Horseback Riding

On Monday night, I spontaneously drove out to Algoma to visit Travis and company. We stayed at his mom's new house, which is out in the country just outside of Sturgeon Bay. His mom (Kim) and her roommate (Terri) just bought two horses! One of them (Tuff) is about 11 and was bought because he needed a new home, and the other one (Maddy) was rescued and has yet to be broken. Travis, Avery (Trav's little brother) and I all got to ride Tuff on Tuesday evening! The following are pictures from our adventure.

Terri's son Wade is in charge of the horses for the most part, and he taught me how to get on and how to steer. He can be seen in several of the photos, guiding us around the yard and making sure we didn't lose control.

It took a little bit of persuading, but we finally got Travis to ride as well. He had been busy grilling (using that as an excuse) and once he was done I requested that he get on with me. Neither of these shots are very clear, but you get the general idea.

After this quick photo-op, I got off (my thighs were killing me! You get a HUGE leg workout trying to stay on a horse bareback!) and Travis had his turn walking around the yard. I was taking pictures, when suddenly Tuff turned and Travis fell off. This one is of him laughing after he pulled himself back on (I had stopped taking photos because I was worried he was going to fall off, but I should have kept going! Kodak Moment.) At any rate, riding the other day was a good learning experience, and now when we visit Kim and Terri, we will know how to ride! I guess there is a trail just down the road from the house where we will one day be able to ride both (or more, if they get them) horses. Hopefully we get a bit more practice in before then...

Page Creek Marsh

Today I decided to take my bike out for

the first time this summer, and luckily there is a nearby nature preserve which I figured would be a nice short warm up ride. As it turns out, I was wrong. When I looked up Page Creek on Google, it looked like it was just a little ways down Dad's street, and I was sure I had passed the little bridge before. The round trip was just over 7 miles, and I had been thinking it would be more like 3. At any rate, I biked the 3.64 miles to a little entrance (something you drive by and don't notice). You can see my reflection, bicycle helmet and all, in the glass.

Due to it's hidden location, I got the feeling that this place isn't visited too often. It turns out that it is used as a hunting ground, but there are supposed to be all kinds of birds in the marsh during summer. I had prepared much better for this trip, by actually wearing walking shoes and long pants, but I couldn't find the bug spray. The actual path was less than inviting: clearly overgrown and no sign of recent visitors. I went along anyway, hoping to spot a deer or a neat looking bird. There were spider webs galore, but luckily you could still clearly see where the path was supposed to be, so I didn't get lost. About 5 minutes into my hike, I was brushing the thousandth spider web from my arm when A DEER! suddenly sprinted off into the woods. I had been too preoccupied with the spiders to notice, and missed seeing anything but the back of him.

As I walked deeper into the woods (where was this marsh, anyway?) the bugs started encroaching more steadily, and I had had it when a full blown spider web was blocking the path (not just a wispy strand, like most of them, but a whole thing with a spider having a snack in the center.) Upon noticing him, I also noticed 300 mosquitoes that were trying to attack my jeans, so I turned around and headed back without seeing the actual marsh. Another day, when I have bug spray on, I will attempt it again!

The creek itself, however, is visible from the road and I biked down to the tiny bridge to take some photos and look for interesting wildlife. There were several birds making a ruckus, but I didn't see any. The creek was pretty neat, and I saw a fish grab a bug on top of the water.

On my way back home, I stopped at a huge open field (which I think is actually a part of the nature preserve) that was FULL of these awesome, aromatic purple flowers. I was sweaty and tired, so I didn't stay for long, but I did manage to get a few shots. As I was biking away, I saw several monarchs fly towards the field. I will have to stop again and walk through to see more butterflies.

John Muir (take One)

After Dad left for dancing tonight, I decided to take a quick trip out to the John Muir Memorial County Park, about 20 min out further in the country from Dad's house. I planned as far ahead as to bring some bug spray, but didn't bring tennis shoes (I was wearing flip flops and a dress since it was 90 degrees out!) so I wasn't able to hike the whole trail. The park is located on a small lake that John Muir apparently spent his youth living on, and you can see more about it here.

When I got there and parked the place was deserted, and I started along a trail that headed down towards the lake. I hadn't looked at the trail map beforehand so I didn't know the best place to begin, and this seemed good.

As a followed the neatly cared-for trail around, I noticed that all it seemed to do was wind back around to the parking lot. I thought to myself, "This can't be it! Muir was supposed to be the father of national parks, and all he got is this stupid short trail?" But then I saw a sign a ways down and realized I was wrong. I hadn't even gotten on the actual trail yet, this was just a nice "warm up" area where the elderly might take a short stroll. The real trail is much more like a hiking trail, and my sandaled feet weren't prepared after being pampered with the neatly trimmed grass.

I followed this trail along, over a small bridge, and around the lake and a smaller pond. It then led into a more wooded area, and as I was headed there a lady came walking from the other direction with a small group of dogs. It was startling since I didn't think anyone else was out there but me. She pulled her dogs into a small nook and I smiled at her. The dogs were all staring at me, and as I passed, she said, "we are working on our manners..." and suddenly all three dogs went wild and tried to attack me. Their cords were held tight so they didn't manage to get near me at all, but clearly they were not used to being around other people.

Once I got into the thicker trees, the smells and sounds were overwhelming. There were all kinds of animals chirping and squeaking and rustling out of sight, and the various wild plants held a floral aroma. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing, until I started to encounter more flies and other bugs the deeper I got into the woods. I was really hoping to see some wildlife (besides squirrels and robins...maybe a deer?) and luckily a tiny red squirrel scampered in front of me and up a tree with a nut. I managed to get a few slightly blurry photos of him, but for some reason there was a mosquito intent on landing on my one open eye while I tried to photograph the squirrel.

I decided to turn back and come another day when I was better dressed for the occasion. Disappointed I didn't see a deer (I had seen THREE on my drive over!) I quickly made my way out of the trees and back into the meadow. As I pondered how to capture deer photos, I came upon the turn to the small bridge I had crossed earlier. My flip flops were flippity flopping, and suddenly A DEER! scurried away through the brush! He was too quick for me to see clearly and the brush was thick there, but it was definitely a deer! I have decided that I need to wear quieter shoes, because I could have creeped up on him otherwise and stolen a photo.

Anyways, my plan is to go back sometime when Travis is visiting, and hopefully I will have a photo of a deer to show by then!

Madison (avec Jessie)

On Tuesday, I drove down to Madison to visit my best friend Jessie! I picked her up from her work, the Concourse Hotel downtown, and we went and got sandwiches at Milio's, the one I worked at in 2007 on Regent Street. It was a beautiful day, sunny and 70s, so we decided to eat outside. We drove over to Vilas Park and ate our sandwiches by the water. The wind was blowing pretty hard and our sandwiches nearly flew off the table! But we spent a good 20 minutes catching up and chowing down until deciding to go walk around the zoo. This photo was taken when we were eating lunch:

The zoo is under a bit of construction, and many of the habitats have cha

nged since I was there last. We saw my favorite exhibits though, the big cats and the penguins! There is a new lion cub at the zoo and he was cute to watch. He kept trying to play with his parents (who were uninterested) and he was practicing his pouncing (like Simba does with Mufasa in The Lion King). Lots of people were standing by watching him when we arrived and were still standing there as we walked off.

Afterward, we drove around and reminisced about our past lives in Madison, remembering stories as we drove past familiar places. A friend of ours is getting married this summer and they just bought a house, so Jessie and I drove by there so I could see it. Turns out it is not too far from our old house (which is up the street from her parents' house) and it looks very nice from the outside. She hasn't moved in yet since they are not getting married for a few months, but I think she has been planning and buying things for the move.

We then met up with Jessie's boyfriend and put our toes in the water at the swimming pool by his apartment. I ended up driving back relatively early, but it was a good thing because I didn't see (or hit!) any deer!

MCHS

I just got back from my first visit with the Marquette County Historical Society (MCHS)! I worked mostly with Joanie, an older lady who led the group today. Also there was her husband (I've already forgotten his name!), MCHS president Greg and his wife Mary, and a few others who trickled in and out the few hours I was there. The people who I met today were all at least in their 70s.

The historical society consists of a historic house, built in 1902, along with a big storage facility they use as a museum and a recently moved schoolhouse that is under repair (John Muir's family attended there). Inside the house, they have period furniture and a variety of artifacts from Marquette county from the past hundred years or so. Right now much of the house is being reorganized, they recently emptied out the attic of things that had been stored for the winter. This summer I will be helping reorganize much of the clothing, re-bo

xing it and taking inventory along with clean and organize the rest of the house and exhibits.

First thing we did today was some office work, the ladies worked through the mail and membership dues while I made some copies.

I helped move a fainting sofa up the tight staircase into one of the bedrooms, and then we worked on getting the museum area ready.

Coming up on the 11th of June, they are having the annual Strawberry Ice Cream Sociable, which I will be missing. We were pulling out exhibit items and finding out what was still needed for the Sociable. Next week we will doing some more of the same, and hopefully I will get to do some inventory!