When in the Cheese State... (Wisconsin, Part 1)

Kelvin and I traveled to the Midwest again (his first time in Wisconsin!) to attend my cousin Ryan's wedding. Since the kids were in school, we let them stay at home with super babysitter, Gloria, and spent the 1.5 days prior to the wedding exploring Eastern Wisconsin adult-style. 

Appleton has Vietnamese food!

We checked out the nearby (larger) town of Appleton via Segway, which was neat!  The last time we were on Segways was in 2011 (Costa Rica) and the company owner/ guide gave us a brief refresher. 

The tour took us along the Fox River, which was an important North-flowing river which helped the area's paper mills thrive, and through which barges could get to Lake Michigan.

The fall colors were lovely!

We learned that Appleton is claimed as the hometown of Harry Houdini (although he only lived here for a year).

This house was majorly decked out for Halloween! 

My parents (who drove from Virginia) joined us on Thursday and, on Friday, we drove about 45 minutes from New London to Green Bay, home to the Packers football team!  Kelvin booked a tour at Lambeau Field, which, although we are (now) Niners fans, and my Minnesota-native Dad continues to (I think) root for the Vikings, was really interesting.

Cheese head!

We learned about the early history of the team, founded by Curly Lambeau, as well as the amazing coach Vince Lombardi (for whom the Superbowl trophy is now named), who turned a losing team into multiple-year Superbowl Champions in the sixties.

The Stadium (and scoreboards!) is HUGE! And the metal bleachers come down very close to the field, which is unique among NFL Football stadiums.

 

My Dad remembers watching the historic (freezing) "Ice Bowl" in 1967 in which QB Bart Starr, snuck across the goal line with 13 seconds left to beat the Dallas Cowboys.

Go, Pack, Go! 

"Hall of Fame" Club

"The Yankees of Football"

Football Art 

Visitors' Locker Room

"The tunnel" 

Close up to the uniquely grown grass

We heard there was a Solar Eclipse on the 14th, but alas didn't see anything much from outside our hotel room...

From a Humboldt Friend:

Part 2 (Family time & Wedding) coming up!  

All the Fall (things)

We had some crazy "Indian Summer" weather last week, with temps in the mid-eighties, which is nearly unheard of on the NorCal coast (especially in October!).

Thankfully, it's cooled back down to our 60-degree normal, and feels like "fall," my favorite season.

The kids have stayed busy with cross-country racing. Iver and Niall have both improved in their times and positions, I think finishing in second place per their grade in last week's race at College of the Redwoods (Niall completed one mile in 9:37 and Iver completed the 1.5 miles in 10:11).

This Saturday, we attended another of Iver's soccer games, in which Iver scored five (!) goals, and his team went on to win again (they're undefeated).

In the afternoon, we visited Huddie's Harvest, a local pumpkin patch.

The corn maze was TOUGH! Iver and I were a "team" and kept going around in circles.  I told the kids about visiting the World's Largest Corn Maze in Dixon, CA in 2007 (40 acres of maze!).

After about forty minutes, Kelvin and Niall led us to the exit with their voices (we had to cut through some stalks, not the real path!).

There was a scarecrow exhibition (made by local schools).

This morning, Iver baked two pumpkin pies to share with his class in school (I don't even like pumpkin pie but he's very much into baking these days). I watched/supervised while sipping tea flavored with pumpkin spice in this sweater-weather.

Happy Fall!