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Where did July go?

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It's been a whirlwind month, and I can't believe the summer is half over!

Marching Band is officially in session, which means that we no longer see Ava. Well, that's not true. We'll see her late at night, and then sometimes on the weekends. But, for the most part, if she's not doing band things, she's working, or hanging out with her friends or her boyfriend. 

I have been spending a lot of time with G, mostly because he's the only kid at home! The weekend of July 10 was a mini-vacay for me, G, and my mom. I decided that it wasn't fair that Ava got to go on trips to NYC and Chicago for mom/daughter trips (me, my mom, and Ava) when she was younger, so earlier this summer I thought it would be cool to check out Milwaukee and Madison. We didn't need to hop on a plane, which allowed us some flexibility with travel.

Day 1, Thursday, July 10

We headed out to Milwaukee, but had to make a stop in Rochester to get a torque check done on my tires. I got new tires put on Tuesday night, and they advised me to stop in for a torque check after I had driven at least 25 miles, but no more than 100. Super fun to figure that out when you're planning on a road trip to a different state! But it worked out - we hit Rochester right around the 95-mile mark, and then we were on the way.

Once we checked into the hotel in downtown Milwaukee, we explored the area by the hotel, hit up a smokehouse restaurant for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel to call in a night after a long day of driving.

Excited for the new "lil McDonald's" Happy Meal toys


A cool building by our hotel in downtown Milwaukee


Doc's Smokehouse


So many bottles!


Lots of Harleys in downtown Milwaukee that weekend!


Day 2, Friday, July 11

After breakfast in the hotel, we made a plan to see some sights! We headed over to Lake Michigan, and spent several hours at Discovery World. The first side that we went to was all tech stuff, and it was really hands-on and engaging. After lunch in their café, we explored their aqua side, which was all about the Great Lakes, boats, and an aquarium. It was much calmer than the tech side, and rounded out the afternoon nicely. It was downpouring when we left so we opted to take an Uber back to the hotel, which gave us a little bit more time to relax before dinner.

We decided to walk alongside the Milwaukee River on our way to dinner, and it was very pleasant. We saw multiple boats on the river, found the "Bronze Fonz", and ended up at The Safe House for our dinner. We had to figure out where the front door was (a riddle) and then we all had to do the Chicken Dance to enter. The restaurant was super cool! It's spy-themed, and there was a scavenger hunt to explore the entire restaurant space. I know there are so many things that we didn't see, so I think we'll have to go back! To exit, we had to go into a phone booth, and enter a secret code to open up a different door. It was such a neat experience and I'm so glad we checked it out.

Relaxing for a few min in the hotel room before we continued our adventures


So many Harleys at the hotel


Crossing the Milwaukee River



We made it to the lakefront!


Hi, Lake Michigan!


Milwaukee Art Museum


Entering the tech side of Discovery World


Laying down on a rotating "bed"...


...and this was one of many designs that we looked up into!









Heading into the aqua side...much more calm. This is a model of the five Great Lakes, and a room where we controlled the weather. We made it rain, fog, and then had a huge storm roll in!


Superior!



Sound stage for the Harley festival in the distance...


On a hanging boat


The aquarium



Piranha


Axolotl!


Tree frogs


That's me on the left!


Taking a break with some founders


The "Bronze Fonz"



In The Safe House


We made it out alive!


The front door riddle...this was not the front door!



This made me think of Scott


Enjoying the River Walk on the way home from dinner




More Harleys!



Day 3, Saturday, July 12

We enjoyed one last walk by the river before we checked out and headed to Madison!



It was only supposed to take about an hour to get to Madison, but there was a car accident on the interstate, so we ended up being delayed by almost an extra hour. Once we made it to downtown Madison, with the hopes of taking a tour of the capitol, we realized there was a HUGE art fair taking place, and there wasn't much parking available. So, we hit up a mall on the way to the hotel, and did some exploring instead. After we checked into the hotel, we headed to Thrill Factory, which was a super fun arcade! We had dinner at a tiki restaurant, and then spent the next hour+ playing skee-ball, shooting hoops, and a variety of arcade games. G won enough tickets that he brought home some gifts for a few friends, as well as a blanket in the shape of a cookie.

Our hotel in Madison was quiet and clean, which was the opposite of our hotel in Milwaukee. It was a blessing not to hear city noise outside of our window. (All told, it was still more quiet than our trip to Indy last fall!)



On Sunday we were all ready to head home, and get back to our normal routine. G had a super fun field-trip camp week, where he saw a bunch of his friends each day. Ava worked and did marching band stuff. I worked and worked and worked some more. So did Scott!

But then on Friday, I took the day off to spend it with G...it's become a tradition for me to take the Friday off of field-trip camp week, and we spend the day together. We got his haircut, went to Caribou for breakfast, went to Aldi, stopped at the library to have him pick out his summer reading program earned book, and then we headed to the Mall of America. We were THRILLED to see that a new Flyover experience was just released on Friday: Flyover Norway! It was our favorite so far (we've seen America, Hawaii, Africa...and are always on the lookout for when new ones come to the MoA.) 

He and I went to the revolving sushi restaurant for lunch (gotta take Ava there next) and the LEGO store. And then we walked around and did a tiny bit of shopping. I had a yoga class at 4pm, so we came home for that, and then had a pizza dinner with Scott and Ava.






Eating HUGE chocolate-dipped marshmallows


Saturday morning kicked off Leprechaun Days with the waffle breakfast at Fire Station #1...I ran into a few friends there so it was nice to say hi! After a quick trip to return a loaner car to the dealership (my car needed an alignment after getting new tires) G and I then stopped at the RHSMB annual car wash to support the kids. And after that busy morning, I came home and took a quick nap on the couch. I'm looking forward to a quiet night, with hopefully some good sleep!

Ava leaves for band camp on Monday morning, so we'll be down to just G next week. In a few years, that'll be him, too!

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