Travel – Page 7 – Jocelyn Rau

August 25, 2011August 25, 2011

The wonders of nature

When we were on vacation in Canada last month, I witnessed both the brutal and wondrous sides of nature. There was a little bird’s nest above the steps leading down from our boathouse to one of the docks, and when we arrived on the island there were 4 brand new, tiny baby Phoebes in it. A few mornings later, we opened the boathouse doors to find that the whole nest had been knocked down onto the steps, and the poor little babies were splayed all over the place. Unfortunately 1 of them did not make it, but the other 3 were amazingly still showing signs of life. So my sister M found a smallish cardboard box, put on some gloves, scooped up what remained of the nest, and fashioned a new little home for the surviving babies in that box. We put a rock in one end of it to weigh it down and placed it just off to the side of where it had fallen, in the hopes that the parents would come back and be able to see that there were still some of their offspring in there. Come on, Phoebes, your babies still need you!!

We watched that box from afar that entire day, hoping and pleading with the parents to come back and feed the youngsters in there, and lo and behold, they found it! We were absolutely thrilled. They were pretty tentative at first – like what in the world happened to our home? Where are our babies? Oh wait, they’re in this box now? Is this a trap? They would perch in the tree closest to the box and just hang out for a bit, singing their little Phoebe song, and then you’d hear the babies start peeping away. Feed us! Feed us!

Unfortunately, 1 of the 3 remaining babies perished within that first day. He was the worst-off of the trio, and M finally removed him and laid him in the garden area with the other one who didn’t survive. It was pretty clear that he wouldn’t live much longer even with the parents’ feeding, so we didn’t want them to reject the entire box nest if he was still in there. So those 2 received a nice little burial on the island, yet far enough away from the box to hopefully allow the other pair to thrive.

By the end of our stay, the Phoebes appeared to be a happy little family once again, even if reduced in members. The parents made regular trips into and out of the box, and you could see them removing the babies’ poop on their trips out, too. (i had no idea birds did this, the nest cleaning, but it makes sense. why would they want to sit in their poop all day?) It was so heart-warming to see how this little pocket of nature flourished in the face of tragedy, even if it was with a little help from us humans. The box babies would huddle together and peep when the parents were near, and it was the cutest thing ever to see them in there, heads tucked against each other, sheltering one another from whatever lie outside that box. They looked good when we left, so I sure hope they continued to grow and have maybe even moved into nests of their own by now. Or at least out of the box.

And another wonder of nature – human babies!! I finally met one of the 2 newest additions to our group of friends last night, Baby S, one of the most adorable little boys ever! It’s so fun that our kids will now have so many “automatic” friends with whom to grow up. I can just picture it now – the kids all corralled together playing while all us parents sit around with some drinks, most likely watching a Badgers, Brewers, or Packers game.

August 16, 2011August 15, 2011

Children in flight

So this past weekend I shocked my sister M and her fiance C by showing up on their doorstep in Colorado. Surprise! My youngest sister A threw them a joint wedding shower on Saturday (what they call a “jack and jill party”), so I wanted to be there for the festivities. As such, I bid R and sweet baby D a fond farewell, hopped on a plane Friday night, spent a great weekend with my sisters and their significant others out west, and flew back Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately I didn’t take a camera, so I’ll have to get M to send me some of the pictures she took at the par-tay. We are a cute trio of sisters.

Anyhoo… I learned that since becoming a mom, children on planes don’t really bother me anymore. Big deal, SM, that’s boring, who cares? No, really – being confined in a flying metal pencil with children, plural, does not make me want to huff and pout and glare anymore. Because I totally used to be one of those people who saw a baby on a plane and instantly wanted to turn around and de-board. For how was I possibly going to endure an entire flight with a screaming, annoying kid? I wasn’t going to be able to sleep, or read, or anything. I was going to have to listen to the inconsolable obnoxiousness and hope I didn’t strain my eyeballs from rolling them so hard the whole time. Har.

So you can imagine my attitudinal surprise when, on my flight out Friday night, I was surrounded by 6 children in the rows immediately in front of and behind me, and I actually found them enjoyable. Gasp! I know, crazy, right? (i just realized i’m using a lot of italics in this post, but trust me, the emphasis is warranted) There was an adorable 1 year old boy right behind me who was having a great time smiling at and generally entertaining the passengers near him. I chatted with his parents a bit since that was his first flight, D’s first flight is coming up in a few weeks on the exact same route as that one on which we were flying, and this boy was behaving wonderfully. There were 2 kids directly in front of me, maybe 10 and 7, somewhere around there. Then there were 3 boys 2 rows behind me and across the aisle, ages I would guess of 5, 3, and a newborn. That whole family of 5 sat together in the 3 seats on that side, so it was a full house back there. The baby cried a couple times, no big deal. What I did find odd, though, was upon our descent into Denver, the oldest of the 3 boys started screaming wildly, “I’m falling! I’m falling!” I thought hmm, that’s a little strange, for the parents weren’t really doing a whole lot to comfort or quiet him. The middle boy even said, “Mason, it’s ok, you’re not falling.” So although I found it weird, it didn’t cause me to want to aim spit wads at the kid like it would have a year ago.

There was a girl sitting in the middle seat of the row in front of that family, who I did see turn around and give a tongue click and a side-eye at one point, but I think one of the boys was repeatedly kicking her chair. Ok, that’s a little different. And the mom did apologize, saying her husband was trying to find the boy’s pacifier to calm him down. She (the tongue-clicker) seemed fine from that point on after the apology. I still couldn’t help but think, oh honey, just you wait until you have little ones of your own. It’s soo different.

This one did make me give a mom a second look, though. On my flight home Sunday, I was seated in the midst of another family of 5. Mom and the 2 older kids, a girl maybe 12ish and a boy maybe 8ish, were seated across the aisle from me, and Dad and the youngest kid, a boy maybe 4ish, were seated center and window on my side. This was all fine, but at one point the girl dropped the portable dvd player, and the mom goes, “Oh way to go, Einstein!” Whaaat? Was that really necessary? Now if she’d said it as a big joke and they all started laughing, like that was a family catch phrase or something, that’d be one thing. But she was serious. Like ugh, why are you so stupid? The girl looked kind of degraded after the comment, and I thought man, that was a little harsh. The dvd player wasn’t broken, this was no major disaster. Did you really need to make your daughter feel like an idiot? I don’t know – I just seem to view everyday things so differently now, since I always relate them to D and how I’d feel or what I’d do if she were involved. And hopefully I wouldn’t see the need to make her feel like junk over something so trivial. Or ever.

But back to the flight out, I was trying to take note of the parents behind me on that one, to see how they were occupying their little guy. He gave a couple little shouts and some tongue-wagging, but he was just having fun, not crying. I noticed he was playing with an assortment of toy balls in what looked like a small tennis ball tube, which is something I think D would like too. Anyone out there have any suggestions for a successful 2.5 hour flight with a 1 year old? I must admit, it’s kind of making me nervous.

July 13, 2011July 12, 2011

Canada recap (lots of pics!)

So like I said, our Canadian vacation last week was awesome. The car ride there was 12 hours exactly with stops, which was better than I expected. I had been thinking it was normally a 12 hour drive, when in actuality it’s more like a 10-11 hour drive when it was just me and R. The weather was gorgeous all week; a few showers and clouds here and there, but on the whole it was beautiful. We overlapped for a day with my grandparents, an aunt and uncle, and another uncle and his wife (all on my mom’s side), and we overlapped for 4 days with my mom and stepdad. Everyone LOVED spending time with D, and she had equally as much fun playing with and charming everybody. I must admit, however, that once my mom was gone and it was just me, R, D, and my sister M, it was much less relaxing of a vaca than it used to be, except when she was napping and I could lie out on the dock in the sun and read my book (or nap myself). It was still a wonderful time, though, and I can’t wait to watch her grow there throughout the years and fall as much in love with the place as my sisters and I have.

I think the only downside to the trip was the ride home – it was so long, 15 hours total. We got stuck on the bridge coming back across the border in Sault Ste. Marie for over an hour, then had between a 1-1.5 hour stop at 8:00pm for dinner in Sheboygan Falls. D did great, though, and it was fun showing M R’s stomping grounds. Needless to say we were all exhausted by the time we finally rolled into our driveway at 10:30 that night, but the vacation overall was well worth it.

Here are some pictures from the trip. I tried to make them small since there are so many, so just click on any for a larger version. Why do the good times always have to go so quickly?

ca1 — D turned 11 months the day we left

ca5 — My g'parents wearing the bride and groom hats we gave M at her surprise bridal shower

ca7 — M was faking enthusiasm with this get-up

ca15 — Outside Jake's - our fave restaurant

ca16 — We got D a little tent bed for the trip, complete w/its own air mattress

July 1, 2011June 30, 2011

FF

We’re on vacation!!

R, D, and I are on our way to one of my favorite places on Earth – Little Pine Isle. It’s the family vacation spot in Canada that I went to every summer growing up and to which I hope to return each year forever. Our cabin isn’t winterized, so our trips are always either in the Summer or Fall, sometime when the weather is warm enough to not need insulated walls. There is a fireplace and a wood-burning stove in the kitchen, though, so during those chilly Fall stays we have fires burning constantly to heat the place.

We’ll be off the grid for the next week (I can’t even begin to describe how happy that notion makes me – no cell phones or emails), so try not to miss me too badly. Don’t worry, I will still be posting to keep you entertained, and then will have a full rundown upon our return. Here are some pictures of where we’re going, in case you’re curious:

LPI2 — View from the opposite end of the island

LPI1 — More sunset (that's me standing on the point)

LPI11 — Main room of the cabin, animals came with the place

Have a great weekend everyone, and a Happy 4th of July (or Happy Canada Day to our neighbors to the north)! We’ll be celebrating our country’s independence in Canada this year. 🙂

June 10, 2011

FF

My head is clear from the brain drain. Ahh… Well mostly, anyway. I talked to both R and my boss about the various things that have been making me nuts, and I feel a lot better. I know you’re all very relieved to hear that.

TGIF! For the FF this week I have the long-awaited pictures from our brewery tour getaway this past weekend. There are a bunch of shots here, but it’s only a fraction of the entire album. If you’d like to see the whole thing just leave me a comment and I’ll send you the link.

NG2 — Military Ridge State Trail in Mt. Horeb

NG3 — There are lots of trolls in Mt. Horeb

NG4 — New Glarus Brewery - it's beautiful!

NG6 — Look at my crinkly face! I love rocks!

NG8 — Playing in the grass at New Glarus

NG9 — Mommy & D in the beer museum at Potosi Brewery

NG10 — Getting ready for some grub at Potosi

NG11 — Mommy & D in the Potosi beer garden - more crinkles

NG13 — Cool classic cars in downtown Galena

NG14 — My view from the front seat. These things often smell like Cheerios.

NG17 — Daddy & D enjoying evening sun on Trynena's patio

June 7, 2011October 17, 2014

Family vacation #1 in the books

R said that last night as we went to bed, and he’s right. This weekend really was our first little family vacation, and it was awesome. We took tons of pictures (surprised? i didn’t think so), but I haven’t had a chance to go through them all and get any uploaded yet. I promise I will post a full photographic recap of our brewery tour weekend as soon as I do though, so you can get a little glimpse into the extracurricular activities of these Wisconsin beer lovers.

In the meantime, here’s the low down on everywhere we went. It sounds like kind of a whirlwind excursion, but we actually did everything at our own pace, with no set schedule or agenda, so it felt very leisurely and relaxed. Exactly what the doctor ordered!

Friday: After taking roughly an hour just to get out of Milwaukee County on our way out of town (mind you, it’s only a distance of about 15 miles), and being thoroughly disgusted by the traffic and highway construction in our city, we were finally moving at highway speeds on our way westward. We arrived in Mt. Horeb around 7pm, checked into our little motel, and headed to the Grumpy Troll for dinner and a sampler. And just as last year, it did not disappoint. Oh yeah – as we were unloading our stuff in our room before dinner, D took her first nose-dive, right off one of the beds onto the motel room floor. Lovely. The good thing about kids, though? They’re apparently made of rubber, so fortunately she survived unscathed. Not even a scratch, just a little shaken up. Whew. Nothing a good beer sampler won’t cure. 😉

Saturday: We took D for a couple mile walk on the Military Ridge State Trail right after breakfast, which we were able to pick up just blocks from our motel. Then we packed up, checked out, and headed over to New Glarus. For those of you who have never been to the new New Glarus brewery, GO! It is out of this world fantastic. I never visited the old brewery, but their new facility is beautiful – it’s a little over a year old now, and they have the outdoor bar set up and the inside tasting room is complete. The tour is self-guided and free, and you can buy either a 3-taste sampling or as many full pints as you’d like. We sat outside on their patio and enjoyed a couple pints while enjoying the day. D had a blast playing in the grass and entertaining everyone at the tables around us, and they also had a bags game set up that a couple people were playing. We both agreed that we could have easily spent the entire day there, lounging around and drinking down their delicious brews. However, more places awaited. We stayed at New Glarus until mid-afternoon, stopped at a super old timey awesome bar in the little downtown area called Puempel’s Olde Tavern for a drink, then headed further west to the Mississippi River and Potosi. This is another really cool place. The town itself is nothing, so if you’re not going to the brewery then I don’t think I’d recommend a stop. But the brewery has a beer museum attached, so we checked that out too. The tour is $5, which also gets you a complimentary 12 oz. pour from the bar afterward, and it was very interesting. They have a ton of old beer memorabilia housed in a couple different levels, so it made for a really neat place. The bar is a nice arched stone, open room, and they have a beer garden patio outside as well. We had samplers and ate dinner there, and their food was tasty too. After our free beers from the tour, we hit the road to our rest stop for the night, Galena, IL. It was only about half an hour south of Potosi, so we were there in no time. We did get a glimpse of the might Mississip on our way out of Potosi, for the brewery doesn’t sit right on the river. We stayed at the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel in Galena, and it was great – cute Irish theme, nice rooms, extremely comfy bed, Irish dancers in the pub downstairs Saturday night, and a complimentary hot breakfast in the same pub Sunday morning. We were spent by bedtime that night and a little sun-kissed from the hours at New Glarus (not D though, no sun on that fair little skin please), so thankfully D decided to be nice and sleep in until 8:00 Sunday morning. Thank you sweet Jesus, our prayers have been answered by room-darkening curtains.

Sunday: After that nice breakfast, we checked out and drove into downtown Galena for some sight-seeing and moseying. That is an awesome town. It’s very quaint and historic, and the main street downtown is beautiful. Full of shops, bars, restaurants, and an outstanding winery (in Galena, IL? who’da thunk it). And guess what else we found? Another brewery! So we spent a couple hours meandering through town, having a sampler, then doing a little wine tasting at the winery on our way out. Their wines reminded us a lot of Door Peninsula’s wines in Door County, which we love. So of course we got a couple bottles as our souvenir from Galena. Then it was off to Madison – wahoo! We headed right to the Great Dane downtown, and our friend G met up with us there. We had one of their giant 15 beer samplers, of course, and lunch, then went out to the east side to Ale Asylum. Neither of us had been there before, so we were excited to check it out. It rocks! We got one of their samplers, of course, and sat out on their patio to enjoy the gorgeous weather (finally!). I was very impressed there – their beer was excellent (i’d only had a couple of their brews before) and the place itself was really nice. So we chilled there for a few hours, bid G farewell, and started to make our way home. We’d originally planned on spending Sunday night somewhere, but decided it was unnecessary. We’d gotten all our stops in in those two days, so why not just sleep in our own beds that night and save the hotel fare? Okey dokey smokey. Just a short ways outside Madison we were in Lake Mills, and guess what’s in Lake Mills? Tyranena, duh. This was the last non-Milwaukee brewery on our list for the weekend (we decided to scratch Minhas and save it for another trip), so we popped in for a pit stop. I got a sampler since I couldn’t have one when we were there last year, and R got a couple pints. D again made friends with everyone and their dogs there, so she was in heaven. It was late evening by the time we finished up at Tyranena, and then we were homeward bound.

Monday: Yesterday was a rare vacation day at home, and it felt great. We started off with some nasty thunderstorms, so I thought it was going to be a hunker down kind of day, but the skies cleared by mid-morning and the sun came out blazing. I got the hammock out of its winter storage in the garage and spent an hour lying in that, then we walked over to Sprecher for a late afternoon tour to cap off the weekend. Nothing like a local brewery in your own backyard! It was a steamy walk, but I lathered up D with sunscreen, put her sun hat on her, and got the extended canopy on the stroller to try to give her more shade. Sprecher’s tour is fun too, if you’ve never been. It’s short, sweet, and to the point – their beer. $5 gets you a 10 minute tour (it’s not a big place), then you get 4 good-sized samples afterward. Yesterday they were in production bottling their delicious root beer, so the whole place smelled great. R grilled up some outstanding brats for dinner when we got home, and we called it a weekend. And a mighty successful one at that.

Oh, in case you’re wondering why we did all these brewery tours, R joined the WI Brewers Guild this year and got a ton of coupons for tours, pints, schwag, etc., at breweries around the state. Well, that, and we just like good beer. 🙂 And don’t worry, at no point were we too impaired for driving. That sounds kind of bad that we went and had samplers, drove to the next place with more samplers, drove to the next place with more samplers, and so on and so on around the state. But I assure you – there was plenty of time and food mixed in with every stop that no one was in danger of an incident at all. We’re not that stupid (i think).

So there you have it – the wonderful world of WI breweries. And there are so many more we want to visit! We think the next one will be a central/northern WI tour. I think we’ve found our annual spring mini-getaway theme.

June 4, 2011February 14, 2012

Road trip!!

Yesterday after work we loaded up the car and headed west. Before you start picturing us trucking through wide open spaces and the wild wild west, let me tame those ideas of grandeur. I mean more like Mt. Horeb, WI. 🙂

R, D, and I are taking a little family vacation, a much-needed respite from the daily grind. D’s been on longer car trips than this before and did great, so hopefully this one turns out to be equally as uneventful for her. (we drove up to Minneapolis for a long weekend when she was only 6 weeks old, and she traveled splendidly)

Last May R and I did a similar Wisconsin weekend getaway to the Madison area and had a blast. So this year we decided to extend it by a day (we’re taking Monday off – 2 3-day weekends in a row, yay!!) and see a couple new places.

The over-arching theme of that trip was Wisconsin breweries, and we have a couple on the agenda again this time. Last year we visited New Glarus’s new brewery, and it was amazing! It was completed that winter before we went, so everything was brand new and shiny. We loved it so much that it made the list again for this year.

Then we’re heading over to the far western edge of the state to visit Potosi and their brewery along the Mississippi River, then down to Galena, IL, for a night to see what that little corner of the world has to offer. After that tiny sojourn we’ll head up to one of my favorite places on Earth, Madison, and bum around it and its local breweries for a day or two before making our way back east.

Monday we’ll drive home through southern Wisconsin, possibly detouring down to Monroe to check out the Minhas brewery, but most likely at least stopping in Lake Mills to quench our thirst at Tyranena. Last year D was cooking away so I couldn’t fully partake in the tasty adult beverages, so this year I’m planning on making up for that. Work has gotten me kind of down lately, so this little break will hopefully be just what the doctor ordered!

I’m sure we’ll throw in plenty of sight-seeing along the way, too. We’re planning on talking D for a walk on the Military Ridge state trail, maybe visiting Cave of the Mounds, and basically just exploring the natural wonders our great state has to offer.

The southwestern corner of Wisconsin is beautiful, and now that the weather has finally warmed up it should make for some great scenery. There will be plenty of pictures taken along the way, so I’ll be able to give you a full report upon our return. Have a wonderful weekend!

Tag: Travel

The wonders of nature

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Children in flight

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Canada recap (lots of pics!)

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FF

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FF

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Family vacation #1 in the books

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Road trip!!

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