Our visit to Wisconsin to visit Charlie was nice, it seems like he has been gone forever. Savannah loved being on the plane, she was scared at first but then was excited and could hardly contain herself. Charlie was right about the mountains, he said I would miss them and he was right - just as soon as we got there all I could see was the same horizon front and back and I did miss them almost immediately.
We started the night with a good home made meal as we both hadn't had one in what seems like forever. I was amazed at how nice Charlie's apartment is, they really hooked him up - 2 1/2 bathrooms, washer and dryer, fireplace...Savannah's comments were, "this is great, we should live here." Here are some pics...and of course Savannah posing. She loved the deck and her bedroom.
I enjoyed having the fireplace on at night, it is like one great big candle and the light flickering just soothes you - it seems fireplaces are a staple out here from what I could tell looking online at realty. Good stuff though. Later that night when we put Savannah to bed she told me, "It's good to have daddy back isn't it mom?" I just smiled and agreed.
Next day it was rainy so we decided to go shopping and for a drive as it was noted from preparing dinner the night before that there were still several items we needed to furnish the apartment with. You know just everyday items such as a potato peeler, coffee maker, mugs, you know the stuff we have at home. We found out later that scissors were needed on that list too, but we won't talk about my stabbing myself in the hand while trying to open a box - ugh.
We drove to Appleton as I wanted to see it as I thought the name of the town was just so cute. I was amazed at how many miles and miles of fields and trees and open space there was. It never stopped! Even when you were in the city it was still open no matter how much population there was. The houses are on at least 1 or 2 acres of land each and no one has fences. I couldn't understand this, where did people contain their dogs? It was just so laid back.
Charlie showed me his work and the lines he's put together at the plant and all that he was working on and everyone we met seemed real nice. He showed me the old town of Oconto where he first started working as a maintenance mechanic/engineer and where he found God in a whole new light in a bitty shack in a field where he used to lead Praise & Worship - why I didn't take a picture of that I don't know. I was surprised to find that the cheese factory did not have tours on Saturdays and will take better note of this for next time as that was one place I wanted to visit and to taste - after all Wisconsin is the dairy state. We drove around looking at neighborhoods and found a really nice one in Bellevue not too far from his work. Outside the neighborhoods you find farms spread out and wide. You see a lot of these around....a lot!
In between storms Savannah kept on us about getting out there to feed the geese and the ducks outside the apartment. So when we did we found out that the ducks and other wild life here aren't scavenging for food at all, they are self content. Not even the seagull that flew by stopped for a piece of bread. I think the geese were more hesitant than any of the other birds as they had such a cute little family to protect. This is a picture of them next to the pond by Charlie's apartment. Savannah found out the hard way that geese are not too friendly and have pointy sticky out tounges that hiss at you while they run.
Sunday after church (yes we found a church out there to attend and it was a nice service) we went to the breakwater park where the water connects to Lake Superior and if you didn't know it was a lake or didn't taste the water you'd think it was an ocean the body of water is so big it runs for miles out. We had brought a picnic lunch with us but it was too windy that day to enjoy eating outside so we ate in the car. We had a blast and I'm not referring to the soda bottle that exploded on Charlie.
Mother's day was nice, I told Charlie I wanted to get a new houseplant but that he would have to keep it there and would need to keep it alive for me plus would add life to his apartment. He is skeptical and thinks he will kill it but I beg to differ. I also thought it would be fun that in the future he should get a canary or something for him to have some noise about, but for now the plant will do and I quite like it.
This Friday a real estate agent we know from church is coming out to look at our house to help prepare us to put it on the market. I am excited yet feeling bitter sweet, this is after all the first real house I've had but it is time to move on to a new adventure. In the meantime I am loving spring and the growth it is bringing even if it is stunted a bit by all this weather and a dog that likes to chew up the lilacs we planted...look what bloomed while we were gone!
