Wisconsin, the Adventure

So a couple of weekends ago I drove to my cousin's wedding in northern Wisconsin. On Tuesday of that week Chris was told "Tough luck, schmuck, you have to work" so I took off Wednesday night and stayed with my parents.

So Thursday the clan was up bright and early and we set off. I was in a car with my brother Mark and sister Trisha, my youngest brother couldn't make it. We listened to Trisha's music for most of the way, which consists of hip-hop/rap/r&b. Since I don't listen to this type much, I was ok with it until day 3 when I was sick of hearing the same beats overandoverandOVER. But I managed not to hurt anyone.

That night we stopped at a hotel north of Madison, WI and went to eat at the restaurant next door. When we walked in the waitress was all "Do you have reservations?" Please note that we are all in comfy clothes (read: sweats and ratty jeans) and are tired and cranky. So no, we did not. There were plenty of seats open, but we had to wait. We thought "oh, there are a bunch of cross-state bikers, maybe the tables are for them" but 25 minutes later we were seated with plenty of seating still available. Service was slow and our food was cold, so that place will fold soon I'm sure. (I should totally be a restaurant critic)

Friday we reached our destination in the early afternoon and the rest of the family was already there. We stayed in a row motel with nine rooms and all of the rooms were booked by our side or the other side of the bride's family. So we sat outside and drank. And by drank I mean everyone else had beer and asked me if I needed to sit down. Friday night there was a pre-wedding party. We had Famous Dave's Barbecue catered in and it was awesome and delicious. Just thinking of the chicken and corn muffins are making me drool a little now. And looking it up now there are a lot of them, so I'll definitely take Chris there.

Saturday morning we went to Lumberjack Pancake House and had breakfast. You could view the stands and everything that are used during the World Lumberjack Championships from our patio seats. Mark convinced Trisha that the small tree behind her was poison ivy, which pretty much shows how they both behaved. Not that I took a picture of Trisha in the morning because her hair was sticking up. And not that Trisha immediately ran outside screaming to Mom about how she was going to kill me. We're mature adults, really!

So the wedding was Saturday afternoon and I'm telling you that someone sold their soul because the weather could not have been better for a boat wedding. All of the guests were assigned to a pontoon (Mom had to have me re-assigned since Chris wasn't there, she worried about me!) and the pontoons were named after country songs. Ours was "Amarillo By Morning" and we were special because our pontoon had a CD player and we got to listen to it during the ride.

The bride and groom rode in his fishing boat (when the groom pulled up, he was fishing) along with the minister and we were off cruising across the lake back to a secluded lagoon. I'm not sure how they arranged for it not to be used, but we lassoed together and had a short ceremony. Then it was back to the docks.

That night there was a regular reception. Mark, Trisha and I were relegated to a table of college friends and spent most of the night making fun of each other. It was open bar so they had fun and I got to try my first Shirley Temple, which was not bad.

Sunday was church, a little souvenir shopping, pie eating at Norkse Nook, taking naps and ending in the going to see the Lumberjack show. That was fun to see, they showed the skills lumberjacks have by having a two team competition and they mixed in humor and history to keep it entertaining. Mmmm, lumberjacks. Chris should take up log chopping (just kidding handsome!).

Then Monday it was up early and a full day of driving all the way back to Ohio. Longest. Ride. Ever. And it didn't help that Peanut was an active little bugger. But we finally switched the music, so I survived.