Summer Lovin' - Part 3

I promise this is the last leg of the vacation anthology. If you can't get enough you can buy my Guide to Wisconsin Vacation Hotspots: Putting the "Pen" in Peninsula later this year.

Another family activity we planned was going out into the picturesque orchards to pick cherries. Emily has fond memories of doing the same thing with her family as a kid (they vacationed at Door County too). Her version has vague similarities to various Disney musicals.

So she was wanting to forge those memories with us. You get spoiled by the mild weather by the water (80 degrees with a breeze), no such luck in the landlocked orchards. It was h-o-t and we were out there doing manual labor in pants wearing pickin' buckets around your waist. A terrible day to wear leather pants.

It was a bit of a hunt to even find an orchard that still had trees with cherries (early harvest I'm told), but we found one 40 miles away. It was definitely a pretty sight to see, row after row of trees with little red fruit dangling from the limbs.

Something comes over you there, you see tons of cherries and you have the urge to...pick...them...all. Each time you spy a hidden bunch tucked under a limb you get a punch of excitement. I wondered if there was a correlation to using cherries on slot machines; if there is something engrained in our being that gets us giddy at the sight of a pretty cherry.

Five pounds of picked cherries later we had a good time and quite the haul of inedible fruit. Yep, these were canning/pie cherries. It was a big downer thinking you just beat the system by paying $7 for 5lbs of cherries and every one you put in your mouth tastes like tart potpourri. Next year we plan on picking champagne grapes.

Vacation is also a fun time for eating. I try and eat pretty well as a lifestyle, but I am human. The smell of a Chicago dog or the sweet and salty taste of a fry dipped in ketchup have their way with me when I let my defenses down. And they were down brother - to the delight of Emily and Benjamin.

Rarely were the words "no" or "grilled chicken" used when we went out to eat. In fact, please sit down, I have something to tell you - I had ice cream four days in a row. That news is such an anomaly for me that the stock market may have just dipped.

The one exception is eating at the famous Al Johnson's Swedish restaurant. Everyone gets Swedish pancakes when we go there, I do not. I have never cared for this nordic take on pancakes so I always order the oatmeal, which has a record-scratch effect on the waitress and nearby patrons. The waitress sometimes has a look on her face like, "we have oatmeal?" They do and it is delicious, so stop hassling me.

In fact, I seriously doubt Leif Ericson downed a tall stack of Swedish pancakes before allegedly discovering North America. And he definitely didn't pay $11 for them (sheesh). I was pleased to discover that Benjamin didn't love Swedish pancakes either (take that ABBA!), but he would eat an entire pig's worth of bacon if he could. This also pleases Leif.

The rest of the Wisconsin vacation was filled with nothing, the good kind of nothing. I was able to decompress, read for pleasure, take a nap during the day (wha!?) and hang out with Benjamin and Emily during the sweetspot of the day versus my usual dregs of early morning and late evening. It is neat seeing Benjamin interact and feel like a part of a bigger extended family, and I love seeing that he is embraced by them too. Maybe embraced too hard by some of his cousins as a matter of fact.

I wish we could vacation more. Europe has it figured out, they take 8 weeks of sometimes mandatory vacation. It makes sense, because most of the time you need that 1st week to slowly unbind yourself from work (maybe it's me) and then you can kick up your heels and be more carefree.

But like I said earlier, little kids are the ones that REALLY have it figured out. They are on vacation for 52 weeks a year, don't pay for anything AND have a staff of people bathe and dress them. The only other person that gets that treatment is (insert US politician that your political affiliation detests here)! Sorry, I just wanted to see what having a political blog felt like. See you next summer!

Summer Lovin' - Part 2

The good news is that we took 2 weeks off for some family vacationing. So if Benjamin's summer days were regular days on steroids, vacationing to fun places with Mommy and Daddy must be like the stuff Barry Bonds allegedly used.

The sabbatical started with a trip to Chi-town for a family wedding (way to go Chris!) where Benjamin took on the look of an extra from The Great Gatsby - snappy trousers, white loafers, a sensible shirt and a white Gatsby hat (I don't know what else to call them, Buster Keaton would)

The wedding and reception were the cat's pajamas and Benjamin was a dancing machine on the parquet floor. His moves were part Flamenco, part glowstick club-kid, part whirling dervish and his batteries just wouldn't die down. He fed on the power of the music like those people in Xanadu.

A personal triumph for me was taking in my first baseball game at Wrigley Field. You want old school baseball, you need to see a Cubs' home game. No bullpens, no jumbotrons, no automated scoreboard - and I love it. You could almost picture the crowd wearing their own Gatsby hats and talking about how Woodrow Wilson was going to fix the country - 23 skidoo!

After hanging with tons of family, obliterating all bed times and dietary restrictions it was off to Door County, Wisconsin. This place is a real hidden gem tucked in the peninsula tip of the eastern-most part of the state. Benjamin had been there once before when he was 5 months old, somehow he doesn't remember a thing. Weird.

All vacation had two thoughts in the back of my head:

1. I want to do whatever it takes for us to have the best time

2. I hope #1 comes in at a reasonable price

Right before our vacation we had some sudden home repairs and then had to replace a transmission while we were out of town. The total amount was a little over "cha" and "ching."

I wish this feeling on no one, but it becomes a fun-sucker. Luckily we were staying with family (thanks Wendy!) and using a family car up there (thanks Wendy!) and various recreational vehicles (thanks Wendy!). The best part is that with a beach, some toys and some fun folks you don't need the Magic Kingdom® or a ski chalet to have a good time with a 2 year old.

Benjamin loved the beach. I was worried, because I apparently hated the sensation of sand on my hands when I was baby. Benjamin's only hang up was muddy sand on his skin, but who likes that anyway? People that go to day spas, that's who. Gross.

Have you applied SPF 50 baby sunscreen on anyone lately? It's like rubbing old peanut butter on something - it is thick, not particularly smooth and sticks to the roof of your mouth. And the process of slathering every square inch of Benjamin's body takes about 10 minutes. The final result is a little boy that looks like English ghost. Yet somehow he is the only Alexander that left with a tan.

I took him on a jetski and we really opened her up, jumping wakes and streaking at about 40mph. Aaaannnnd in reality we toodled around the shore at a crab's pace. He definitely enjoyed it, but you can tell when he's nervous because he does absolutely everything you tell him and he gets really quiet.

His other favorite activity was standing at the point where the water meets the shore and trying to shovel all of the sand back into the water. We should send him down to the BP site and speed up the cleaning process.

One evening we decided to hit the Links as a family. We skipped Pebble Beach in favor of Pirate's Cove, 18 of the most scallywagging holes of mini-golf youever did see. I've always wondered what the perfect ages are for some "firsts" - like when is the best time for your child to actually enjoy a professional sporting event, a theme park, or hunting bear. Apparently 2.5 years is a good start for putt-putt.

He obviously had no concept for the rules or etiquette (he didn't say "fore" once), but he definitely understood that he needed to hit this ball until it went into the hole. Even if it meant picking it up after the first hit and setting it down right on the lip of the cup to knock it in.

Believe it or not, the little bugger got a bona fide hole-in-one without any help and rule bending. I did commit petty theft by catching his ball on the 18th hole as a keep sake - don't judge me. You know Earl Woods did the same thing and look where it's gotten his son. Oh wait...

Summer Lovin' - Part 1

Ah, summer. A time to lose yourself in the sun's brilliance, reflect on your mastery of life and to spend money freely in the pursuit of leisurely fun. At least that's what I read on the brochure at the beginning of the summer. The reality is that it has been a summer long on work and short on fun, for me at least. For Benjamin summer is like "not-summer," pumped up on steroids.

I will confess that I've had some 10-12 hr days where I am jealous of my 2.5 year old after I hear that his day consisted of: breakfast omelette with mommy, reading books, dancing to music, riding on an indoor choo-choo, hotdogs and a smoothie, a nap, watching some Cars, painting some water colors, collecting stickers for going potty, and getting a visit from the tickle police.

"Wow, I had conference calls and put out fires on projects for the entire day EXCEPT for when I carved out a moment to eat my can of soup at my desk." I really am not bitter, I had just forgotten how awesome it is being a little kid. That day I described wasn't Benjamin's birthday or Christmas morning - it was a Tuesday.

I do get a sense of pride by providing for Benjamin and Emily so they can spend 1-on-1 quality time in these highly formative years, I just wish I could get a piece of that action. I like fun too. Maybe if Benjamin and I both touch some crazy statue at the same time we can switch places for a day/week/year/forever.

Thin Hollywood plot lines aside, the good news is that we took 2 weeks off for some family vacationing. So if Benjamin's summer days were regular days on steroids, vacationing to fun places with Mommy and Daddy must be like Spaceroids!

**Sidenote: The full entry I concocted is 6 pages long, so I'm breaking this sucker up. The good news is that now you'll get some more frequent postings, the bad news is that you'll have to stitch them together in order to decipher the code that uncovers the real JFK tapes**

**Double Sidenote: Mrs. Goldapp, we visited Cam in Chicago and I took photographic evidence to prove that he really is doing well in the big city. I had no idea he plays for the Bears now and will more than likely be Oprah's replacement, at least that's what he told us.**