Seize the Day

Last weekend, Eric and I took a trip without Oliver. Grandma came into town to watch the boy while Eric and I took some time to ourselves for a trip up to Milwaukee. And boy did we make the most of it. It was a great trip and we packed in tons of fun.

We hit the road around 9:15 and arrived by 10:45. Amazingly there was no traffic. And I had no idea Milwaukee was so close. Such an easy drive. Plus, the weather was gorgeous, so it made for really pleasant travel.

Right away, we headed for the Jan Livens exhibit at the Milwaukee Museum of Art. Wow that's one impressive building. Seriously world class. The special exhibit was very impressive, too. We were frequently reminded of our time spent in Amsterdam. Back pre-baby, when we could swing International travel without thinking twice. After touring the exhibit, we sat down with a cup of coffee from the cafe and watched these really good classical guitar players. It was a perfect break and the view was great -- overlooking the lake and lakefront path out of these huge windows. I'm telling you, this museum is really worth seeing. We'll definitely be back.

After the museum, we consulted the trusted iPhone for not-to-be-trusted directions to the Milwaukee Public Market, We love a market and this one had all the pickin's: cheese, beer, wine, spices, middle eastern food, bakeries, grills, butchers, sweet shops, delis. We consumed a gourmet sandwich, traditional hummus, and of course some Wisconsin-brewed beers, and took our cheese and cookies to go. Yum! (Peanut Butter Buddy = homemade peanut butter cookie, topped with smooshed peanut butter cup and dipped in dark chocolate. OMG!)

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After the Market, we rushed over to Lakefront Brewery to grab the last tour of the day, but unfortunately it was sold out. This left us drinking $4, not-as-delicious-as-I-remember-it, Cream City pale ale out of undersized plastic cups in an oversized room with cafeteria-like tables. A little disappointing, but we could almost imagine what fun the beer garden along the river might be like in the summertime.

Then we made the tough call of whether to commit to staying overnight or to drive home. Honestly, it had been a full day already, but we decided to stick it out -- I mean how often do we get "us" time anyway -- and I'm so glad we did.

We checked into the lovely (sarcastic) and reasonably priced (not sarcastic) Hampton Inn & Suites downtown just long enough to sit down for a few minutes and consult the trusted iPhone again. Flixter, the iPhone movie app, found us a theatre close by with a movie starting in 30 minutes. Gotta love technology, right?

So we headed over to the East End (I think that's what the bartender called it -- or maybe East Side -- whatever) to see Gomorrah, an Italian mafia movie. It was pretty good. Not great, as the reviews would have you believe.

Then we bellied up to the bar in the dark corner pub called Von Trier, where the bartender served us pretzels, a Bell's Winter White and directed us to one of two spots for dinner, which was a good thing because half a sandwich and a couple dips of hummus really weren't holding me.

We opted for pub food for dinner. When in Wisconsin... ya know? Hooligan's Super Bar had a great selection of beer. We opted for the Alpha King (odd choice since we were in Wisconsin and it's brewed in Indiana, but we had the gal pull us a sample of the Cream City from her tap and found it to not be any better). In addition to beer and food, they had satellite trivia, which we played a few round of, Eric renaming himself to "Wayne" for the occasion. Whatever.

While still embarrassingly early for a Saturday night, after Hooligan's we were pretty spent so called it a night. The next morning we grabbed the tail-end of the complimentary breakfast and headed home. We were home by noon unpacking our cheese haul and playing with The Monk.

It was a very fun trip and I'm so glad we were able to go. Many thanks to Grandma for watching Oliver -- who she said was a perfect angel while we were gone. Doubtful, but I'm glad she sees it that way.

Your Baby's First Year of Life - Week 52

The second you find out you're pregnant you sign up for these weekly updates from online magazines and mommy sites so you can monitor all those tiny developments like getting eyelashes and having identifiable private parts, all the while devouring your What to Expect book that lives on your nightstand.

Then, eventually, you have the baby and you move on to the second volume of What to Expect, which keeps your attention for maybe the first 6 weeks when you discard the seemingly common-sense advice. But, the emails, they keep coming. Who has time to unsubscribe with a 6-week-old to take care of? Mostly you skim them now, not following the links from the teasers to the more in-depth content. Then one day you get the one called "Your Baby's First Year of Life - Week 52." Week 52? What? How can that be?

It's true, though, this week is Oliver's 52nd week. The little diablo will be uno en January 8. (Sorry for the Spanglish, I read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao on vacation where the two languages were commonly interchanged.)

We aren't going to do too much for his big day. Just a family dinner on the Thursday, then a pizza with family and a few friends on Sunday. Oliver is hoping to take his Stroller Strides girlfriends out to lunch next week, too, but all-in-all it should be a quiet one. (Well, I guess three events isn't exactly "quiet" but in the whole Elmo-and-Dora scheme of things, pizza is quiet.)

And quiet is good.

We just got back from a very active vacation -- a 10-night Eastern Carribean Cruise! It was great to spend a lot of individual and extended family time (but more on all of our adventures at sea later when I get the hundreds of Oliver photos downloaded from our camera).

Also on the docket for blog later (blater?) is some sort of Year in Review effort. I've been thinking that I should try to do a little catch-up on the blog since I didn't start until September and he had 8-9 months of life prior that went entirely without commentary. The audacity!

So, visit often, comment more, and have a happy new year!

A Dragon Lives in Michigan

This past weekend was our second annual trek to Saugatuck to see the fall colors and spend a weekend in the small tourist-friendly Michigan town. Eric and I went last year when I was pregnant and were excited to engage in the Fall Festival activities at a different level this year. As it turned out, we spent most of our time in bars, as the gift shops and craft booths got a little old and the outdoor festivities got a little cold. BUT in any case, Oliver was a hit in his dragon costume throughout. We're not typically "Halloween people," but something about a kid in a furry suit gives it some appeal.

Our fun started on Thursday, when I my sister Danielle and her able, helping hands arrived from California to come on the trip with us. Friday was spent packing (a feat seriously underestimated by my husband) and driving (amazingly decent traffic for a Friday). The leaves were pretty along the way, but it was a little overcast, so not nearly as magnificent as they were when we drove around on Sunday while Oliver napped in the car.

First thing we did when we got there was go to the "Whatever we do, I'm not going to that horrible bar across from the hotel" place. Turns out that when you're not pregnant and people are not smoking, a bad bar becomes a great bar with excellent draught selection and a pretty decent menu. In fact, we returned toThe Boathouse on at least three more occassions and an attempted fourth. Oliver was a terror that night, not going to sleep until 10 p.m. and waking up pretty much every two hours thereafter.Ugh.
So we weren't especially well rested for Saturday, the big event. Oh well, such is life with a baby... We started with breakfast at thediner across the street from our hotel, then it was naptime, so Danielle put The Monk to bed and Eric and I did the touristy shops, where I bought a book and some cards by Brian Andreas, who writes these cool little vingette story poems that actually touched me, even though I'm not normally very schmoopy. We also bought ourselves some toasty warm hats to get us through the inevitable winter.

As we tooled around town all day, we were continually running into this group of women organized into teams who were doing a scavenger hunt. Seemed like a lot of fun, so we got involved where we could and I ended up having a woman eating a banana while sitting on my shoulders. Turns out they were all staying at our hotel, so we hung out in the community room with them while they did the final scavenger hunt counts and round-ups. Nice ladies. Great idea for the scavenger hunt. I might have to try something similar sometime.

By the time Eric and I were done exploring on our own Saturday morning, Oliver woke up, it was time to don the Dragon costume, to drink an afternoon beer, to cruise through the craft booths, and to do more shopping and time killing until the parade. Was a good time. Everything is just funnier when you have a 9-month-old dressed as a Dragon in tow. The Halloween Parade in Saugatuck is exactly two blocks long and we joined just at the end, but had a good time anyway. (We managed to miss the Adult Halloween Parade in nearby Douglas that night, but that's really another story.)

After the parade, we stayed out and about and tried to tire out our little Dragon, which seemed to work pretty well. A highlight of the tiring out was a trance induced by a Barry White "karaoke" number -- see the 2:00+ minute video of said Dragon watching a musician at The White House Bistro -- HILARIOUS. We were grateful for the Dragon costume for keeping the little guy toasty throughout the day because it was pretty dang chilly.

Saturday night Eric and I went out to Douglas and I got my face painted like a pumpkin and drank more beer. No surprise there.

The next morning, we packed it up and headed out of town. First to Douglas's Kalico Kitchen for some breakfast buffet -- grits and biscuits and ham and eggs and potatoes and not a piece of fruit in sight. Then, of course, we had to stop at Crane's Pie Pantry for some PIE and CRISPS. Yum! But before pie, of course, we had to drive around so Oliver could finish his snooze, so we detoured and saw some seriously awe-inspiring leaves. The sun was shining so brightly and the colors were super. We stopped at a lakeside park, too, and took turns bundling up and walking down to the beach where the waves were big and the gusts of wind even bigger. Good times!

On the way home, we stopped at a Halloween USA to get our costumes for the big party next weekend, but more on that later. And that's about it.

Sorry for the length of this posting and the play-by-play nature, but in addition to broadcasting updates to all of you through this blog, it also serves as diary / journal for me, so I'll need to come back to this next year when I start questioning the expense and the hassle of a roadtrip to Michigan. As it turns out, it's all worth it and I'm sure we'll do it again -- hopefully with Aunt Danielle again because that made it all that much more fun!