Cue the muzak (Girl from Impanema), we’ve put everyone on hold for a couple of weeks while we dashed off to the Midwest for a family wedding and some family visits.

We packed up the boat (Trip with tears in his eyes) in Rockland, rented a car and headed for home. Lennie barely gave us the time of day at the door, with a casual glance of ‘did you bring chicken?’, though he came around slowly for snuggles and cuddles later. Our house/petsitter had left the house in far better shape than we keep it – we almost didn’t recognize the place! Over the next day and half we ran errands, went through old mail, visited with friends and packed up again to hit the road.

Milwaukee Art Museum

Lady’s Room at the Safe House – alarm rings in the bar when you get too close!

Our first stop was Milwaukee for my cousin Meghan’s wedding. Milwaukee is a great city that has worked hard at revitalizing itself and it shows – I highly recommend it for a visit. We were staying right on the riverfront so had a chance to walk along the river and stop by Trip’s favorite local bar (The Safe House – filled to the gills with spy memorabilia and other fun things). We checked out the historic third ward and even made it to the lakefront to see the new Frank Lloyd Wright architecture blueprints exhibit at the local art museum – made famous by architect Calatrava – the top of the building looks like birds (or a manta ray) wings and it opens and closes on the hour, weather permitting.

Menu at the Safe House

Bride Meghan and Olivia

 

 

The wedding was lovely (how often is the groom’s friend an ordained priest who can make the ceremony personal????), the reception fantastic. I’d like to point out that the two that stole the show on the dance floor were my nephew Charlie and my cousin’s daughter Olivia – you simply can’t compete with two or three year olds.

A far smaller group got together Sunday morning for brunch, and then we headed off to Madison. To continue the Frank Lloyd Wright theme, we decided to head to Monona Terrace. There we met up with old friends Paul, Stef & Joe for lunch looking over the lake. Though I could have stayed to bullshit and gab all day, we all finally had to move on.
Trip and I then headed south to Janesville to spend a couple of days with my mom. We got a few projects done around the house, caught up with more friends and relatives, and even celebrated my birthday over breakfast with Trip, mom, Uncle Jim, Godmom Phyllis and her brother Sam.

Then it was off to Missouri for part two of the roadtrip! BTW, if anyone is driving south through Illinois they truly have some of the most spectacular windfarms to drive through. We even got to see the arms being trucked in for a new installation – the size is absolutely remarkable.

cuddling with Hazel

day drinking is hard work

The rest of the week was a mix of von Hoffmann, Macon & Voss families (and all their pups which sometimes outnumbered us mere mortals). We started at Brant & Wendy’s house, then headed down to the Voss farm where we were joined by Trip’s sister Paige and nephew Turner (Hailey if you ever read this you missed a good weekend!), Barb Voss, Gary Voss and his girlfriend Tammy. The boat was quickly hitched, the coolers loaded with beer and sandwiches, and chairs/towels packed into vehicles. Along with the dogs. Everything was offloaded to a gravel bar on the Gasconade River and the drinking, eating, and catching up commenced. When we had finally gone all pruney, we went back to the farm where Wendy made fabulous barbeque chicken for dinner and I had brought elk and venison burgers from a family friend hunter in Wisconsin. We finished the evening with a few hands of euchre and said good night.

The next day was pretty much lather, rinse and repeat, only the day ended a bit earlier when a typical summer Midwest storm rolled in. One of the dogs, Jackson, had the presence of mind to wander into the water and look at us all as if to say ‘don’t you think it’s time now?’ We made it just out of the water into the vehicles as the first drops of rain started.

After the Voss farm, we headed down to Sugar Tree – a place I had heard about since I met Trip and was only now getting to experience first hand. It’s a collection of cottages also on the Gasconade River where the von Hoffmann, Macon & Voss families all spent their childhood summers. I was finally getting a chance to see where it all happened.

We loaded up the boat with beer and food (does this sound familiar) and headed up river (does this sound familiar?) where we unloaded on a gravel bar to grill chicken & burgers for lunch. I’m still trying to get used to the concept of shoal runners for boating. I’m used to needing 7 feet of clear water for a minimum and being in 200 feet on a good day of Maine sailing. On the river we were screaming over just a few inches of water (rocks clearly visible) at any time – Trip’s cousin Billy is a certified genius at reading the river.

If that wasn’t enough once we got back we changed into swimsuits and headed back up river for a tube float trip. I’ve done float trips before, but this was the first one where we turned the boat loose with us. Paige tethered herself to it and we pulled it into the dock with us at the very end. After dinner we had a rousing game of boo-ray (beau-ray?) which I fully admit to winning the kitty – enough gas to fill our little rental tank for the drive home!

The next day was the first day in two weeks of non-stop rain. Instead of spending our time being disappointed about not being back on the water, we took advantage of the bad weather to catch up on poker and gin rummy, reading, and most importantly napping. You really can’t beat a good nap. Billy and Trip had a hankering to sit on the rocking chairs in the old von Hoffmann cottage (currently under renovation after the latest flood), so we topped off our cocktails, went down to the cottage, and listened to Miles Davis by candle light while the now lightning storm lit up the river periodically. Magic.

Turner and Lucie

And then it was time to drive east again. Much too short of a visit with everyone but great visit nonetheless. We made it back to Portland in a couple of days where James & Jenny fed us pizza, let us do laundry, and ease into sailboat talk again.
Since we were driving back, and had to go through Route 1 anyway, I decided that Trip needed to experience Reds Eats – home of the mountainous lobster roll. Even on a rainy midweek day the line extended from the order window around the corner and down the block. Their quality is good, but it’s the quantity you really can’t beat – a monster pile up of lobster that you have to eat with a fork before you can even attempt holding it as a sandwich.

Lobstah Rolls at Reds