The past two weeks I had a vacation on par with a summer vacation in grade school. No work, no pressing appointments, and no unwanted obligations. I slept 12 hours a day. I read 3 books. I saw family and multitudes of old friends. And I drove over 1,400 miles in my rental car with good company.
The impetus behind going back to the Midwest was Josh and Anna's wedding (if you scroll back to June 2006, you can see them in Hawaii). Josh is an old teammate/roommate/friend from college and he was always the main driver behind our house parties. Going to the wedding was eerily similar to having a house party on Spooner Street. A lot of the same faces (and most of the old roommates) as well as a lot of drinking. While I stuck with beer and White Russians in college, the wedding reception was a Russian one. That meant a lot of vodka (the following morning I learned that it was actually "too much" vodka).
An old friend from Hawaii, Juliet, was my original date for the wedding, but some last minute stuff came up and Kate was my 'knight in shining armor' (in reference to the rehearsal dinner at Medieval Times... it's a stretch, I know) and agreed to go with me. From what I remember, I had a great time. Plus Kate and I got a bonus road trip out of the deal, with bonus miles driven due to my poor route planning.
The ceremony itself was very nice. In true Josh and Anna style (maybe more so Josh), the atmosphere was very relaxed and jovial. Oh, and they got me a sweet "Madeline & Nine" flag for my boat, so not just Josh walked away a winner. Congrats to Josh and Anna!
After the wedding, I began the hibernation. I spent three days at my parents' house sleeping and reading. I was incredibly and blissfully lazy. Since the weather was cloudy and rainy anyway, I didn't even have to feel guilty about it. Perfect. I skipped a planned trip to Minnesota in favor of sleep. I would generally shudder at the thought of missing out on traveling just to waste the days languishing in my parents' solarium, but in this instance, I really needed the rest. Plus, I really cut down on my carbon footprint, right? I'm probably an Earth warrior now.Next was the U.P. This year it was only Adam, Justin, and me. Only about half of the participants from high school, but I'm glad we got to make the trip. I got to catch up with Nic in Wausau, as well. He came shopping with us. Not for clothes, but for food. Much more appropriate.
The weather in the U.P. wasn't great, but it could have been much worse. We had some rain and some clear skies, but the most fortunate thing was that the bugs were by and large gone. One year we went up there in September and were forced indoors due to swarms of black flies. Not this time around. We were able to hit all of the wickets for a successful cabin trip: chop wood, cook meat over fire, bonfire on the beach, drink beer, play cards, beach walk, smoke cigars, and sunset photo. Another notable difference from high school was that the conversation focused mainly on insurance, home ownership, and affordable family cars. We are officially old(er), or at least the married guys with kids are.
(Note the wife and kids)
After that I spent three days in Madison hanging out with my sister and college friends. Beau came down on Tuesday and we went to the boathouse. At this point I should mention that I stop in to see my old coaches every time I am in Madison. Up to this time around, I never got any free stuff. That all changes when you walk in the room with a two-time Olympic medalist and world record holder. The T-shirts and hats were flowing like wine. I drank them in.
In case I haven't mentioned it before, I love Madison. It is such a beautiful city. I'm happy that I had a chance to live there and I will probably live there again in the future. This trip really confirmed for me that when all is said and done, friends and family are the most important thing in life. Lately I have been looking into to building a sweet underground cabin in the Rocky mountains, but not being able to connect that with the people I grew up around turns that idea into a pretty postcard more so than a viable option for me. When I mentioned that at the cabin, the guys recommended that I get a sweet underground cabin in Wisconsin that they could help watch for me. Good idea, but not quite yet.
Back to Madison. While there, not only was I able to catch up with old friends, but I was able to see all of my old favorite places and drink all of my old favorite (and comparatively cheap) beers at the Great Dane and Essen Haus.
Lastly, I was able to travel to Milwaukee to see my little sister and meet her boyfriend before heading back down to Illinois. I crashed at Sheng's place last minute (thanks!) and found my way to the airport first thing in the morning.Once back in Hawaii I set out for an overnighter at the sand bar. The weather at the sand bar was amazing and the fish were out by the thousands. Due to a lack of wind, the water was especially clear. Besides the schools of less exciting fish, we saw a hammerhead and a ray.
After getting some food at home I worked on my car a bit (but it still leaks oil...) and bought a slightly defective 42" Sony HDTV with some weird color patterns on a section of the screen. I really can't complain. I just did the math and it turns out I bought it for 6.8% of the original purchase price. That means that I more-or-less paid what the original owners did in sales tax for the whole TV. Even if it turns out to be a lemon, the risk/reward ratio was too good to pass up. I think this is the first TV I have ever actually owned. I've always just used roommates'. The only real downfall here is that now I can't pretend to be snooty and use the line, "I don't even own a TV," whenever I'm really dredging the bottom of the barrel in bouts of one-upmanship.
