Our friend Jay Cooke

Okay, so we don't really know who Jay Cooke is and he isn't really our friend, but we did go to the state park named after him and spent the night in his wild backyard. We put the Honda Element to good use and packed it up with our camping gear and coolers, picked up the Lockner newlyweds and hit the highway going north towards Duluth. Sam ended up taking over the driving midway (thanks Sam) so I could sit in the back with Sarah and look at respectable Hollywood gossip magazines. Can you believe Brad and Angelina used IVF to have twins?!

We were a little unprepared for our 2.5 mile hike into the wilderness of Jay Cooke State Park. I guess the best way to explain is by showing you a picture. Sam prematurely won the award for best sport, but then I had to revoke it since he threatened to leave me on the trail when my cooler busted open and would not close.

Somehow Sam got stuck with the largest cooler and two backpacks.

Tim may look more prepared than Sam, but you do not see the second cooler in this picture.

Note: This is not the trail, it is the park entrance. The trail was filled with cliffs, rocks, swamps, bogs and fallen trees. Oh and biting blood-sucking horseflies.

Once we got to our remote camping site (a strenuous hour+ later), we cracked the Sparks, explored our surroundings, cooked up some food and played a killer game of devil ball with a log bat and a perfectly shaped rock ball. Note: this is not a safe game, nor is climbing 20 feet into a tree on a cliff, and forging a rushing rapid filled river just for the sake of seeing what the rocks look like on the other side. Sassy boys!!!!

I also feel the need to mention how much we learned about each other while spending the night under the stars with just nature's backyard to entertain ourselves. The dominating topic somehow turned to super powers and we found out that Sam would choose to be invisible (I won't even go there, stay away from mysterious air-floating cameras) and Tim wants to fly. Sarah and I just want to destroy evil with our fire throwing and laser shooting selves.

What would your super power be?

Oh how beautiful you are Jay Cooke.

Night in Milwaukee

Last weekend Tim and I loaded up the Stratus, filled up our 70's era cooler and drove the 5+ hours to Milwaukee to visit Sarah and her fiance Joe. Sarah is one of my dear friends who just a little under 6 years ago was a total stranger. After a little incident of fate, she was brave enough to drop everything in her life and move to Madrid with me to teach English. I decided it was past due that I visit her in M town so we found a night that worked and off we went.

Her and Joe live in a super cool part of Milwaukee. I have to admit I'm starting to like that city, it is really cleaning up it's act. Well the part we were staying in anyway. They live in such a great spot within walking distance to the lake, shops, restaurants and even Urban Outfitters...which of course we had to drag the boys into, well kind of! Tim and Joe talked finance (yawn) while Sarah and I caught up. We saw the sites, drank some stiff margaritas and ate some killer mexican food at my new favorite spot, La Fuente. All in all it was a fabulous weekend with great weather and amigos.

After a few pitchers of rainbow margaritas at La Fuente...mmmmmm.

After a few rounds of bean bags (which I am horrible at).