Last week, one of Rivergirl’s 138 blog posts asked, What’s something you like to do the old fashioned way? I didn’t even hesitate in answering that one.
Listen to music on vinyl. Nothing beats the warm crackle and hiss of my record player.
I can actually add a second thing, as I was inspired by another blogger recently. I broke down and bought a paper planner. She’s a ’23-’24 model with a flexible cover, notes page, and twin-wire binding. Holidays even come standard, so she’s got a lot of bang for her buck.
I’ve got a fancy calendar app downloaded on my phone. A fancy calendar app that I never, ever use. So, a few years ago, I invested in a fancy planner system with expansion discs. A fancy planner system with expansion discs that I never, ever used.
This new one is nothing fancy at all, just a cheapo $12 number from Amazon. I bought it for one sole purpose: to plan out festivals and events next year, because it’s nearly impossible to keep track of all the fun things Wisconsin is throwing our way.
I’ve already mentioned Goat Fest and the Midwest Sweet Corn Festival and Rhapsody Festival. Saturday, it was Gemuetlichkeit Days, a German festival in Jefferson. Sounds like a sneeze, huh? Do not ask me to pronounce it; I can’t even spell it without triple-checking the website (gdays.org…apparently they stumble over the word, too).
G Days can best be summed up thusly: painted pretzels, polka bands, schnitzel, and old people playing Euchre. There’s a parade too, but that took place at noon today. People were already setting up chairs along Main Street 24 hours in advance, so it must be a pretty good one.
We got there early, which was great because admission was free until 1 p.m., saving us $30. But also, there wasn’t a whole lot going on yet, so we tried on a few Lederhosen hats with feathers just for fun, wandered through the classic car show, and then–because the spaetzle food truck wasn’t set up yet–headed to Stable Rock Winery for sandwiches and cocktails. We shared a mushroom melt with swiss cheese and crispy fried onions and an oven roasted turkey with cranberry mustard and muenster. Not German, but delicious nevertheless. Afterward, we walked around downtown, admiring the artfully decorated steel pretzels, which are being auctioned off to help fund future Arts Alliance of Greater Jefferson projects.
NGL, I was tempted to try for the blue and green one with the heron, until I saw that opening bids start at $300. I’m all about supporting the arts, yadda yadda, but that’s a lot of money for a pretzel you can’t even take a bite out of.
Then today, we headed to Deerfield for a festival that was thankfully easier to spell and pronounce: the Apple Festival. Immediately upon arriving, we could see that this was a very popular event, given that we had to walk about a mile from our car to the entrance gate.
And that’s when we had already covered half the distance.
Slight hike aside, the festival itself was very impressive, and about five times bigger than the Midwest Sweet Corn Festival. Even the food vendors were a notch above typical festival fare; in addition to the usual corn dogs and whatnot, you could get African jollof rice with chicken, smoked chicken wings, and fancy-dancy paninis. We sampled different cuisines and bought an alien as a companion for our Bigfoot yard statue and enjoyed the cool temps and gradually developing fall colors. I recommend the Apple Festival over G-Days any time.
It’s been a busy weekend following a busy couple of weeks, planning and hosting a family reunion, entertaining guests, and we even had our 10th anniversary tucked into the middle of it all. But I would call the whole thing a resounding success; everyone raved about Wisconsin, and returned home with suitcases full of cheese.
My parents left Thursday morning and my Oregon aunt and cousin departed Friday morning. My New Jersey uncle and aunt weren’t flying out until Saturday morning, so Tara and I met up with them for one last hurrah, treating them to an authentic Wisconsin Friday fish fry at our favorite tavern in town.
I’m glad we pulled the whole thing off. It had been five years since I saw my Oregon relatives and eight years since I’d visited with my Jersey peeps, so it was a long-overdue get-together. It would have been even better if my brother and SIL, and my kids, and a few other cousins had been able to make it, but I’ll take what I can get. We’ve actually joked about making the reunion an annual event, but I think I need a few years off before tackling this again.
And I’m more than ready to get back to a normal routine. Feels like we haven’t had a quiet evening to ourselves in ages. Probably because we haven’t had a quiet evening to ourselves in ages.
We’re so far behind on America’s Got Talent, they’re probably halfway through the auditions for next season already.
Mark My Words 
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