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!

Half Way Through!!!

Thank goodness we have finally made it halfway through Milwaukee!  We have been here for 3 months so far and are now counting down the weeks until we move on to our next assignment! 

We have to admit, it really has not been as bad as we imagined.  The weather has been abnormally warm this winter throughout the country and we are just so lucky to have such a mild winter!

Now, that doesn't mean that we have not experienced our fair share of winter weather...

This was a fun day at work.  I had to go home early because my windshield wipers were freezing in the down position and I couldn't see!  With a job where you need to drive from one patient to another, that just is not a good idea!

Oh, and then there was this storm.  Luckily the snow came at night, so we just had to wake up to the mounds of snow, but then was fine for the rest of the day!

Well, at least Stanley has his snow booties with thanks to Mom for sending them!

We have been entertaining ourselves in Milwaukee and Chicago, starting with Angelina coming to visit!  We met her in Chicago were we went out to dinner at the most interesting restaurant called The Girl and The Goat.  The next day we took her back to Mader's for some more beer and German food.  I think she liked it, but like I warned her, by the end of the weekend our bellies were stuffed full!

Thanks for coming to visit Ang!

We went to a great antique store here in a cute little town just outside Milwaukee called Muskego...

I found some great items including an old license plate that I am going to frame, an old household help book from Heloise, a beautiful green glass box and a super cute glass vase!

Doesn't it look nice with tulips in it?  I'm sensing spring in the air!

I had a wonderful patient introduce me to the famous OH Danish Bakery in Racine.  They are known for their Kringles which is basically a buttery bear claw the size of my head!

YUM.

Dwight and Stanley are spending lots of time with each other here in Milwaukee.  Aren't they just the cutest brothers?  We have learned how essential an electric blanket is for Winters in Milwaukee.  These boys would not budge off this blanket to the point that Jason and I had to buy another one for us to use!
And then we questioned ourselves...
Are we spoiling our pets??
Yep...

Ok... 13 weeks to go!  I can't wait to see whats next in our adventure!

Current Location:

Milwaukee, WI