our trip to America's Dairyland

So, now that we've been back for just under 1 MONTH, I'm making this post happen...

in mid-August, Andy and I headed out to Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin? you might ask. Well, way back in 2006, when I was studying abroad in Ecuador, two of my fellow classmates met on the trip and started dating. Since our whole group was there when they got together, we were all invited to their wedding in Wisconsin. Although it would have been wonderful to have the whole group together again, only myself and one other from the group of 14 were able to make it.

We left the house very early on Thursday morning, got to the airport, boarded our plane from the tarmac, and then it started POURING. and we were delayed. and we missed our connection in Cleveland. So we were re-booked from Cleveland to Milwaukee to Madison instead of just Cleveland to Madison. We hung around the Cleveland airport for a while, lugging our bags around, eventually made it to Milwaukee, and only about 4 hours behind schedule we made it to Madison. (In my personal opinion, Milwaukee was a crappy airport--we had to leave the 'secured' area to get our tickets for the third flight, which was from a different airline, and then had to go through security again. And dump out the water bottle I had purchased at the Philly airport--UGH).

Anyway, we arrived, exhausted and cranky--and eventually went to find some food. Now, I really wanted to explore and visit the quintessential local fare. So we went to The Old Fashioned, and I had one of the most ridiculously delicious sandwiches ever. Grilled Wisconsin Cheddar Cheese with bacon and roasted red pepper, with a huge pile of onion strings (I read they were the best in Madison!), complemented by a local hard cider. YUM.

After consuming half of it (and saving the rest for later), we went for a walk to get a feel for Mad-Town. We walked over to Monona Terrace (this is our 2nd Frank Lloyd Wright building we've visited--the first was Fallingwater out in southwestern PA way back in 2008). The sun was setting, and they had just lit up the capitol building, and it was beautiful! We sat on the Terrace just looking out over Lake Monona, watching the boats drive around.

The next day, we ate breakfast at the Marigold Kitchen (delicious) and I had planned for us to walk out to Picnic Point, through the UW-Madison campus. It was probably about a 6-7 mile round trip walk. It was a beautiful preserve along Lake Mendota that then went past some beautiful campus buildings, and eventually back into preserve again on this very thin peninusla that provided wonderful views of Madison. On our walk back, we stopped and had lunch at the famous Memorial Union (which came highly recommended from a wonderful friend, Dr. Mookie).

We met up with the bride and groom to be on the eve of their wedding at the Great Dane Pub, and we consumed a couple beers and the cheese and artichoke dip (another recommendation from the fabulous Dr. Mookie). More yum. (I was eyeing up the cheddar mac that some other people got, though!)

The following day, we had breakfast at the Sunprint Cafe (mmm bacon egg and cheese sandwich), we met up with Noah and Rachael (Noah was from the Ecuador group), and Rachael is his wife. They were on the last leg of their 5 week long honeymoon, and heading back to their new home in Boulder. ADORABLE couple. I bought some cheese to take home at Fromagination on the Square, and we enjoyed the Dane County Farmer's Market (which was HUGE, and kept people shuffling along in a counterclockwise fashion around the capitol square). I tried some cheese curds, DELICIOUS cheesecake, fresh sliced tomatoes, and so much more. 

We had some leftovers at the hotel for lunch, had some ice cream at the Chocolate Shoppe on State Street. (It's America's Dairyland--now that I've had lots of cheese, I had to have ice cream). I got their signature Zanzibar Chocolate with peanut butter topping, peanut butter cups, etc.Andy got something green (maybe pistachio?) I don't know. I was too engrossed in my sundae.

We took a nap after all that and then it was time for the wedding. Held at the lovely Orpheum Theater on State Street, it was a beautiful ceremony. Something I really liked that they did was they passed around the rings for the entire group to touch and send their blessing, as everyone had touched their lives in some way.

 

Nicole & Alex (her dress was handmade by her aunt!)

the adorable Rachael and Noah (quite the dancers!)

we partied and danced until I was about to pass out (around 11:30, I think), went back to our hotel room and slept until it was time to go to brunch in the AM. After saying goodbye to Noah/Rachael, and Alex/Nicole, we headed off on our next adventure. We walked through the other side of the UW-Madison campus towards the Henry Vilas Zoo. We passed the Orpheum, which still had the message for Alex & Nicole (So far so good)--since they were officially married last year, and then wanted to have the wedding ceremony/party for friends and family.

The zoo was pretty awesome for being a free zoo! It was about a 3 mile walk to get there, but I need to work off all of the cheese that I had consumed so far. We saw some really cool animals like a badger (of course, the UW mascot), capybaras, an alligator snapping turtle, etc.

We decided to call a cab to get ourselves some food, since we were hungry, and I really wanted that cheddar mac at the Great Dane, so that's where we went. It was DELICIOUS.


It was our last night, and I had also been keeping an eye on the grasshopper ice cream at The Old Fashioned, so we got some of that for dessert (it's got creme de menthe in it, so I got carded to get ice cream), over a brownie, to go, and took it to Monona Terrace. It was a great last night in Madison, a city I really enjoyed. 

(The trip home went off without a hitch--we did have to take a propeller plane from Madison to Cleveland! It was pretty crazy!)


Hopefully I'll be better about posting for my next vacation!! :)

#13 Promised Land State Park

It's been almost a YEAR since we added a new PA State Park to our list. I know, ridiculous. We really like camping on the 4th of July weekend, and it gives us a good excuse to check out a new park each year. 

We had chosen #13 as Promised Land SP (Greentown, PA, in the Poconos) as we had planned to camp with two other couples. We wanted to visit a park that was close to the other couples and that had activities that everybody would enjoy: hiking, boating, fishing. Well, the plan fizzled out (partially over the course of the weekend, due to work commitments and illness). So Andy and I camped on our own. 

there's our spaceship tent!

On Friday, we set up, got organized, and drove around the park to check out the different areas (day use beach, boat launches, trailheads, etc). It's a big park, so there was a lot to see just by car!

On Saturday, we went for a 3-4 mile hike in the AM. The first part was a mountain bike/hiking trail, and was VERY muddy. The next section of the hike was a horse/hiking trail (watch out for road apples!), which apparently is not used very often. We were essentially bushwhacking through trees, shrubs, ferns, and the occasional raspberry bush (read: thorns). There were a couple small stream crossings (less than 5 feet across), and then we reached this:

We had to cross this stream--no bridge, nothing. Good thing we were wearing our Chacos! Once we crossed the stream here, we were in the home stretch, and going past the waterfalls! I had carried my DSLR & tripod for 3 miles in anticipation and hadn't take it out once. Unfortuantely, the light was not good, so I didn't get any good pictures. It was beautiful though!


We headed back to our site, had some lunch, and was near ready to pass out. We decided to head to the day use area and lay down under the sun for a bit. Andy wanted to go fishing, so that was going to push dinner later, so we stopped at the unofficial camp store and got some ice cream! We got out our kayaks and fishing poles, and headed to the Lower Lake (that was where our campground was too--there are nearly 500 camping sites at this park!). We weren't catching any fish, so we decided to just paddle around. Yay kayaks!

We had a late dinner and headed to bed. Andy woke me up at 4:30am saying a storm was coming in and we should pack some things up. So we did, went to the bathroom (modern facilities just a little walk away! the tent sites were a little too close for comfort for me to use the great outdoors), and put our camp chairs in the car, and put a garbage bag around the stove. On the way back from the bathroom, I realized it was officially my BIRTHDAY!

The storm hit at around 6am and was one of the most intense thunder/lightning/rain storms I have ever been in [it did rival some good storms from my time at summer camp where we turned the picnic tables over to act as barricades from the rain]. I couldn't sleep because the rain was deafening. About two hours later the rain stopped. It drizzled on and off, but not stopping for enough time for me to decide to take my pj pants off. It started pouring again around 10:30am = time for nap. When we woke up around 12noon, the rain had stopped, and most of the campers around us had packed up and left!


We were meeting my parents for dinner at 5:30, but decided we should get ready early and find something to do indoors (like shopping!). We knew one of our favorite Poconos camping stores (Alice's Wonderland) was semi-near the park, somewhat out of the way of where we were going for dinner, but well worth a trip.

Unfortunately Alice's closed 30 minutes after we got there. Still some time to peruse the store. Luckily my parents were arriving early, so we met up with them at the Apple Valley Restaurant in Milford, PA and did some shopping around there. We had a delicious meal, and several hours together to enjoy each other's company. [My dad kept saying that he traveled over 1500 miles to be with me on my birthday] I think they were just happy to see me.

We headed back to our campsite, and the sun was out (finally!), but I wasn't yet ready to take my camera out to the waterfalls for fear another storm would start up. Even though the light was perfect. We had eaten too much food, so Andy and I walked nearly the entire campground, scoping out the RVs, pop-ups, and mansions tents.

across from our tent site

On Monday morning, I woke Andy up early because I needed to get my waterfall pictures. I think it was worth it!

We packed up our stuff, said goodbye to our site and headed home. We had a lot of washing & drying of gear to do. I thought vacations were supposed to be restful? :)

Hope you had a fabulous 4th of July weekend!

welcome to the 21st century.

i know i'm a little behind on getting with the times. (well, i was on facebook when it was only about a month old and was only open to about 7 colleges... but that's about all i got.)


i'm still using a voice & text only phone (flips open, no full keyboard, etc)... and my 90+ year old grandpa was using skype years before i was.

but i'm making my way into the 21st century. i'm always on the lookout nowadays for good deals. so i joined both groupon and living social. and i purchased my first groupon today.


well, i actually didn't purchase it, because they gave me $10 to spend on my first groupon. i bought TWO $10 (paid $5) groupons for ICE CREAM at a local shop (that i haven't tried yet, but they have some DELICIOUS peanut butter ice cream creations, so i'm sure i'll be fine). so i have $20 worth of ice cream to eat, that i paid NOTHING for. how awesome is that?


i mean, they've got a lot of cool things on there, but although i would love to go on a hot air balloon ride, i don't really want to spend that money right now. but ice cream is something i can take care of.


have you purchased any groupon/living social/etc deals before? what deal did you get?

weekend re-cap

lucky me! i got to spend both saturday and sunday with my wonderful boyfriend. this doesn't typically happen january - october due to his work schedule, which often requires him to work on one or both weekend days. and i just love spending time with him. that's why we're together, isn't it? :)

this weekend was filled with delicious foods that i shouldn't have eaten. we went out to dinner on friday to one of our favorite restaurant chains, and i got some tasty ice cream after dinner (hunka chunka PB fudge with peanut butter topping). on saturday, we went for a 2.5 hour walk at a local park, had lunch at another local favorite that makes organic thin crust pizza, and then had some dessert--a loaded brownie covered in peanut butter cups and peanut butter & chocolate sauce. mmmm....


the chores got done, and we got to spend time together. and after all the salad i've been eating recently, i deserved some chocolate and peanut butter.

in other good news, i got rid of 4-5 boxes this weekend. i'm re-claiming some of my space after we've lived here for over a year now! :)

hope your weekend was good!

sometimes, you just need some chocolate.

i was at work yesterday, and was having serious chocolate withdrawl. i've been trying to eat healthier (i'm starting to feel like a rabbit with all the salad i've been eating), so now that we're out of the holiday season, i'm not eating as much chocolate. 

but i loooooove chocolate. so, i decided to take a walk to the convenience store by work and get some chocolate. and i loooooove peanut butter and chocolate. aka Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are my life.

 

now, i have recently been pursuaded to try Snickers Peanut Butter by someone who is trying to convert me to Mars products instead of Hershey's. Snickers PB is pretty good, but I love me some Reese's. [The store was out of Snickers PB, I was planning to buy both, so I bought Peanut Butter M&Ms instead, still supporting Mars]

[do you know how hard it was to take one bite and then take a picture rather than scarfing down that whole peanut butter cup in 1 millisecond? now that's self-control]