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

Town of the Indy 500…

Yip, Tyler and I are at it again! Taking off for another random-ish road trip. This time we are headed to Indianapolis, IN.  We got in pretty on the Friday night, so we never got to see much. The Saturday was started with a walk around downtown, there were some really pretty buildings around that I got to photograph.

Downtown on the riverwalk

We also headed to the NCAA (The National Collegiate Athletic Association) which I wasn’t sure about…till I got in there. There were interactive sections where you could try out the sport. I got to throw a football, kick a soccer ball and even try to shoot some hoops. Apparently I’m not designed for most sports, but one day I’ll find something I’m good at.

Tyler playing ball

That night we went to a piano bar called Howling at the Moon. It was my first time at a piano bar, and let me tell you. This place was awesome! The people playing the instruments are really talented and have a great sense of humour. Although I did see how alcohol certainly lubricates the wallet strings. There was a board that you could “buy” a message space on it, so it started at say $5 and went up by $5 every time someone “purchased” it. You can choose to put whatever you wanted on the board, and it stays on the board until someone else “buys” the board. There was a group of fireman, marines and police that were all competing through the board, it got pretty interesting and expensive!

See what I mean?

 The next morning we visited the Indy 500 racetrack. It was pretty amazing to see the track, it’s huge! There is a museum where they have the racecars that have previously been in the race. It was fun to see how much they have changed to become more aerodynamic.

Indy 500

After that we headed back to Milwaukee…only 7 hours away. Home sweet home!

Another state, another road trip!

Two little boys turn two today…

The boys turned 2 today and there is not much to say except I cannot believe how quickly they have turned from little cute blobs that didn’t do much, to fired up balls of energy! They are talking so much and love to play. They love their big sister which they call AJ and try to imitate her as much as possible. They have really grown up, no more onesies anymore, just big boy shorts and tees!

Big boys now!

For their birthday Amanda did a really good job of making sure it was kid inspired and definitely geared towards them. Her parents were here from New Jersey to celebrate with the boys which was extra special. We started off by going to Monkey Joes, an indoor jumping castle haven with slides and obstacle courses…some that were a little too hard for the boys to conquer alone…so I volunteered to help the boys climb up and slide down the big bouncy houses.

The boys 'singing' along

Reading Birthday cards with mom and dad

Next we headed to Chuck. E. Cheese with is a heaven for little kids with food, a games arcade and even a big singing mouse! The pizza was pretty good and watching the boys eat cake – pretty priceless! Ah, sometimes a picture says a 1000 words…

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And who's job is it meant to be, to teach this kid table manners?

*Hi-lighted words are explained in the glossary page

Baby. Baby. Baby oooooooo…

Yip, those are the famous lyrics of guy who may be small in stature but definitely not in popularity. His movie “Never Say Never” just came out and Julia and I are kind of super fans, so we decided to go to see it on the BIG screen. Julia ran in to buy the tickets while I parked the car (this was due to the fact that we were running late, not because we were that excited…although we were) She walked up to the front desk and proudly announced “I would like 2 tickets to the Justin Bieber movie. Thank you.” Then we made our way to an empty cinema where we chose the best seats for maximum Bieber viewing. We were 50% of the population in the cinema, not that it made a difference. We loved the movie and even sang LOUDLY to the Karaoke type set up to “Baby.  Baby. Baby Oooooo” Super fans indeed!

Going green…

St. Patrick’s Day…day to commemorate Saint Patrick, the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland, aka an excuse for perfectly rational human beings to wear various shades of green and get drunk even if it’s a week night.

Green Beer...hmmm

Au pairs however are a little tamer and chose to go out and have a quick drink (or two) then head home. It’s not fun, watching children through “hangover glasses” after all! Jenny, Julia and I headed to Paddy’s Pub where we meet some really interesting people, we then headed downtown to Mo’s Irish Pub where they serve green Miller Light on tap. It’s kinda strange cos I was in the same exact place last year for Paddy’s day, then even more strange, I ended up seeing the SAME group of guys Tamara and I had meet the year before. I guess some people love routine?

Tamara with our new friends in 2010

Déjà vu?