Quick Jaunt to The Cheese State

These business travel bits are getting a bit more challenging with a crawling monster on my hands, but I do love to get away. It might be the winter that makes it all the more challenging, but we bundled up and pressed on, heading to Wisconsin's capital city of Madison. I think it's funny that we're closer to Wisconsin's capital than we are to Illinois' capital. Anyway... we headed north 2.5 hours for a short trip, which meant waking up at 4:45 a.m. to make it in time for the husband's early meeting. B was confused, but managed to sleep in the car and napped like a champ both days. A few snippets of our adventure, along with things I've learned while traveling to Madison with an almost 1-year old.

Three-wheeled strollers are not all-terrain. They do not handle thick slushy snow well.
Oh man. I was totally pushing through what felt like quicksand up a hill. A wonderful university student came to my aid, but I managed to {wo}man up and make it happen.

Target is a great place to go early in the morning when you can't yet check into your hotel room.
Not like I needed another reason to visit a Target, but I definitely walked the aisles and loaded up on lemonade, mac 'n' cheese, a new hat for B (since the 5+ he already has aren't enough), and signed up for a Target RedCard Debit. Why hadn't I done that before? Random tidbit for you Target lovers... did you know you get $.05 off your total for each reusable bag you use? And with the Target RedCard, you get 5% off all purchases and it's not a credit card-- just comes directly out of your debit account.

Target almost always has a Starbucks inside, which is also a great place to feed a kiddo breakfast.
Hello empty seating, warm oatmeal (and anything else I want to feed him available in the store!), and warm beverages! And, they even have cart wipes that you can double as disinfecting wipes for high chairs and tables fo' free!

Oversized dressing rooms are the bomb-dot-com with a crawling baby. The space under the door where they can crawl out? Not so bomb.
I heart Anthropologie, the two dresses I bought from there, the customer service, free shipping if ordered in store (for things they carry online but are out of in-store), and now their dressing rooms. Going to a wedding in Dallas next weekend and Mama needed a new dress (or two).

Didn't buy that dress (afraid the $120 gold pieces would fray easily), but bought this one & this one & wanted this one, but they were sold out in my size in the entire Midwest. I checked.

Thrift stores in hippie neighborhoods are the best.
I'm not talking Goodwill, though I've found a few scores there myself. I'm talking those little joints that only sell high-end clothes and are really picky about their merchandise. I scored a designer belt for only $2.50. Later I realized it was lacking a tiny metal stud that I think a trip to Michael's will fix. There is a reason it was so cheap. I just love exploring those little gems.

You can order a side of meatballs (or any protein) on the cheap to feed your bambino at Noodles & Co.
It's getting to the point where he's not quite ready for a kid's meal order, but eats a bit too much for us to share with him. Sort of depends on the meal. I'm also a spicy-food lover, and I don't like compromising my fave flavors because the nugget can't handle the heat. Or peanuts. Because my fave dish at Noodles is the Indonesian Peanut Saute... and we haven't quite graduated to peanut status yet. For about $2.50ish, you can get 5 meatballs, which is perfect for the little person.

Even though he wasn't ready for a kid's meal, he got one anyway at Panera Bread. 
His first ever kid's meal was a ham & cheese sandwich with a squeezable organic yogurt that he sucked down at a rapid pace. He ate about 3/4 of the sandwich. The tank is still at it.

Nepalese food is indeed delicious.
The 'burbs of Chicago lack interesting food. I've stopped counting how many brewpubs there are here. Not that I dislike brewpubs, but you have to sell food that's off the beaten path in order for me to differentiate you from Burger King. Most do not. Madison is a large university town that's lively with lots of young people who also have hippie tendencies. Hippies are often vegetarian. I am vegetarian and a little hippie. Therefore, I like big, hippie, granola, liberal, university towns. We ate at a place that gets fab reviews on Yelp, but I was only slightly disappointed at the entree portions. I'm sort of a fat kid when it comes to food and while I'd love to subscribe to the whole ideal of eat until you're content, I just can't. I'll be starving 3 hours later because vegetarian fare is just not as filling. B seemed to enjoy the grub as well. I think he's partial to hippies.

Hotels that favor business guests tend to have pools that no one swims in during the day.
A win for us! Both times we enjoyed the pool, we had it all to ourselves. Which is super for the mom who packed her triangle top bikini that fit really well in college and before she started breastfeeding. Looks like my go-to J.Crew triangle top might be retired soon. Either that, or someone else will need to hold the kid who yanks and tugs at it while in the pool.

Trying to both complete the Shred in a hotel room and with a baby who is awake is close to impossible.
Definitely not the best workout of the 30 days as B couldn't understand why we didn't want him crawling all over us during our ab exercises. He wanted in on the action, obviously. He was probably thinking... man. My mom feeds me butter and high-fat everything. I really have to sign myself up for a Shred soon. Day 28 today. A full recap of the craziness to come in a week or so.

It's getting harder and harder to sleep in the same room as the B-man at night. 
He is a mover all. night. long. I am an incredibly light sleeper and woke up to every twist and turn he made, despite him being in the far corner of the room and having an iPhone noise app to try and drown out the sound. He even cried out briefly a couple times, which I am certain he does in his own room at night, but the walls separating us prevent me from being alarmed when he's merely dreaming or waking startled before falling back to sleep. I cherish, love, adore, admire, covet suites or extra large bathrooms for the pack 'n' play.

When you have to check out of a hotel before the husband is done with meetings, libraries are a fun, free, and educational place to go, especially when it's snowing heavily outside.
Usually, I attempt to find an indoor mall to walk around when it's either too hot or too cold and we have no where else to go. The mall, unfortunately, was about 8 miles away. Sixteen miles round-trip in the sloshy, slippery snow in a town I'm unfamiliar with? No thanks. We grabbed lunch after late checkout and headed to the library to read suck on books and explore their sensory and educational zone geared entirely to young people. Better than the mall where he'd be stuck in the stroller. I'm the genius mom who forgot diapers and wipes in the car... only to of course need said diapers and wipes and have to schlep the kid in the sloshy snow multiple times to remedy the situation. While at the library, we met another mom who had her 13-month old daughter with her and was actually there killing time while her other daughter (2 years old, of course) was in preschool. We chatted a bunch and I was quite fond of her Patagonia and North-Face wearing self and almost wanted to drive 2.5 hours to hang out with her, you know... while her 2-year old was in school, obvi. Except, no. That's silly. Of course I meet people I like in other states.

Another adventure down. Next weekend stop, Dallas! Plans are in the works and we're pretty sure we'll get to meet a pretty fabuloso BLM, her husband and big boy, Finn! Can't wait!

Road Trip! Milwaukee, WI

About a week ago we decided to book a hotel room for Milwaukee just because we can't sit still. It's just our thing. We need to be moving or traveling or something. We're definitely not homebodies. From the need to have me constantly walking him around the house and yard and everywhere, it doesn't appear B will be staying in one place very long either. We had been meaning to check out Milwaukee ever since last year when we made our trek North through Wisconsin and up and over to Isle Royale National Park. We drove through what appeared to be a beautiful city and figured we'd put it on the list as a short getaway for a night from Chicago.

Most of our adventures centered around beer drinking-- no surprise. Thanks to the Chicago fire of 1871, Milwaukee became a leader in beer production. And hey. We like beer. Cheers to beer tours! Our last beer tours were in St. Louis with friends, just before B came into the picture. And now, B is 4 months and exploring with us. We're just so humbled.

We drove out Saturday morning and headed to our first stop, Miller Brewing Co. We did the Anheuser Busch tour last year in addition to Schlafly and Ray had previously done the Coors tour in Golden, CO. That's still on my list, as is the New Belgium facility in Fort Collins, CO where they make my favorite beer, Fat Tire.

No stroller allowed. No problem.

Nearing the end of our tour, they took us into this musty cave and then dropped us off in this "inn" that served us our first free beer.

In the cave.

 Mural on the wall

 Girl in the Moon (Miller High Life symbol) and a couple amazing boys in the cave.

 In the inn with free beer

After our Miller tour, we headed downtown to the 3rd Ward and saw this driving down the road. Anyone ever ridden one of these? This is the first we'd seen them ever.

We drove around a bit after walking around the downtown area and found a nice place to have dinner. I researched on Yelp (always while traveling) and found an excellent Mexican joint, Corazon. It's on a pathway called the Beerline.

 El restaurante.

 After dinner we headed to our hotel and B showed off his amazing tummy time moves without crying.

Hey Ladies. I'm single. Want my digits?

We checked out of our hotel in the morning and headed to the lakeshore to walk around and explore. Along this path were some gorgeous homes. Just off the coast is a shipwreck and we saw a couple people paddleboarding and a few others scuba diving around the area. What caused the shipwreck? Intense smog from the factories. Gross.

 One of the cooler art sculptures we've seen. I'd like a replica of this.

Our second beer tour, Lakefront Brewery. It was awesome. Craft beer joints are always cooler than the big guys. And they give more (and better tasting) beer.

He'd rather be naked.

 On our beer tour

I don't understand my parents. They put me in ridiculous places and think it's cute.

After our beer tour yesterday, we headed across a bridge and to Brady Street where we entered this Italian market called Glorioso's and ordered a couple calzones for lunch. They were, hands down, the best calzones we'd ever had, all for about $12 total. It was right up there in ranks as Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica, CA.

We heart weekends.

Upper Peninsula Vacation

I'm about to give up on this post. Blogger has ruined it twice. TWICE. I've wasted about 3 hours on this and am close to just uploading images to Flickr and calling it a day. GAH.

So where was I... writing this for the THIRD time now. We visited the Upper Peninsula. The UP. They're considered Yoopers there. Yooper = UP. Get it?

Here was our route minus the stop we made in Mackinac. Let's just pretend that comes right after Sault Ste. Marie (F), mmkay? Great.

Day 1: Chicagoland to Green Bay, WI. We drove through Milwaukee for the first time and fully intend to make that a weekend getaway destination in the future. For the holidays this year perhaps? The jury is still out on whether we'll be celebrating that business. We checked out Lambeau Field and had dinner at a fun German restaurant in town.

Cheesy husband. ;)

 At dinner enjoying a German brew...

 Dinner! You're looking at potato balls (remember those from Oktoberfest, Alison?) and rindfleisch (beef).

Day 2: We drove from Green Bay, WI to Hancock, MI where we picked up Ray's parents at the airport. Post-pickup, we headed to Copper Harbor, MI. We hung around to check out the boat we'd be taking the next morning, visited a lighthouse, explored the area, picked up some supplies from the miniature country store in town and had dinner. This was our first experience with a pasty (pronounced past-ee). Don't ask me. It seems the Upper Peninsula folks beat to a different drum and apparently different grammatical rules. ;)

Our hotel rooms are behind my MIL who is taking this photo.. right on the water in Copper Harbor.

The boat we would be boarding the next morning!

My husband and FIL in Copper Harbor.

A lighthouse we visited...

The boat and dock from our hotel rooms! We were close! My husband is a pretty incredible planner.

Day 3: Boarded the boat in Copper Harbor to Isle Royale National Park (pronounced royal. I know.). Once there, we had a delicious lunch of PBJ and various other snacks we trekked along with us. The island itself has two restaurants that are basically the same restaurant since they come from the same kitchen. We rented cabins so we could use the kitchen if we wanted to. Great idea! We also took a 4.8 mile hike this day.

Fresh raspberries!

And fresh blueberries right outside our cabin door... I couldn't get enough.

Our hike to Scoville Point.

A little reversed, but here we are on our 3.75 hour boat ride over to Isle Royale. Not a single person of the 100 aboard became sick. Lots of awkward middle schoolers but very few small children-- because 1. it's expensive to get there, 2. there is no water warm enough to swim, 3. the boat ride is long, 4. lodging is super expensive if not camping (which is not a Wilson favorite. We like beds. Sleeping on the ground is for the birds).

Wee, we're on a boat!

Hello Isle Royale, hello!

During our first hike on the island

Lewis and Clark. ;)

Ray's parents

Day 4: Our second day on the island and my favorite. I have a load of canoe photos because it was obviously my favorite part of the trip!

We hopped off our canoes, hiked up a 1-mile trail to see Ontario. Can you see it? If you squint? It's about 10 miles from where we were standing. The closest Michigan route by boat is 3.5 hours away at 56 miles. The closest spot to Canada? 10 miles. It's also closer to Wisconsin and Minnesota. But Michigan claims it.

These are thimbleberries. My wilderness-survival-trained-Air Force Academy-graduate husband can tell you that they are safe to eat as all aggregate berries are safe except some white ones found only in Alaska or something. Don't quote me... I didn't look that up. But anyway... they're a tart, not as good raspberry.

We watched the alternate transportation option (expensive seaplane) come and go while canoeing on our second day.

Wee! Canoes!

Some rich guy behind us-- don't worry about them. They're just showing off.

Toad. The island boasts over 500 moose and 25 wolves. We saw a total of zero. But we did see a froggy.

Day 5: Our last day on the island and also the worst boat trip of my life. Y'all. Listen. There were about 30 people on our boat ride back and roughly 25% of the people were vomiting at the stern. None of us four were part of the vomit-fest. Instead, I was laying completely horizontal the entire time and still was able to see a full view of the water as the boat rocked back and forth, back and forth for three hours and forty five minutes. We returned back into dock and the captain said it was their absolute worst trip of the year thus far. UM, they have two trips everysingleday. Yes, people. This was scary business. The waves were up to 7 feet. And to put it in perspective, there are 10 shipwrecks that surround the island alone. It is about 40-50 degrees during the peak of summer, indicating that {the lake} rarely gives up her dead. It's known for being a violent body of water and we all knew it. But, we're alive. Somehow there is still some luck left in this body of mine.

Here's a photo of Lake Superior

Our boat departed from Copper Harbor Michigan (that finger that juts out into the lake) to that long island Northwest. We took the same route back. 3.5-3.75 hours. It's bigger than all of the Great Lakes combined.

Back to the photos... from Day 5. A couple photos of the cabins we rented...

Pancakes each morning with freshly picked blueberries!

We look happy-- because we're relieved we still had our lives after that crazy boat ride!

We hopped off the boat, packed up the car, and headed down to Houghton, MI (pronounced hoe-ton, not who-ton. I know.) where we'd stay for the next two days. Chinese food for dinner and off to sleep for another adventurous day!

Day 6: We explored an old copper mine (the UP is known for rich copper resources), had pasties for lunch, walked around another mining town with a park ranger, explored Michigan Tech University, and McClain State Beach.

We took a cograil car down to the mine.

This ladder-looking item behind us used to hold 30 men at a speed of 15-20 mph down to their mining stations. Scary job!

The mine is about 45 degrees inside, so they provide jackets for our tour. And those schnazzy hard hats. ;)

Mmm pasties. Disclaimer: I didn't have one. They were all ruined by meat.

Here's the doughy perfection. Originally from Europe and a mining staple because it was a large pocket that held their entire lunch of veggies, starches, and meat. Basically a pot pie without the cream sauce or a calzone without the sauce. Or a hot pocket. It was chock full of meat, potatoes, rutabaga and onions. I think.

Here's is the pasty-making production line.

At the state park just exploring... totally my saddest moment of the trip. I watched my husband and FIL spend at least an hour just scouring the beach for cool rocks. They'd compare their rocks. They'd scrape and bang them on things. They'd put them in their pockets and steal them. Rinse. Repeat for about an hour. My heart was just so full of jealousy. Not directed at any one person, just knowing my Andrew will never get to be cute and dorky with his dad and grandfathers. He'll never walk the beach and pick up random rocks and do messy boy things. I know. He won't do anything else either. But in that moment, it really made me sad. Simple things really do matter, especially when those simple things are the very things you want for your own children.

Day 7: Last day with Ray's parents before they headed back to Maryland and we headed back on the road! We walked along the Houghton riverwalk before lunch and the airport dropoff. At one time, the bottom level of the bridge (blue) was used for a railcar. Now it is permanently raised, it seems, until an even larger ship comes through and then it can be raised like an elevator to the very top. Ray is wearing a cape because we were trying to prevent him from being further sunburned. Our poor, poor children and their white, sunburn-proned skin.

Our next stop was Sault Ste. Marie. No passports meant no crossing into Canada. We headed straight to the water to see the Soo Locks. About 10,000 ships per year cross through the locks which allows them to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. We were lucky enough to watch a barge cross through the locks within the hour of us arriving!

We first made our way to Tahquamenon Falls State Park to see some of their falls. They weren't overly dramatic-- but that's just because we're jaded. We've seen some incredible falls and these were just nice.

Here are some of the lock photos. The red ship in the background is headed into the second (farthest) lock from us. There are two locks, the farthest is for very large ships and the closest to our viewing point was for shorter ships.

 Heading into the lock!

The ship is continuing to inch forward ever-so-slowly. Once in, the locks close and water fills the lock, bringing the ship to the height of Lake Superior's "higher" waters.

Day 8: Our next stop was Mackinac and Traverse City, MI. We crossed over the Mackinac bridge and touched our feet in cold Lake Huron. We decided not to "do" Mackinac Island this trip because we felt we'd done enough. Also, we felt like that would make for a nice, leisurely family road trip vacation in the future. You know, with kids. Sometimes we reserve things because it feels right. This one felt right. Mackinac Island reminds me very much of Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. I've been there by ferry and by plane (thanks to my pilot friend, Nic Grillo). It's a touristy island and it's fun to hit up for a day trip. And it's especially nice with kids because they get the boat experience and to be on an island. Plus, I can just picture the strollers and ice-cream eating little ones on the island. It wasn't our time. We wait.

Also, we chose not to visit Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore this time around, either. We'll do so when we're back visiting Mackinac Island. I was not about to get back on another boat! We felt like we'd seen so much and that visiting the rocks would be perfect with kids, too.

Getting credit for Lake Huron...

 Driving over Mackinac Bridge

Traverse City was the coolest little city we'd been to in all of Michigan so far-- or the entire Midwest, I think! It was a bit of a hippie town with eclectic shops and great restaurants and shopping. It reminded us so much of Sonoma, California or anywhere in Colorado. We love that culture. Hence the reason we have tentative plans to retire in the Pacific Northwest someday. I'm kind of a hippie chick and quite enjoy the relaxed vibe you get amongst the heavily pierced, organic foods, hemp bracelets, and nature. Anyone get what I'm saying? We stuck around for a street fair they were having and had some delicious pizza. Anyway, we have NO photos of Traverse City except of an old insane asylum turned loft apartments and businesses. The insane asylum was established in 1885 and is gorgeous! Some investor bought it up after being closed for a long time and about half of the remaining buildings have been restored and are currently in use. There are still quite a few in disrepair. Loft apartments are going for $400k-$700k from what we saw-- and while they are beautiful, our concern was that there are a bunch of (still) dilapidated buildings around and no guarantee money won't run out. Who wants half of their living complex to be run-down?

Here's an aerial shot: 

Here are some photos I took while there... mostly of the areas still in disrepair.

 Old (left), New (right)

Day 9: We attempted to save a little cash by staying overnight (day 8-day 9) somewhere other than Traverse City. We found a little town, Cadillac and explored a bit there before calling it a night. The next morning we headed to Grand Rapids to check out the city but only managed to step foot into the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum of which we refused to pay the admittance fee and left. C'mon. There are so many more cooler Presidential Museums we want to see and Ford's was definitely not going to be our first on the list. He wasn't even elected formally for crying out loud. ;) Simple justifications for being cheapskates. And honestly, we didn't really think they'd have anything cool to show us-- unlike Reagan's that has Air Force One!

We then scooted our way to Kalamazoo and explored their town and their Panera Bread. Mmm good. This is where our road trip really started coming to a close. We decided that instead of just parking ourselves in another hotel, we'd head home and stash the cash for another weekend adventure sometime soon. We felt that 9 days was good enough for R&R. Not that we were ready to be back in civilization and reality just yet, but because another vacation just sounded so great.

So here we are, back.