyone that has ever shown me how to throw has had Bokke in their blood. After a few practice throws and lots of instruction I think I got it, kinda.

Or not...

Eventually we made it to the game where I got to show how intelligent I really am, and what show offs Americans are. So Ryan Braun the “Oh-so-hot” (not really) number 8 player from the Milwaukee Brewers hit a home run, I never noticed. That was until fireworks (yip, fireworks) started shooting out of the roof of the stadium, at that moment the big screen showed a picture of the Miller girl on the moon (Miller sponsors the Brewers) with the words “moon shot” on it. I am still unaware of what just happened and I saw fireworks, moon shoot, fireworks, Miller girl, fireworks, why is everyone standing, oh he hit a home run I should stand, stand up as everyone sits down...everybody stares at me blankly as I announced he hit a home run (10 minutes later.)

The foreigners (and Brittney)

Up North for a girls weekend...

Karabo, Leann and I decided that after many fun weekend in Milwaukee we should head up North for a little girl time. We left to go after work on Friday night. Leann’s mom decided to join us and was designated driver. The drive there was pretty uneventful and quiet as it was night time and we couldn’t see much. Once we arrived in Door County, we noticed what a beautiful area we were in. Unfortunately there had been a storm during the week, and we went down a road were a tree had fallen across the road. Of course Leann, Karabo and I all jumped out the car and ran to the tree to see if we could move it. Once we realized how big it was we decided to find an alternative route. Finally on our (new) way to the cottage and we were super excited to start our weekend of girly things.

Karabo, Leann and I

The cottage was so beautiful. It was right on the lake, which made for an exceptional background! We opted for an ‘early’ night, but Leann and I banished Karabo to another room after hearing rumours of snoring habits...hmmm

Outside the cottage

Next morning, we woke up, had a wonderful breakfast and headed out to explore Door County. It was a little cold, but the natural beauty of this place certainly made up for it. Unfortunately the rain came to visit which meant our nature walks were a little wet and cold but we were prepared with ponchos, smart girls! We then headed home for board games, lavender baths and spa time. Spa time involved me painting Leann and Karabo’s toes pink and green, I was smart and let them choose each others colours. Karabo immediately decided Leann needed “rainbows and unicorn toes” so we went pink, and Leann said she thought “muppet green” would look good on Karabo. Next we decided to watch Inception, with face masks on, dual purpose down time. Once we finished watching the movie we decided it was certainly bed time for us, this time we decided to let Karabo stay in the room with us (since we had earplugs, we weren’t worried). Slumber parties never end when you say it’s bed time, and as in tradition we ended up chatted late into the night.

Lavender spa baths

The next morning we headed to a cute restuarant for a breakfast of Door County cherries and many yummy treats like that. Next we decided to go to a few more look out points, which were  really pretty and the weather was definitely cooperating. We started on our back to Milwaukee stopping briefly at The Flying Pig, which is an artsy shop filled with handcrafted items, it was really vibrant and reminded me of the Motel in Kokstad. It was  a great weekend with some lovely people and I’m glad to have them in my life.

Door County light house

Another beer… another brewery tour…

Lakefront Brewery tour was the last brewery tour I went on. There was nothing that really made this tour stand out more than any of the other tour, with the exception of dinner after the tour. We did the tour first, unfortunately I could not hear huge portions of what our guide was saying but it involved beer, barely and probably a few funny stories.

Haha, if you say so!

Then we drank a beer, hear a little more about how beer was made, then drank a little more and finally headed to where we were going to have our Friday Fish Fry (which is a pretty big tradition here.) The dinner was pretty good, I tried Walleye, Cod and maybe something else. After a great meal, comes the dreaded bill and it’s not that you have to pay it but rather trying to split up who eat what and who is paying for who and all that jazz. After sorting it all out we were about to head out the door when our waitress came back and basically told us that she didn’t appreciate the 15 or whatever % tip we had left her, and that we had ruined her night. Nice one! I feel like that is unprofessional…besides tips are based on your performance as a server…maybe she should have thought about first and asked if we were happy with our service? Besides most countries tip 10%...but anyhow we all added a little more to our waitress fund and made our way out of the door…

Bring on the beer