mama holiday

I returned yesterday from four glorious nights in Racine and Milwaukee visiting family and friends. As much as I missed my fellas, it was really great to have some time away. Besides, I know Papa enjoys his one-on-one time with the boy and doesn't get enough of it without my big face getting in the middle of it.

My Mega Bus was late getting in Wednesday night, so Grandma and Grandpa Schulz had to stay up way past their bedtimes to pick me up. I slept in the gold room -- the same room I spent most of my later school years in after Karen and Lisa left the nest. I find it comforting to sleep in my old room and I slept like a baby until about 9:30 AM!!! Hooray for sleep!

Grandma and I hit the shops of downtown Racine. I couldn't resist buying a few things for my little man. Okay, maybe it wasn't a few things. Then, we met Grandpa for lunch at a Spanish tapas place. A Spanish tapas place in Racine? Who knew. I learned that like Ed, Grandpa doesn't much like to share his meal. But he made an exception and gave me a few bites of his gazpacho. Yum.

That night, we saw my niece Chloe in a star-studded performance of Honk! (a modernized musical version of the Ugly Duckling). She did an awesome job with her three parts. I totally believed she was a camera woman, a frog and a duck. A truly captivating performance. Afterwards, we celebrated nephew Matt's TWENTY-SIXTH birthday with pizza at Infusino's (don't think I had been there since high school).

Friday, Grandma and I hit Nelson's Dime store. I was happy to see that things hadn't changed a bit since I was last there. It had the same exact smell and the same creaky wood floors. Awesome. Next it was on to Irish Fest in Milwaukee to see niece Izzy dance with the Trinity Irish Dancers. I swung by and picked up my pal Amy first so she too could experience the Irish magic. Izzy did a phenomenal job as did the girl who looked like Izzy who Aunt Lisa kept taking pictures of. It's hard to tell them apart with those ginormous wigs! This is not very good video. But what it lacks in video it makes up for in the music (performed by live musicians!)



Amy and I escaped the Irish festivities and headed downtown. I haven't been downtown in a while and even though I spent a lot of time down there before moving to Madison, I was having trouble recognizing where I was most the time. I'm not sure how much of that is due to how much Milwaukee has changed, or to my bad memory (probably caused by all that time I spent in downtown Milwaukee -- IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!) We met up with Margaret and Mike for a tasty Mexican dinner at Rudy's. Then, Amy and I chit-chatted away into the wee hours at her house.

Saturday, we headed down to the Third Ward district and met my pal Barb for a little window shopping and lunch at the Milwaukee Public Market (new since I lived in Milwaukee). Barb drove us past Manpower International where I used to work as well as the Bayshore Mall which was nothing like it was when I left (good thing). Saturday night Amy and I went out to dinner with my friend Mary at a cute little place called the Gingerbread House which I'd link to but their website does not do it justice. More chit-chat and laughs after dinner at Mary's house. Back to Amy's house for the night.

Wake up for an early Mega-Bus ride home. Amy loads me up on Brach Pick-a-Mix and trashy magazines. The ride home is uneventful. But my arrival is a different story. I rise from my seat and head toward the stairs to climb down from the second deck of the double decker bus only to see a little curly-haired boy holding a sign that says MAMA out the window. My eyes began to tear up and I hurry down the stairs to give my boys a big hug. Mama's home.