Our vacation to Wisconsin for the holiday season was cold, somewhat fun, but too long and slightly boring. We were glad to see family and to celebrate the holidays, but Mom got grumpy and Owen became ill, so we did not spend the time that we wanted to with those that we love. We did see more than our share of doctors and dentists (all planned), but next year we vow to do things differently.
As is usual with Wisconsin, one must always be aware of the weather. We were blessed this year with unusually warm (temps in the 30's) weather for the most part. We saw enough snow to get us into the holiday spirit, and we even took a couple of shots at shoveling a little off our driveway. The really cold temperatures and the major storm happened before we got home, and they are set to happen again now that we are back in Florida. This morning The Weather Channel reported that Green Bay had 5 degrees with a wind chill of -24 degrees. I am SO glad I missed that! Sometimes, things just work out the way I want them to go.
We left Green Bay early on Monday to drive to Milwaukee. A "winter mix" (i.e. rain/ sleet/ snow) was predicted for later in the day, so we wanted to get south before we ended up driving on icy roads. While the northern part of the state did see some nasty precipitation, we were far enough south to avoid anything hazardous. Damp, yes, but not slippery.
Many people must have still been off for the holidays because we drove down 41 and encountered very little traffic. We made good time to Milwaukee, so we stopped at Mayfair Mall to do a little window shopping and to get in a good walk. I hate Wisconsin in the wintertime because the only place one can safely walk is in a shopping mall. Since we did not get to the Mall until a little later in the morning, the halls were already getting a bit crowded. We were able to walk, but we had to do a lot of weaving around people and could not keep up a very good pace.
After killing time and eating Mall food for lunch (after which the greasy Mall food tried to kill us!), we ventured to our hotel which was near the airport. I had not slept well at all on Sunday night, so I was ready to relax a little before dinner. Rick had driven all the way, so he, too, was tired. We decided to walk to dinner which was a not-long-enough trek to Micky D's next door. To say that dinner was stellar would be a lie, but it was carbohydrates and a little protein, so we survived.
Tuesday, January 3, 2017, was our 41st wedding anniversary. We awoke at 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport for our 6:25 boarding time. The airport was fairly packed when we got there, so thank God for our pre-TSA status. That status was worth every penny! We brought back two 2-lb. bricks of cheese, though, thus our luggage got searched. I don't blame them. The blocks of cheese are just dense shadows on the x-rays, so they had to search to see what we were carrying. The TSA agent had no problem with us carrying cheese. He just suggested that if we want to transport cheese in the future, to take it out of the luggage before we put the luggage through security. We'll take that advice since it will save us time in the future.
Getting home to Gladys was great. We had a stiff tailwind flying in, so we were almost a half hour early landing. We had our car at the airport, so we took a bus to Extended Parking, were the first to be dropped off just steps from the car, quickly drove out of the airport, and had green lights almost all of the way home. Those of you familiar with Florida traffic know that green lights almost never greet people at intersections.
After a little grocery shopping to stock up on the essentials, we decided to buy some sandwiches for an anniversary picnic on the beach. Not only was dinner one-fifth of the cost of a fancy meal in a restaurant, but the atmosphere was better and the only music was provided by nature.
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| Sea fog rolls in with soft clouds above the water. |
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| The lapping water on the shore was the best music we could hear. |
We went to the Dunedin Causeway beach, parked our lawn chairs in the sand, and watched as the sea fog started to roll in in front of the setting sun. What a great way to spend an anniversary dinner.
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| Sometimes, you cannot beat Mother Nature! |
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