Aug. 15: Two weeks ago, we had a wonderful time at our annual pilgrimage to Jack’s house near the Wisconsin River in southwest Wisconsin. We had 12 adults attending this year. Maretta and Kyle couldn’t make it because Kyle’s sister Pam got married that Saturday. Tom was able to come…he’s doing really well post-surgery. Michael’s friends Matt, Josh, and Betsy also joined us. Lisa stayed home this year, but Becky came. So we had a full house.
Pictures of our weekend are in the gallery.
Joe and I did the menu planning early in the week. Then Michael, Joe, Matt, Sylvie, Andrew, and I went grocery shopping on Thursday (eating is, after all, one of the major activities of the weekend). We stayed pretty traditional with the menu, only adding home made chocolate ice cream as a new dessert item on Saturday night.
We all converged on Jack’s house on Friday evening. Sylvia and I rode in Terry’s car, and for the first time, Sylvia did not cry most of the drive to Jack’s house (this is her third time to Woodman). Thank heavens! We all tried out the Harry Potter-esque Jelly Bellys, which were disgusting, played night frisbee, played some games, and went for a late-night walk down to the boat launch – the stars were absolutely amazing.
On Saturday morning, for the first time in memory, we all got organized pretty quickly. We ate breakfast on the patio, got the canoe out (so I could go along with Sylvia), and drove upstream to Bergum Bottoms to put in. Tom stayed back at the ranch, but the rest of us floated down the Wisconsin River for a few miles, stopping to crack open a watermelon and hang out on a couple sandbars. Andrew had a blast, and Sylvia (for the most part) did really well.
After the mid-river gorge (which we noted involved somewhat less gorging than normal), Jack, Bryan, Joe, Michael, and Matt re-did the float down the river again. Meanwhile, Josh did dishes and Becky and I prepared the Jambalaya, corn bread, ice cream, and bread. The evening was filled with game playing (the fogies beat the youngsters soundly at Trivial Pursuit).
On Sunday, Jack took Terry, Matt, and myself on a hike up to see his prairie. He’s been working to restore the pasture to native prairie plants for the last 10 years. Jack’s recently received several grants to help (a tiny bit) with the restoration work, and he’s put tremendous numbers of hours in to his restoration work. It shows. The prairie is beautiful.
We left Sunday afternoon, wishing the weekend was longer. At least I have pictures to remind me of the lovely times!