On Saturday morning we woke up in Green Lake Wisconsin in time to head to town for a fishing license and a cup of coffee. Scott and I joined Dad Seitz, Eric and Sarah Seitz, Mark and Linda Seitz for a day of trout fishing. In Wisconsin, we not only had to purchase a temporary fishing license, but a Trout Stamp as well. Dad Seitz chartered a pontoon boat and captain, along with his grandson to spend the day trolling along Green Lake, fishing for trout. And we were not disappointed. We pulled in quite a few trout-about 30 lbs worth!  It was a wonderful way to spend the first day of vacation. Meanwhile, Tom, Allison and Mom Seitz were running errands and picking up provisions. We all met up in the evening for dinner out. Stacey and Matt arrived later in the day. Unfortunately, Susan and John were not able to join us this year and stayed back in Florida.

On Sunday morning, we were all up for church and brunch in town. We spent the afternoon on a bike ride with a visit to a local winery. In the evening a few of us tried a dip in the lake. I blew up a few floaties. The lake is very weedy, and our beach had a sharp drop down to the lake, so you had to climb down a ladder from the dock. The water temperature was perfect. On Sunday evening we enjoyed eating a portion of our fish off the grill. I think this was the first time I had trout-a bit like salmon. Tasty.

On Monday, our family headed out to Stevens Point brewery with Mom and Dad Seitz for a taste testing, along with a stop into a local dairy for squeeky cheese curds. After lunch we caught the SpiderMan movie.

On Tuesday, the whole clan headed over to Osh Kosh for the famous air show. We were certainly amazed by the extent of this event. The fairgrounds are permanent, with an air museum. Once a year, pilots from all over the world converge on the fairgrounds with their lightweight planes, experimental planes and historical planes, including bombers and bi planes. Every day there is a different air show and lots of things to see and do, including exhibits from NASA, Ford Motor Company and plenty of food and "AS Seen on TV" sales booths. We had a wonderful time walking around the fairgrounds, checking out all the amazing planes and helicopters. Scott even located a Western Michigan tent advertising their Aviation school. He had a chance to talk to some of the student representatives about the engineering program and even got free Western tshirts!  It was even more exciting to sit along the runway and watch the air show. We even got an extra taste as most planes flew over Green Lake.

On Weds our family took to the lake and the road. Allison and I took my double kayak out for an hour long paddle down a small estuary off Green Lake. Tom and Scott meanwhile biked a bit around Green Lake. We were amazed at quite a few large estates along the lake. And we were all amazed at the wildlife in the area. When we arrived we pulled up to the house surrounded by deer, an owl, rabbits, raccoons and during the day we spotted wild turkey and lots of cranes. Apparently the SandHill Crane spend their summers in Wisconsin. And Allison and I spotted deer, geese, carp, cranes and witnessed an Eagle and an Osprey in flight, attacking each other. Turns out the Osprey was protecting a nest of fledglings. Very cool.

On Thursday we packed up and headed out to Western Michigan. I wanted to take a drive up north and swing through Northern Michigan with a stop in Charlevoix. But we had limited time and too far to go. So we traveled south with a stop over at the German village in downtown Milwaukee for lunch. We also picked up some sausage and cheese at the Usinger sausage factory. We then made our way around Chicago and over to Benton Harbor for the night. On Friday morning we headed to Kalamazoo and a visit for Scott to Western Michigan. We arrived in time to speak to an admissions counselor, right before a presentation at noon and a 2 1/2 hr walking tour of campus! We actually went on a tour before and sat in on a student presentation, but this was so much more in depth. And it was very helpful to speak to an admissions counselor about the engineering program. After our tour we were starving, so we went into town for lunch at the Kalamazoo Beer Exchange. We just had enough time to run over to the Engineering campus to pick up the syllabus for the Manufacturing Engineering program, and a quick peek into the labs. While standing in the hallway, one of the professors came by and let us in for a personal tour and to speak to Scott about the engineering program. Turns out his sister lives in Ellicott City. We also ran into a student from Columbia Maryland, the town next to ours. His Dad works for Southwest airlines, so he said he often flies home on a non stop from Grand Rapids to Baltimore. Good to know.

We traveled to Ohio for an overnight, and then back to Maryland on Saturday afternoon.

This week in July we were busy getting ready to go on vacation. Scott finished up his house and dog sitting job when the neighbors returned on Tuesday night from their trip to Wisconsin. On Weds night we dropped Cookie off to our friends after the Boy Scout meeting for our upcoming trip.

Now it was our turn to get ready to head to Wisconsin with the Seitz Family. I had gone in to work on Sunday to get a jump on packing. We were loading up our bikes and the double kayak on the mini van, so I knew I had my work cut out for me to get the car packed before Tom and Scott loaded on all the toys. Besides clothes, I also had to pack up some snack goodies and lake toys. I had a busy week at work, but enjoyed having all day Thursday to do laundry and pack.

Tom was happy that he had completed his recent online course and had the rest of the summer free. He had taken an accelerated course, which meant a lot more paper writing and research in a short period of time. And it included a few group projects which makes it a bit tougher since you have to chase down the rest of the people in your group and make sure they are getting their work done on time. But he liked getting it done in a shorter time period. He plans on looking into more classes like that one.

He also finished up a project that he was working on outside. I have wanted to put in a few pathways through our outdoor flower beds by laying down a few slate stepping stones. Unfortunately, the stones are usually very expensive and very heavy. I can't just run up to Home Depot and drop a few in my cart. I looked into ordering online with delivery and you usually have to get a large amount. I am not building a patio. Then I looked into ordering pea stone-just something to lay down for a small pathway. Tom was not crazy about that idea. One of our neighbors gave up and filled their beds with stone rather than mulch and I guess Tom did not like the look. Plus I wanted brown and he wanted black so it would blend with the mulch. So instead he bought a make your own cobblestone path mold, mixed up cement and formed gray slabs of cobblestone pathway. Then he filled in the cracks with brown sand. Exactly what he did not want. So I encouraged him to search out gray colored sand which he found, replaced the brown and it really looks nice. He experimented on the side of the house, in case it did not come out, but we both like it and he plans on making a path for the front of the house. (Now if  I can only  get him to put a bit of a curve in the path!).  I just need to stay away from yardwork because I always manage to get poison ivy! At least now I know how to treat it. And it cleared up pretty fast this time. At least that is all I had problems with-I almost picked up a snake when I was cleaning up a pile of leaves on the driveway. When will I learn!

                                                                                                  Tom's cobblestone pathway

Congratulations also goes out to Allison who officially received her Green Belt rank in Management from Northrop Grumman. Her project was approved and she received her certificate and Green Belt pin! Awesome job Allison!

Her summer seemed to be going well working as a Unit Leader at Girl Scout camp, except for her occassional stomach flare ups. She had spent the week before vacation traveling to Amusement Parks. They visited Six Flags which is south of our house near DC. Even ran into the Obama's daughter, Melia. No photos allowed, but the Girl Scouts had a quick chance to speak to her. They finished off the week with a trip to Hershey Park. It was incredibly hot that week. Allison was having a great time, but she started to feel very strange/ill and took herself to the nurses station at the Hershey campground. There they took her to a Patient First clinic, did some bloodwork and then sent her to the Hershey Milton Penn State Hospital because it appeared she was anemic. They ran lots of tests on Allison and decided she was still just anemic, probably from poor diet. Not enough red meat and iron in her diet. Meanwhile, this was Thursday and we were hoping to get on the road after she got off work. She was released from the hospital, released from work, drove home after stopping to pick up some iron pills and transferred to our van with her dirty clothes to hit the road again Thursday night.

                                                                   Loaded van

                                                                                                     
                                                                                                             Green Lake House

We made it about 5 hours down the road and stopped for the night in Ohio. The next morning we were back on the road, traveling across Ohio, Indiana, around Chicago, Illinois and finally we stopped outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We needed some provisions for our trip, including iron laden treats for Allison. Finally we had dinner at one of our favorite Midwest fast food restaurants, Culvers. They have great fried chicken dinners, fish and chips and patty melts. But most importantly, they have frozen custard! Sadly, we were too full from our dinner to make room for dessert.

We arrived in Green Lake late Friday night and quickly unpacked the van.