Goodbye Milwaukee!

Well, we made it!

We have just officially completed our 6 month contract in Milwaukee and we feel great about it!  We had a great time and so many fun experiences to always remember.  Hey, how many California natives can say they spent a winter in Milwaukee and survived?  :)

Having been here 6 months, we of course decided to cram everything into our last weeks in our attempt not to miss out on anything here in Wisconsin.  That included baseball, brats and beer!  Lots and lots of beer.  Thanks Milwaukee...

First up was a game at Wrigley Field.  It was neat to see the iconic scoreboard and Jason was in love at first sight...

We were lucky to catch a game against the Dodgers which allowed Jason to enthesiuastically root for the Cubs. (Sorry Dodgers!)

The famous ivy in the outfield was beautiful, but I really liked the old scoreboard they have.  I could not take my eyes off of it, just waiting to see a hand discretely reach through and manually change the score.  It was so neat!

Of course Jason wore his Giants hat...

And Wrigleyville was great to see as well.  These houses (I guess you would call them houses) were right across the street from the park and had the best seats up on the roofs!  What a fun way to catch the game!

Next up was more baseball...  Jason and I planned to catch a Brewers Game while the Giants were in town and on our way to the park when I received an unexpected but very welcome phone call...

The family of one of my patients has season tickets to the Brewers and kindly remembered me mentioning what big Giants fans we were.  They called us up and offered their AMAZING seats for the game which we of course RAN to go pick up.  We ended up seeing the Giants play the Brewers from about 15 rows up!  I have never seen baseball that close!

Isn't this great?

The park was really beautiful.  The dome was closed that day which made it so comfortable to watch the game.  I'm am used to needing a jacket or blanket or something while watching a night game, but we were in T shirts!  In Milwaukee!  Also, the Brewers have a TGI Friday restaurant in left field!  These Milwaukee people really have it figured out!:)

Jason enjoying one the famous Brats with the special stadium sauce...

And of course, the Sausage Races!!  Italian ended up winning with Chorizo falling behind in dead last!  This was my highlight of the game.  It was just too funny!

Matt Cain pitched and we of course won! Sorry Basil and Joan!

I am so mad that I forgot to take a picture of Basil and Joan, who we went to the game with.  Basil is obviously the ultimate fan and showed Jason and I the ropes of how to get in, sit down, enjoy the game and get out of there without dealing with the crowds and traffic.  He had it figured out!  Definitely my kind of guy!

We just want to say THANK YOU to Basil, Karen, John and Joan for thinking of us and showing us that the reputation that Wisconsinites have for being some of the nicest people in the country really is true!

Finally at the tail end of our whirlwind last few weeks in Milwaukee, Marc and Amber came for a much needed visit before going to a wedding up in Green Bay.  It was so wonderful to see our great friends who we've missed so much.  And of course, it is Marc and Amber... so there was just a little bit of beer to be drank in the Brew City!

They were here for 3 nights and we of course enjoyed the beer for three nights!

 Luckily the weather was beautiful so we could enjoy the sun, good company and my Kwak...

While Jason and I were finishing up with work, Amber and Marc found this great brewery right by the river...

So, Jason and I didn't know about this place for 6 months and Amber and Marc found it the first day they were here?!  

What is that phrase?

Oh yea...

It is like a moth to a flame ;)

Jason and I thought it would be appropriate to end our stay in Milwaukee at the same place we started it, at Mader's for some good food and of course beer!

 

We are so happy we got to spend time with Marc and Amber, and Marc's love of Milwaukee definitely left a great last impression of Milwaukee for Jason and I.  His attempt at a Milwaukee accent on the other hand, left a little to be desired!

Whew!  Long blog post, but like I said... these last few weeks have been a whirlwind!  

Goodbye to Milwaukee...

it has been fun... 

and cold... 

and beautiful... 

and a great experience that we will never forget!!

We leave tomorrow for Stamford, Connecticut 

so this is officially our last current location for Milwaukee, Wisconsin!

And on that note...

Current Location:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Spring and a Celebration!

It is officially Spring, thank goodness!  Wisconsin is really starting to look beautiful now.  There is such a difference between the seasons here, it really makes you appreciate the trees, the grass and of course the sunshine!

This view is just outside our house.  It looks like a postcard again!  

In addition to the changing seasons and the excitement for our next assignment, Jason and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary!  We heard about the village of Kohler which is about an hour North of Milwaukee.  It is a small but beautiful town owned by the Kohler Plumbing Company that has a hotel and spa that has five stars and five diamonds, which makes it VERY nice!

The hotel we stayed at is called the American Club which was beautiful.  It was all very dark wood and rich furnishings, along with amazing plumbing fixtures of course!

The hotel staff was very sweet and found out it was our anniversary and sent a present up to our room!

Here is the shower in our beautiful hotel room, although pictures just don't do it justice...

But you can get the idea with the body sprays...

and the rain showers!  Very fun!

To celebrate our anniversary we wanted, well really I should say I wanted, to spend the day in the spa.  I figured at Kohler it would be one of the nicest spas around and I was not disappointed!

Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take pictures in the spa (of course, since everyone is in bathrobes) but we did manage to sneak a few pictures!

Ahh, relaxation...

For lunch we ate at the spa restaurant which served you while you were still in your bathrobes!  It was just too comfortable!  Here is the bento box we got with healthy yummy food...

and of course smoothies!

We got facials (Jason's first one!), a couples massage and spent the day in the spas, reading magazines and just zoning out!  It was perfect!

We topped the weekend off with the BEST BRUNCH EVER, which surprisingly was a buffet but the best buffet we had ever tasted!  We left feeling relaxed and full.  It was a great weekend and a great anniversary!  

I love you Jason!

Oh yea, and I got a little something too ;) (Its the one in the middle!)

I know I am a lucky girl!

Current Location:

Milwaukee, WI

NEWS!

Ok, it's that time again!

Where are we going next in our great traveling experiment?

Jason and I have been discussing at length, do we go where the money is or do we go have some fun?

After spending 6 months in Wisconsin, we decided we deserved a little bit of excitement in our lives and aimed for New England.  I can barely remember the last time I went there because I was so young and Jason wants to go back to NYC pronto!  We informed our recruiters of where we wanted to go and crossed our fingers that they could find us a job there.

So, I think it is pretty easy to guess the point of this post...

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As of June 1st, 2012...

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Our little family will be moving to....

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Stamford, Connecticut!

Stamford is a large city in the metropolitian area of New York City!  It is right on Long Island Sound, a 40 minute train ride into NYC, and is just east of Greenwich, CT (yes, that Greenwich).

We couldn't be more excited and have already started our list of places to go and things to see including but not limited to...

1.  NYC (and all that includes!)

2.  Martha's Vineyard

3.  Nantucket

4.  the Hamptons (to say hi to Ina)

5.  Cape Cod, MA

6.  Coastal Maine

7.  Baseball Hall of Fame

8.  Upstate New York

9.  Boston (including Fenway for Jason)

10.  Bedford, NY (to say hi to Martha)

As you can see I'm really quite excited about the whole thing :)

The countdown has begun!  

Current Location:

Milwaukee, WI

The Best Day Ever

Jason and I knew St. Patty's Day was coming up but we were not really planning on celebrating it...  What really do you do other than go out and drink green beer at 10 in the morning, and everyone knows we can't keep up with the locals here in Milwaukee! We were planning on just a normal weekend, maybe going to the gym, maybe catch a movie...

Then we thought...

Chicago, Saint Patrick's Day, green river, we are there!!!

The weather was gorgeous and as soon as we got into the city we realized that we made the right choice to come and celebrate...

The city looked so beautiful with the bright blue sky.  It was magnified in the reflection in the bean and we realized what a great sculpture it really was. (We had previously only seen it in the rain, which really didn't do it justice as you would probably guess.)

And yes, we wore our green!

We made our way down to the Chicago Riverbank and realized what an event this day really was here in Chicago.  There were people packed in all along the banks, standing in every possible space to get a glimpse of the river turning green.  At 10 am sharp the crowds started cheering as this little motorboat with men throwing a red powder into the river drove around and around.  It was a sight to see for sure! 

The river slowly but surely turned a BRIGHT green color, way more vivid than we imagined.

Then came the party boats, kayaks, and even this funny guy paddle surfing down the river!  We couldn't believe our eyes!

After we fought the crowds to get across the river, we thought we might try to get into The Purple Pig restaurant.  We tried to go with Angelina when she was here last month but it had a 2 hour wait! No way!  Luckily today, we got there before the doors even opened for lunch, and started a line... yes thats right, we were first!  By the time the restaurant opened we had at least 50 people behind us in line waiting for a table!  Talk about a popular place!

After trying the food though, we realized a 2 hour wait for this kind of grub would be more than worth it!  This cheese plate was to die for.  Something we have been missing after 4 months in Milwaukee!

After stuffing our bellies, we decided to go back and see if the river was still green...

YEP.

By this time it was about 80 degrees and we were just having the best time walking all around the city.  We walked down to the shore, around Streeterville and ended up at Navy Pier...

The Pier was like Pier 39 in San Francisco on steroids!  It was beautiful and colorful and packed with people drinking green beer!  The lines to get alcohol were longer than the lines to get in the women's bathroom!

Jason, as he was secretly hoping I'm sure, found some of his favorite Garrett's Popcorn.  Chicago mix of course! (Carmel and cheddar popcorn mixed together).  Jason was now satisfied!

We could not have enjoyed our day more...  

It pains us to admit it but Chicago might even top San Francisco in its charm!

Its up for debate.

One thing we are sure of, though...

Spring is finally in the air!

Current Location:

Chicago, Illinois

Madison

Well, just want to say thanks to my creative husband who thought up the title of this post for me...  

Today we decided to go explore and drive to Madison which is only about an hour and a half away from Milwaukee.  We asked Kate where we should go (since she went to college there) and she pointed us in the right direction with great suggestions.

Getting there is half the fun, right?

We started the day off on State Street at Capital Square...

We were pleasantly surprised to see that it was beautiful even after a long winter!  It was 45 degrees out and for the locals that meant enjoying the warmth outside.  We even saw people jogging in shorts!

Kate suggested going to the Farmer's Market at the square.  It is still inside at this time of year, but in only two weeks it will move back to outside around the Capital building and we plan on returning to see it!  The market had interesting winter vegetables (I bought some of the purple potatoes to make for dinner) and we even found a bison bone for Stanley!  Spoiled puppy!

I bought some Swedish Sea Salt Soap from State Street.

Say that three times fast!

After shopping, we followed Kate's advice and went to the historic Quivey's Grove for lunch.  It is a restaurant built on a livery farm from 1855.  The building was amazing with old distressed (I'm assuming from the horses hooves) wood floors and large sagging beams holding the roof up.  They serve local vegetables, breads and cheeses as you can see from Jason's gruyere croquettes.  Yummy!

It was quite a fun day in Madison.  It seemed to have such a great indescribable quality to the city...

 We are excited to go back soon!

Current Location:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Winter Wonderland

With spring coming in 2 weeks there is whispering here in 

Milwaukee that this could be the last snow of the year.  

-- SMILE --

Although as much as I want spring, I have realized that I love the snow that gets caught in the tree branches and limbs making everything a winter wonderland...

This photo was taken just outside our condo and reminded me of a postcard!