Blue Angels at the Milwaukee Lakefront

The Navy demonstration team, the Blue Angels, did a couple of shows at the Milwaukee lakefront last weekend. F-18′s are cool!

We went to watch the show in Milwaukee’s harbor on Wendy’s dad’s boat, a 34-foot Crusiers. There was a 12-15mph wind so there was some chop on the water even in the harbor. Not the ideal camera platform but there were a few good shots.

I posted more info and pix at:

http://www.slopeflyer.com/artman/publish/blue_angels.shtml

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It’s My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me! I’ll be going to the local parade where my daughter is marching with mom and the Girl Scout Troop. Probably hit Summerfest if the rain quits for a while and then try to catch some fireworks tonight.

Got a cool new toaster from the family that does bagels well. It has wide slots and in bagel mode only warms one side, very cool. It is a

“Hamilton Beach Classic Chrome Extra-Wide-Slot Toaster”

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Local Custard Stands Vie for Reunion Kudos

Bill and Linda have been the most active in finding, and sampling, the wares from several local custard stands. The pair has visited Gillie’s, Kopp’s (several times due to its proximity to the reunion activities) and Leon’s. They also plan to hit a Culver’s in search of the best in the area. At this point Bill says they will need to stop at each again at least once more to confirm their initial impressions. We await the results!

My observations:

• I am going to give Kopp’s the nod mostly because it is 6 blocks from my house.
• I liked Leon’s for its 50′s feel.
• Gillie’s has been a Milwaukee staple for years but the nearest location is 10 miles away so I don’t get there often.
• Culver’s has become too big and homogenized although I do still enjoy a malt there from time to time.
• LoDuc’s in Delafield has custard puffs which make it tops when I can get out there!

On with the testing!

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More Smith Family Reunion Goings On

Saturday was a pretty food oriented day for the reunion attendees beginning with a great brunch at Papa and Susan’s house. Assorted champagne based drinks loosened up the guests and we had lots of excellent food choices to eat. Many bellys left a little more than full!

After brunch the kids went swimming at the hotel where some of the out-or-town guests were staying.

While the kids were swimming I had planned to do some work at the new warehouse space but forgot my key. I also noticed the wind was subtly blowing out of the east and it had been quite a while since I got to do any flying so I loaded up a couple of light planes and went to the Gun Club in Cudahy. The wind was light but the lift was OK and I got in several flights. Michael and Mirko also showed up for some needed flying. Report at slopeflyer.com.

We had our big reunion dinner at Botana’s Restaurant, a great Mexican restaurant, in the Walker’s Point district of Milwaukee. Margaritas were flowing, the food was really good.

Jenny and Wendy had arranged for all the dinner attendees to get Botana’s t-shirts and also provided Fabric Markers so we could all sign each others shirts. This was a bunch of fun and reading what other’s had written provided a lot of laughter and banter.

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Family Reunion 2005 Hits Milwaukee

The bi-annual Smith Family reunion is now underway in Milwaukee. We have about 25 attendees this time with family members from California, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin. We’ve had a couple of dinners at host homes, a boat trip on the Milwaukee River, biking at the lakefront, a traditional Fish Fry at the Lakefront Brewery and more on tap for the next three days. Hope it all keeps going as well as the first couple of days.

Mom’s 70th Birthday Party Today

My mom’s friends the Bowers rented a limo for my mom, my sister’s family and my family as we all made the 2-hour drive to Chicago for brunch at the Ritz-Carlton!

On the way down my mom opened about 70 gifts to go with her 70 years. As you may imagine, a lot were on the silly side but that made it fun and my mom loved it!

Holy cow, what a spread! The Ritz sure knows how to do lunch!

Long Weekend Trip to Door County

The long weekend seemed like a good time for a family trip since Wendy and Sydney both had off so we headed up to Ephraim in Door County, WI. This is located up the “thumb” of Wisconsin on the Door Peninsula.

We left Whitefish Bay at about 5 on Friday for the 3-hour drive to DC. It was an uneventful trip except for the Luetenbach’s fire we saw just a couple of miles from our destination at the Hilltop Inn.

The Hilltop is really nice. We had a 2-bedroom suite and it was perfect for the weekend. That, and it was pay for two nights and get the third free!

Friday evening we just settled in and I did some prep work for a meeting I had with a client in the area on Saturday.

Saturday I had a meeting at Tannenbaum Holiday Shop where I am helping with marketing and web site stuff. Nice meeting with Ron, the owner. I shot about 200 pictures of the shop for future use. The Nikon D100 and Nikon SB-600 flash worked great!

After I got back form my meeting we headed to the Top of the Hill Shops in Fish Creek to look form some boots and mittens for Syd. She got a nice pair of Giordano mittens but no boots.

After the shopping we looked for a sledding hill and found the nice big one in Peninsula State park but it was TOO big for Sydney. We then headed to Pottawattamie State Park where they had a smaller hill from the Sydster.

While Wendy and Sydney were doing some runs on the hill I got out my Majko. It is an electric powered RC sailplane. Really sweet. I flew for about 30 minutes and could have flown longer but I am not sure how the LiPoly battery I am using in it likes the cold.

We went to dinner at PC Junction. They have a cool G-gauge or some large gauge train that runs along the top of the bar and delivers your order on flat cars. Syd loved it! No derailments today and the food was good. I really like their Chile.

Saturday evening Wendy, Sydney and I watched Elf. Pretty funny that Will Farrell!

I woke up at 6:15 on Sunday morning hoping for some good sunrise light to shoot the Tannenbaum shop but when I looked out the window it was snowing pretty hard and the wind was kicking about 25 plus so I closed the blinds and hit the sack for a couple more hours. Nice!

Sunday night Wendy and I watched The Usual Suspects. Last time she watched it she fell asleep. What a travesty! Well, this time she made it to the end and so finally saw one of my favorites!

The only real disappointment of the whole trip for me, besides having to go home, was that I never got good light for the exterior shot of the Tannenbaum building. Maybe Photoshop will be the ticket. Worst case I guess I’ll have to go back and do it again. Oh, Darn!

Sydney at Swimming Lessons Today

6 years old and splashing around like a mad woman! She is getting much more comfortable in the pool. Dog paddling around and what not.