We are out of here!

We went back up to the lake, Sauk on Saturday and came home last night. It was a quick 24 hours at the lake! 

Steve cooked up some steak kabobs. We took as little as possible to the lake since we were only staying one night. Less stuff = less work. We still had plenty of stuff to bring even with out everything we normally need up there. We just didn't bring the folding table down to the lake for cooking. Steve set up on the ground to grill and the boat to cook on the stove top. We made due with what we had. 

I purchased a new traveling grill. I didn't bother to take it out of the box before we were at the lake, so it had to be assembled a little bit. That was a beginner move on my part. 

 We had a windy day on Saturday but had a really nice sunset and the wind stopped making it a calm night and really nice sunny Sunday!

 We stayed up late, looking at all the stars. Lucky for us, not any mosquitoes! Considering how much rain they received which was about 5+ inches in the last few days. The water was high (we lost more beach!) I'm sure the bugs will be extra crazy in about a week! 

 Just hanging out camping by the water. 

When taking down our big tent, one of the pole screws came out. So I will need to fix that before we leave. I also need to get some patch repair for a burn hole on the top of the tent tarp from the 4th of July fireworks /fall out! 

Felt good to be home Sunday night. Steve and I need a day to wash clothes, get stuff we need for our 2 week trip to the north shore. I'm shopping today for propane tanks, cases of water bottles, a water jug and a few more pairs of yoga pants with pockets. The kid might join us up north the last weekend for my birthday. We will see how 2 weeks of camping will work. That's the longest we will have ever camped! 

The Fonz!!!

What would a trip to Milwaukee be with out a photo with "the fonz"! We googled the street Lavern and Shirley would have lived on and drove to find it. 

 Logan and I toured the Milwaukee University campus while Steve and Celina hung out on Lake Michigan.

 Dorms are always un-impressive! The rest of the campus was nice, close to downtown and super close to the lake!

 We drove through the city and all around.

 Did a lot of river walking in downtown area.

Had a few beers along side the river. 

 Our hipcamp, 20 minutes from Down town. It was a small campsite, many to choose from and very far back for a walk to get all our things. We took the first campsite and our tent just fit. No room for a fire!

 The path to our campsite! We could hear the highway that was about a mile away really good at night! That was the only down side to this city camping! Target was just down the street, so that was extra convenient since Steve forgot his bag, with all this clothes, contact solution etc.

Nice to see these signs all around! 

 Pizza for breakfast at the City Market Place.

 River walk views

24 hours in Milwaukee was so fun!, Part 1!

We all really liked Milwaukee. I had no idea the city was so nice. It has a river that runs through down town with a nice river walk with restaurants all along. People were boating and kayaking all over the downtown area. Lake Michigan was super blue and a really nice lake drive, with beaches and parks all along the lake. 

The first Lake Michigan beach we stopped at was outside of the city. It was a natural beach. I collected lots of rock for our yard. Rocks make the best souvenir from trips! 

There was a long path down to this beach. Steve and I decided to take a short cut, up the side of the hill where it was super steep! We had to do some mountain climbing! It was kind of scary at one point. I didn't think I'd make it up! I had to pretty much crawl on all 4's. Funny, scary and a lot of bit crazy!! The worst part of the climb was the last 8 feet! Straight up, on slippery dirt with nothing much to grab on to keep me from slipping down the huge side of the hill. It was a short cut, but more than we should have done! Never again! Once we started climbing, I realized, there was no turning back. Half way up, I was regretting my decision! The kids took the path and ran to try and beat us up to the top. We would have made it, but I took extra time on the last part of that hillside trying to reach for something to grab. You'd think since I'm afraid of escalators, I'd be terrified to climb this! Well, only when I looked back! I tried not to do that! 

Lake Michigan!

Weekend update

 We spent a lot of time out on the boat this weekend on the St. Croix River. Sunday we were out there again this time just the two of us doing some fishing. We caught nothing, not even a bite! I was okay with that since I really don't care about getting any fish. 

We got off the river around 12:30 thinking a storm was moving into the area. The cell service does not work in most areas of the river. So we had to travel a little distance to get any service and figure out if we were going to get some bad weather. We didn't want to get caught out in a storm on the river. We ended up packing it up early and heading for home. Come to find out, the storms completely missed us till night time. 

After we got home from boating and everything was put away, I went to Home Depot and Menards! 

I was on a mission to find the connecting parts to convert this 1 pound propane tank to a large 20 pound one for my new table top bowl gas fire pit. Home Depot had nothing! At least I got help fast at the store so I could go across the street to Menards. Again, I lucked out and had a sales person help me find the right converter. It was pretty easy after getting some help finding the right part connections. 

I had to purchase a 20 pound propane tank which was $43! The house was about $16 dollars. I have a big investment in this little fire pit! I was also looking for some little solar lights to wrap around the front trees. I did find some on-line for $13, but will need at least 4 packages of lights. I'm still deciding on this! I want to wrap our two trees out front and think that will be enough for both trees or maybe just our river bark tree out front. I'm still deciding if I want a fire pit for out front too. Which I've pretty much decided I need this too, but would like to find on in store to see how large I need. I'm thinking just a round, small coffee table size will do. 

I like this outdoor couch I found for our deck. This would be the perfect layout and size. I just didn't like the price of $600 - $800 depending on if you had gray or tan. This looks easy enough to maybe try building myself and just paint it white. I'd like to try at least! I'm not sure how much I would save but probably should price it out first! Or maybe just order it as it's my birthday at the end of the month! 

That was a bust!

It was a very over-cast day, but that was a good thing! It would have been too hot to be out in the sun on the river. I still put on sunscreen while Steve didn't think he needed any. Wrong! Said he was burnt last night! I felt perfectly fine. 

Our river boating was going great. Steve and I got out there around 11am. Decided to park the boat and sit out on the island with all the other boaters. Steve fished and I sat in my tube and just floated. We kept getting more people pull up next to us, so Steve gave up on fishing. I was at the back of the boat and Steve decide to raise the motor. It popped my tube! I was not happy about this! So that was the end of us staying on the island. Good thing the kids were ready to be picked up, time to leave! I think the other boaters were happy to see us leave after the tube popping! 

The water is always filled with huge yachts, making big waves. Our little speed boat hits those waves hard, so we always have to slow down. Steve was going a bit too fast a few times and needless to stay, there was lots of loud screams to slow down as they were flying up in the front of the bow of the boat. It hurts the back when we land hard too! So Steve was 0 for 3 and then there was the storm, fast approaching. So we quickly headed back to the dock, got the boat out and just in time because there was rain, thunder and lightening on our drive home. Well, at least we had a good 3 hours on the river before everything went bust! 

We are going camping again! City camping that is! We are staying just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for one night. I wasn't comfortable staying in a hotel in Milwaukee when Covid numbers are 300+ per day. Good thing I found a Hipcamp listing. They are walk in sites so we won't be driving the car right next to the tent to unload. Since it's only for a night, less is best for camping supplies. We will be touring the college campus. It's just a quick trip there and home. Well, lots of driving, 5 hours to be exact! Kind of a far car ride! I am looking forward to seeing the area, but not so  much for avoiding people. We also have another week long trip planned for the north shore since South Dakota is now out! We don't need to go to a Covid hot spot after all 250K bikers leave the area to spread Covid. Here I thought that would be a good, low Covid area to visit! Nope, not after this week! 

It will be a fun day & some pros and cons.

It's looking like our Saturday is going to be a fun day on the St Croix river. It's already 72 and humid, makes for a perfect day out on the water. We'll take the boat out early and the kids will join us later. Which means I have to pack a cooler and get all the stuff we need for the day into the boat. Small bit of work to have fun. 

I've been trying to spend as much time as possible outdoors during the day. I set up my cot next to the house on our deck in the shade. I have my laptop, pillows, fan and water all right there. It would be nice to have a couch, but this works and it's functional without spending a lot more money on couches where I'd have to store cushions. This folds up quickly and doesn't take up much storage space. I set it up and bring it in every day. 

My new tabletop fire pit bowl arrived at our door step around 5:30pm last night! Finally it's here! I was super excited to get this! I opened the box right away and started to put it all together to use asap! It was too hot and sticky out for a fire, but I wanted to see how it looked. There are some pros and cons with this new fire pit bow. 

Pros, it's exactly the right size 10" for our small table because it doesn't take up too much room. I like the look and it was easy to set up for the most part. 

Cons: It uses a small 1pound propane tank and it's hard to screw the can on under the table. It won't thread easily and it took both Steve and I to do this together. Far too difficult. You also have to use a lighter instead of just turning a knob. Not a big deal but one more thing to get out when using. My other fire pit, you just turn on and use with a larger 20 pound tank stored under the table. 

It also works better at night, during the day, it's harder to see the flames. This is on low setting. It does produce a nice amount of heat. Just have to be very cautious if you have long hair around this fire pit! It's open and doesn't have glass around it. Which I thought I'd like better? 

I'm going to spend more on this fire pit bowl and get a converter to attach a larger 20 pound tank. This way we have another shut off valve and it will also fit under the table easily. So the converter part, around $8, a new gas hose $14 - $20? and a 20 pound propane tank? $30? I'm sure we will use this one a lot too! I was also considering buying another propane fire pit for out front where we sit. It would be nice to have other locations to hang out and maybe some solar lights on the trees? I'm all about having a few places to hang out and enjoy the outdoors during Covid where we are staying home! 

I'm looking forward to getting my new mask delivered. I ordered one in black and the other in dark gray. I hope this eye shield works! The reviews were 4 stars and you can't have enough masks during Covid, they are here to stay. Which reminds me, I need to start washing my masks daily and not keep re-wearing them. Or maybe just buy a 30 day supply of cloth masks so I was one time a month? I keep trying to find the perfect mask and have yet to do that. Although, I think I know what every mask needs and I just need to make my own. Maybe it's time to get out the sewing machine and teach myself how to make a mask? It can't be that difficult? 

We did this and I'm still waiting!

I wanted to make my Friday with Steve productive. We did our usual daily mile run at the park with Zoey. Then had some breakfast and was off for a 10+ bike ride. It's nice having a week day together to do stuff and extend the weekend! 

I used my new safety clear goggles for the ride since it was cloudy. They worked great! 

We made a few stops while biking, first biked by my daughter's old Town house. They are in the process of build more units across the street where there was a huge marsh/pond now filled in and have it leveled off to build multiple town houses. They moved exactly the right time! 

We rode our bikes by this field of flowers. It could be the last summer for the flowers. It looks like they are making a road next to the field and I'm sure will be building houses soon. 

We also rode past the frisbee golf course and it looked nice from what we could tell. No one there at 10am. 

We rode our bikes through this new neighborhood and checked out the little park in the back with a pond. They had a trail going around the pond. I rode on it a bit before turning around. 

Last stop was at Steve's brother's house. He is going to be putting in a fence and has some issues since they are on a corner. They can't put in a 6 ft fence since it's on the neighbor's front yard. So its now 4ft on that side and will slope up to 6ft in the back. 

I didn't wear my Garmin to let me know how many mile we rode but I've done this route enough to know it's over 10. Good enough! 

I'm all about trying new face masks. I've ordered some initially on line 2 black and 1 white, then I ordered some from a customer who made them all different fabric, I purchased a lot of different size masks and colors (red, black, navy) from Target - Which I like the best. Now I just ordered this mask with a face shield and has some little ties to make it tighter around the ears, so there isn't a gap. Maybe this will be my answer to working with eye protection and not having it fog up?