Annual Spring Green, Wisconsin American Players Theatre trip

It has taken me nearly a week to recover from this Year's Spring Green trip. I am getting old.

I drove from Door County to Tomah, Wisconsin to meet friends on their way to Spring Green. Tomah is the traditional stop for lunch and groceries.

The Spring Valley Inn has had a bit of a refresh with cleaned up landscaping and best of all, new mattresses.

Spring Valley Inn

enjoying the new mattresses

Saturday morning we drove to Madison to attend a Wisconsin public radio program called "What Do Ya Kmow". It is an interview and kind of game show. Dave got to be on air as he asked the host, Michael Feldman, where to get quarters for the parking garage. Michael gave Dave quarters. It was lots of fun.

We toured the farmers' market surrounding the capitol building and had lunch at a brew pub.

the gang with capitol building

David giving the quarters back to Michael Feldman.

We saw "The Importance of Being Ernst" this year. It was a beautiful, evening and a fun show. The start of the third act had to compete with a pair of whip-poor-wills sing into the woods.

picnic at APT

While I was away, I asked friends Martha and Kay to stop by my house to pick raspberries and currants and to weather the potted plants. Martha captured this photograph of Frankie.

Door County - celebration of Joan Rendall

I had the amazing good fortune of knowing Jill Rendall's mother, Joan. Joan Rendall was a classy lady who had an impact on many people including me. Her strength and care and style will inspire me the rest of my life.

The Rendall family gathered in Door County Wisconsin this past weekend to celebrate Joan's life... to share stories... to visit the sites she loved... to eat the food she really loved.

The Rendalls spent many days at their friend's home on Lake Michigan so it made perfect sense to celebrate Joan's life here. And to spread her ashes in many of her favorite places.

I had the pleasure of sharing some of that Door County in the 1990's and now again in 2014.

The weather was fantastic. Lake Michigan was incredible. An east wind blew in warm water and created waves big enough to body surf on.

The Rendall clan at Cave Point.

Wisconsin red barn

Joan's great-grandson and my buddy, Tanner.

Me, Jill and Becky having a blast in Lake Michigan.

 We had ice-cream in Ephraim and a Schaum torte in Sister Bay. Jill's dad, Dave, pointed out the locations and events that happened all over Door County.

Beautiful "found" flowers

Crazy bounty

The raspberry and currant crops this year are off the chart. I barely got past the first part of the raspberry patch and the colander was full. I didn't even have to move to get a quart container fullmof currants,

Color Run

Some how the Color Run people got this event classified as an MLB All Star event. There were probably 10,000 participants. This year it was located at the Minnesota State Fair grounds which were perfect. The State Fair grounds are set up for thousands of attendees.

Trish and I were the only Running For Brunch team members. It was a beautiful day and a fun run.

the doctors are prepped for color

post run

Trish in the kaleidoscope

Me in the kaleidoscope

Crazy fun backyard happy hour

Big THANKS shout out to Jennifer, Amy, Bunny and Loretta for throwing a super fun happy hour in the backyard last night. Happy hour is not a fair name. Tons of laughter and it lasted way over an hour.

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Kay

Rose and Michael

Jennifer

Rachel

Bike ride to Minnehaha Falls

My friend Bud and I met on the Greenway and rode over to Minnehaha Falls via West River Road.  It was a beautiful evening. Lots of folks were out and about, biking, running, skating and walking.

The falls are running fast and full from all our rain. There have been lots of photos taken of the falls this year so here is one for the blog.

Me and Bud

A July 4th Opening

Me, Rose, Amy and Dave at My Fair Lady opening at the Guthrie.

I completed my first Half-Marathon

Yes. I did it. I signed up for a half marathon race... the Red, White and Boom... part of the July 4th festivities in Minneapolis.

The race started at 6:30am! It was a beautiful day. I had not trained at all for this which was pretty stupid on my part but I decided I would not back out. I was doing this on my own without the running group.

Here I am at the start (which you can see way in the back ground). I think you can see the trepidation on my face.

There was one familiar face in the crowd. My state senator, Scott Dibble, who runs in lots of these kinds of races. He was there and very encouraging.

And here I am at the finish... having gotten a raisin roll, banana and water.

I was very very happy with my time - 2 hers 11 minutes. I came in at an overall 10 minutes per mile pace.

I admit to walking parts of the second half. I did run the entire first half, 6.5 miles.  There was an incredibly nice woman who gave me encouragement on miles 7 through 9.

Following the race when I finally stopped for a bit I got some awful cramps in my calves... especially my right calf and even up into my quads. It was fairly short-lived but painful.  Jenny and Andrew rode their bikes down to cheer me on. They just missed my finish but I was so grateful that they showed up. We had breakfast at Wilde Roast. It was fantastic.

Amy Moe birthday

Amy's birthday celebration was supposed to be on a paddlewheel boat in St. Paul but the rains and Mississippi flooding but the kibosh on that plan. So the birthday event was moved to Psycho Suzi's in Minneapolis.

Psycho Suzi's has a huge deck that over looks the Mississippi River.  Psycho Suzi's is also a Tiki bar with tiki drinks... very potent tiki drinks.