A couple of months have gone by already since my last post.  It seems we have kept busy every day, I can’t believe those people who are afraid of retirement because they won’t have anything to do!  After my last post we headed up to Door County for 2 weeks, going up there in July a 40 year tradition for us.  While we no longer camp, we did make it into the park to see friends and participate in spaghetti dinner and Christmas in July.  Denise MJ and I golfed, and I managed to golf Peninsula Park a couple of times with friends.   This year we were able to visit some of our favorite restaurants and bars and breweries.  The cottage we rented turned out wonderfully for our needs and we will be back next summer.  It was good to see old friends and sorry we missed seeing others. 

When we made it back to Oshkosh we worked on unpacking and getting ready for a long weekend in Milwaukee for Irishfest.  We were excited it was back on this year, and turned out to be the first Milwaukee Ethnic festival to return.  They obviously could not book as many acts as early as usual, that and the fact bands from Ireland had a hard time traveling made it a festival of mostly US based bands.  But they were still great and we spent quality time with VW and Jeff and Donna.  Also this summer my friend Mark has allowed me to brew with him and share in our beers, which have turned out to be outstanding if I say so myself.

We have had some time to spend with a number of other friends we just don’t see enough of.  And we made it to Milwaukee to have an outstanding meal at Eddie Martini’s with my brother and Claire.  We also made it down a second time with them to share a meal at Polenez restaurant which turned out to be a favorite, and the only true Polish restaurant still listed in Milwaukee.  Skip has helped me identify some items with the state, if you ever want to hear a long story about state unclaimed property and stock shares just let me know.   I have kept up my golf game, which I truly believe has improved.  Thanks to John for sharing golf time with me at least a couple of times per week. 

For Labor Day we were back in the Detroit area to spend some time with MJ and John.  Another group of fun days with some small projects, lot’s of eating drinking and card playing.  Again we traveled through the UP of Michigan and enjoyed the scenery, other than the rain and hail part.  Trees are changing color and starting to lose some leaves.  Overall the temperatures are cooler and humidity is falling.  A great time of year we hope continues for awhile.  We are starting to make some plans to leave Wisconsin and head back to Florida.  We will watch the weather, be it hurricanes or snow.  Tomorrow we pause to reflect on 9/11.  The souls lost and the perils of life.

Spaghetti night, Chris Denise, Me MJ Donna

Me Bryan Noel

Michael Pres Darren Me

One Barrel Brewing Egg Harbor

Irishfest rock stage

Mark getting ready to chill the wort

Brown Iron Brewing Sterling Heights