Libertarian Librarian

Here's what I did: Met my wife, children and inlaws at a bar/restaurant in the middle of nowhere to have some mighty fine fried chicken and inexpensive beer. Proceeded from thence to my inlaws house on Lake Michigan for some brief star gazing with the kiddies and then some chicken induced sleep.

Spent the next day reading on the beach, playing in the sand with my kids, throwing rocks into the lake and the creek, and generally laying about like a lump. Highly recommended. Went out for pizza in the evening, came back and tucked in the kiddies after a bit of lego building. Played cards with the inlaws while eating ice cream. Excellent.

Friday morning, there is a golf outing for people coming to the Hitt Family Reunion (to be held the following day, and why we're up in Door County in the first place), and Nicole wants to come with. First time out on a real course. We'd hit balls at home and on the range and done some work with her putting, but never on a real course. Well, mostly real. Only 9 holes, and very short, with no par 5s, but still-- there was only one par 3, so it was a real course. She did great! We played a scramble, so there were four of us each hitting a shot, then going to where the best of the four shots went and all hitting from there, repeat. Good format for her first time. We used her approach and putt on one hole-- saved us a par.

After golf, we (my wife, father-in-law and myself) headed North to my in-laws church to pick up 15 8-foot tables and about 120 chairs. Ooof! Back to the house to unload the chairs and tables. Double oof. But after that, and about a gallon of water, it was nap time. Woohoo! Followed by a pre-reunion get together at the Sturgeon Bay Jaycee hall, with about 100 of my closest in-laws (mostly cousins-- my wife's dad is the youngest of 10, and my wife is the youngest of 7). Which was fun, though a bit overwhelming. At one point a game of bingo broke out-- the Jaycee hall has a machine and board and everything-- and I wound up winning $10 and two pre-season Packer tickets. Sweeeeeet!

Saturday is a bit of blur. 150+ people, some of whom I know, but most of whom I have met once if at all, beer, burgers, brats and a gorgeous day on the lake. Kids playing with other kids their age, grown-ups catching up with folks they haven't seen in years, some football throwing, some canoeing and towards the end of the evening, songs around a bonfire. Most excellent.

Sunday was clean up time, then I loaded up the kids and bombed down to my niece's (my side of the family, for a change of pace) birthday party. Jenn stayed up at her folks for a while longer to finish the clean up and say bye to some of the cousins who had come from far afield. Wound up going to the small waterpark in Port Washington, which was exhausting but a blast.

And I leave my vacation this morning tired, but happy. Because it's one of those good sorts of tireds. Plus, I'm already looking forward to going to Lambeau Field again in two and a half weeks. Woot!