Late dinner

Here we are in Mad Town (talking like
a local already) doing our part to save
the US economy. Tonight we're headed
out to dinner at L'Etoile, one of the
country's top "farm-to-plate"
restaurants. They specialize in locally
grown ingredients from the heartland.

Our reservations are for 8:15, which is
9:15 our time. Ok, that's not really that
late, except that we're usually wrapping
dinner up around 6:00 to keep the
hungry little chickens back at home happy.

Obligatory visit to local Irish pub

The Guinness isn't quite as dark in Mad Town
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Cheese curds

Ok eating our first batch of cheese curds and loving them. Did I mention they were fried cheese curds? Yum
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Off to Madison!

Ali and I just boarded a tiny plane at National airport, bound for Madison
Wisconsin! This trip was a surprise birthday present for Ali. I know,
Madison isn't exactly Paris, but the Forward Music Fest is this weekend and
the Detroit Cobras and Dexter Romweber (along with two dozen other bands)
will be playing.

The kids are looking forward to their sleepover weekend at Mimi and
Grandpa's, and we're slowly adjusting to a kid-free weekend. While waiting
for our plane at the airport, we had coffee, read the whole paper and I
refinanced our mortgage over the phone. With kids, that all would have
taken three or four days.

Ok, ready for takeoff!

Three Musketeers Outing

We had fun yesterday catching up with Jake's buddies, Rachel and Jocelyn. After a snack at Rachel's house, we all went over to Cabin John Park to play and ride the train.

Here they are on the engine. The conductor was very focused on keeping his train on schedule and finally agreed to let us take a quick picture as long we agreed to "make it snappy."

Sadie loved the train ride! Big smiles and lots of pointing. And, we saw a deer!


I'll be sad when the kids are too old to be convinced to make any pose for my amusement.


More pictures...