While we were blessed to have coordinating spring break schedules this year, our time off of school in the summer was unfortunately limited to a mere 5 days. Determined to make the best of it, we scheduled a packed long weekend of activities and adventures starting immediately after my last final exam on Wednesday morning up until late Sunday afternoon.
After a stressful morning of pulmonology, we headed out to the Wisconsin State Fair with two of our good friends. Jonny and I went to the fair last year and enjoyed pig races and giant cream puffs, but we were mostly preoccupied with meeting classmates and making new friends. This year, I wanted to fully experience all that the fair had to offer!
We started the afternoon watching an amazing sea lion show (who knew that sea lions could do a one-flipper hand stand and throw frisbees…) and browsing the mind-boggling options of foods-on-a-stick offered at every turn. I forced our party to accompany me through the stalls housing cows, sheep, goats, and chickens, and we spent a good 30-45 mins watching the slow progress of a hatching chick in the incubator. For dinner, we snacked on the elusive spiralized potato (that we failed to find last year), delicious roasted corn, spaghetti-and-meatballs-on-a-stick, (more like tiny spaghetti pieces stuffed into meatballs) and a reuben sandwich on a pretzel bun. We ended the evening with an entertaining stunt dog show and stomaches too full for the famous cream puff.
The next morning we headed up north to Green Bay for the Packers’ first preseason game! Neither of us are big football fans, but we figured that visiting iconic Lambeau Field was a necessary requirement of our stint in Wisconsin. Wanting to fully embrace the experience, we stopped by an outlet mall on the way up and purchased some green and yellow gear for the game! In our hours to spare, we also stopped by the Bay Beach Amusement Park and wildlife sanctuary to ride the Zippin’ Pippin wooden roller coaster (for only a dollar!) and animal-watch.
Even though I find it very difficult to watch football without the TV’s helpful yellow and blue lines, the game was fun and the crowd was energetic! Two of our friends joined us, and we had a great time exploring the stadium, cheering for first downs, and doing the wave with the other 75,000 fans in attendance. The Packers won 31-17 against the Tennessee Titans, and Jonny made us miss a beautiful touchdown pass because he was trying to show me a girl that had a popcorn bucket on her head a few rows up.
The next morning we headed even farther up north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to explore Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. When we arrived in the UP, however, our first order of business was to try a pasty (pronounced past-ee not paste-y), an iconic food of the region with historical roots dating back to the 1800s. This portable meat pie (similar to an empanada) was brought over by Cornish and Finnish immigrant laborers who came to the UP for copper mining. It was delicious and served with a generous portion of thick gravy and creamy coleslaw. After lunch we did some hiking, chased some waterfalls, and then set up camp and enjoyed our dinner of roasted sausages, corn, and s’mores!
The next morning we ate a nourishing breakfast of cup-of-noodles and headed out for a full day of kayaking and hiking on the Lake Superior shoreline. Though it was a long and tiring 10-mile, 5-hour paddling adventure, the sandstone cliffs were incredible and beautifully “painted” with streaks of color from different mineral stains seeping out from the rock. Iron produced red and orange, copper produced the blue and green, manganese produced the brown and black, and limonite produced the popping streaks of white. We paddled through a majestic arch, explored multicolored sea coves, decorated our faces with naturally produced “war paint”, and shimmied through a narrow rock formation in our sleek sea kayak.
![the one who does all the work sits in the back =]](https://grablifebythehorngs.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/untitled-15.jpg?w=556&resize=556%2C417&h=417#038;h=417 "DCIM100GOPROGOPR1128.JPG")
When we arrived back in town, we were exhausted and had very sore shoulders. We enjoyed some ice cream and live music at a local cafe/bookstore, watched the sunset over Lake Superior, and turned in for a good nights sleep.
The last thing on our itinerary was to try Booyah, an iconic northeastern Wisconsin food (according to the internet’s various infographics). This hearty chicken stew is thought to have Belgian origins, the name perhaps a misspelling of “boullion”, and provided a very cost-effective way to feed large amounts of people for large gatherings and fundraisers. It was also a delicious snack during our 5 hour drive back to Milwaukee!
The 5 days passed quickly, but it was an amazing time of fun and refreshment after the hardest, most mentally exhausting semester of school I have ever done!
grablifebythehorngs 