Long Weekend in Green Bay and Door County

Dallas had to go to Door County, WI for work so Makai and I tagged along on a mini vacation.

Our hotel is in Green Bay, a block away from Lambeau Field. When we arrived, we checked into the hotel and then we had dinner at Hinterland Brewery a few blocks away. There was a neighborhood night market at the Titletown development where Hinterland is. It was so nice. We walked around with a beer and looked at all the stands, and listened to the band. They are developing so much in this area!

Dallas had to go to work early in the morning. Makai and I had breakfast at the hotel. He LOVED it!

I wanted to take Makai to The Farm in Sturgeon Bay. I knew he would love it. To make it even more fun, cousins Tessa and Margo joined us!Baby chicks and a guinea fowl.

Feeding bottles of milk to baby pigs!

Tessa trying to feed some corn to a cow. Open wide!

Oh no! Trapped in a well!

Lost looking for the rabbits. … I mean… nature hike.
Found them!

Found the horses too!

Last but not least, kittens! Makai loved this kitten sooo much! After the farm we had lunch at PC Junction, where a train delivers your food. Too bad there was an hour wait in that part of the restaurant. Still a good place for lunch though.

We headed back to De Pere to drop Tessa and Margo off at home. Then Makai and I changed and picked Dallas up at work in Sturgeon Bay. This is a random sign we saw.

After picking Dallas up, we headed up Door County more to Sister Bay. Our friends from Chicago, Andy, Simonie, James and Reid moved there from Chicago. They were having a party and invited us, since we were nearby. We couldn’t stay late because Dallas had to work in the morning and we had a long drive back to Green Bay, but it was so great to see them. I loved their amazing house, so close to downtown, but also right on the lake.

Our hotel was a block from Lambeau Field! The Packers were practicing at Training Camp on Ray Nitschke Field. Makai and I met Jeff, Charlotte and Margo to watch.
#23 Cornerback Jaire Alexander was our guy. His bag was right in front of us and he would come and get things out of it. He practiced right in front of us the whole time. We didn’t see Rodgers because he was practicing on another part of the field, but we did get to see Jordan Love.

It was fun to spend time with family. When we got hot we went to get some drinks and visited some of the sponsored activities tents. Ahman Green, Jarrett Bush, and Evan Smith were the former players signing autographs.

After training camp we had some lunch and Kelly met up with us. Then we went to Lambeau Field for a stadium tour. It was so cool to be up in a suite and down on the field. Makai loved the echo! We also got to go through the tunnel all the players go through!

After spending most of our money at the Packers Pro Shop, Kelly took us for shave ice at Ice Clouds!

Fresh outta the Packers Pro Shop!

For dinner we went to T. Bacon’s BBQ.

Then we met Kelly and Margo at the Marcus Cinema to watch Thor: Love and Thunder.

The next morning we ventured downtown for breakfast at The Creamery, which was super good and cute.

Makai had been DYING to go in the hotel pool, so I took him down for a bit.

We met Kelly, Charlotte and Margo at Bay Beach, which gave Kelly and I a lot of flashbacks to when we used to go when we were kids!

Makai stayed overnight at Kelly and Jeff’s house. Dallas and I looked up some nice places for dinner and actually ended up going back to Lambeau to a restaurant called 1919 Kitchen & Tap. The food was good but the service was terrible! I also tried their old fashioned.

The next morning Dallas had to go to work for a while. I went to Kelly and Jeff’s and hung out til he was done. Then he picked us up and we headed back to Chicago.

Oh, and KC was hanging out with Jazz the cat and Maggie the dog (and Rachel, Scott and Otis) while we were away!

Spring Break in Washington

Our niece, Lilinoe, was born at the end of 2019, so we booked a trip to see her in the spring of 2020. That trip got canceled + we’re finally using our credits to visit. Lilinoe is already 2 years old! Happy to meet her + see Liz, Jordan + Mahealani, who we haven’t seen for almost 3 years.

Leaving Chicago

Touchdown in Seattle

Breakfast our first morning at Jordan + Liz’s house.

Me + Lili

Mahea + Makai

Mahea + Lili

Makai and his cousins Mahealani + Lilinoe. And meeting their puppy, Betty!

And speaking of Betty…

Makai and I totally fell for this pup and wanted to take her home!

She is a Boston Terrier that Liz got for Jordan for his birthday, making her only a few months old!

We arrived in Seattle on a Thursday night, got our rental car and drove up to Everett, Washington, where we had a hotel room. Since it was late we went right to bed. The next morning we went to Jordan and LIz’s house for breakfast (see photos above) and then spontaneously decided to take a ferry somewhere.

Makai had never been on a ferry up here (he has been on an NYC ferry).

We drove to Edmonds and took the ferry across to Kingston where we had lunch at Westside Pizza + ice cream + played in the Port of Kingston Kiwanis Park before taking the ferry back across.

On the way home from the ferry, we stopped at the Funko Headquarters store in Everett. We’d told Makai about this before the trip and he was SOO excited.
Aside from all the figures for sale, they had a lot of fun displays of the characters they sell. Me with Batman and Robin.

Ironman!

Really cool Harry Potter display!

Disney princess castle.c

Captain America and Stan Lee.

Star Wars

Godzilla

I don’t know how each of these kids finally decided on one figure each! There were THOUSANDS to choose from! Mahea looked at every cat in the store: Mewtwo from Pokemon, Hello Kitty, Crookshanks from Harry Potter, the Cheshire Cat, etc.

Makai chose Captain America, Mahea got Chester Cheetah and Mahea got Hello Kitty.

This is Liz and Jordan’s second house in Lake Stevens. Dallas had visited them at their first place, but I never had been there. We were curious about the actual lake that Lake Stevens was named for, so Jordan took us to Lundeen Park and drove us around the whole lake.

Swimming at the Snohomish (neighboring town) aquatics center. It was SO nice for a public pool! Makai went down a big water slide about 10 times! Liz and Jordan took Mahea, Makai and Lili in. I stayed on the side.

After swimming the kids were soo hungry so we went to Blazing Onion. Liz and Lili went home and Dallas brought his parents to meet us.

Jordan and Liz had a barbecue and some of their friends and Liz’s family came over. I don’t know why I don’t have any photos except this one of Makai picking up McFurry. He was squirming around and Makai yelled “OW, MY NUTS!!!” in front of the whole BBQ. Luckily no one seemed to hear!

Liz and Jordan also have 3 goats that they rescued: Marley, Fig and Peso! Makai LOVED them. Every day he visited them in the barn and fed them different plants to see what they would eat.


Makai liked to ride around on this motorized tractor. He called it his “Joe Deer” and because he can never be wrong, referred to it as that for the whole trip.

Liz took us for a walk by their house.

That same day there was a random freak hail storm that was super localized today! Liz and Kathy were at a store not far away and there was no hail at all! Kind of fun since it wasn’t big enough to do damage.

WHO COULD IT BE??

Jordan and Dallas went to the casino for a while at night. Since Easter was around the corner, the rest of us decided to dye some eggs. Liz and Kathy dumped the leftover dye in the yard and the next day we found an egg out there too!

Dallas and I took Makai in to Seattle to show Makai some of the common tourist sites. It was fun to explore. I hadn’t been to Seattle for a very long time.

The first thing we did was get lunch at The Athenian. Chowder! Oysters! Fish + Chips! (Makai loves fish + chips now. We just had to tell him it was “fish sticks” like he has at school!) We ate very light because we knew there would be a lot of good things to eat at the market!

We walked through Pike Place Market where the vendors were selling all their wares. We saw the flying fishes being thrown and then we walked out through the gum alley and the gum wall! Dallas was SO grossed out!

We next visited the Seattle Aquarium where Makai’s favorite exhibits were the ones with the otters (both river and sea otters). He also told a volunteer “Me and my dad are from Hawaii” and talked about the tropical exhibit and the Hawaiian species there.

Dallas REFUSED to go on The Seattle Great Wheel and instead opted to sit at a bar in the market and drink a beer! Makai was scared, but in a fun way, he said.

Before we left, we stopped at Beecher’s and split a grilled cheese and some mac n cheese, which were both amazing. Jordan and Liz highly recommended Beecher’s and it did not disappoint. They also recommended Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery. We got two pastries to bring to dinner.

For dinner we visited Tandy and Chris on Mercer Island. They were moving literally in a couple days (just down the street), but were still nice enough to have us over and order pizza. Makai and Dallas met up with Tandy recently in Chicago when she was visiting for work, but the last time any of us had seen Chris or the kids was when I was pregnant and we visited them in Japan! Makai instantly made two new friends! Kanoa and Makai are close in age and have the same silly, punny sense of humor!

Jordan took us to Katsu Burger in Lake Stevens. We all really liked it. I had the Fried Chicken Katsu Curry which had curry powder, American cheese, tonkatsu sauce and curry.

After lunch, Jordan took Makai, Dallas and I to BobaKhan Toys. The store is packed with comics, toys and collectibles! They were all loving it! Makai was so overwhelmed when we asked him to pick something. He ended up getting an Avengers graphic novel, a Captain America pin and a magnet by ClockworkArt (Captain America reimagined as a cat).

Makai spent most nights sleeping in Grandma + Grandpa C’s room at Jordan and Liz’s house, while Dallas and I slept in a hotel room in Everett Hampton Inn, which was about a 10 minute drive away. Only on the first and last night did Makai stay with us. ^ Dallas’s parents went to Florida with Caroline’s family and got makai the NASA Cat in the Hat stuffie. The otter is from the Seattle Aquarium and the teddy bear from home.

It was nice in the morning to walk around Everett and do some exploring and to have some time to ourselves. We visited Narrative Coffee, but our favorite quickly became Choux Choux Bakery. It was very close to our hotel, had a daily rotating selection of bread and pastries, the coffee was good and the staff was really friendly.

This mural was near our hotel in Everett. It’s Breonna Taylor and Jatarius Tolbert, a local teen who was murdered.

On our last day of vacation, we decided to go into Seattle and hang out for a few hours, since it’s closer to the airport. Mark the Space Needle off the bucket list.

The Space Needle was fun, especially since there was no line! No photos of Makai because he was too afraid to go by the glass wall or in the rotating glass floor.

We ventured over to Belltown for lunch at Karaage Setsuna, a Japanese/Hawaiian restaurant. Makai asked to try the egg and spam maki then pounded the entire roll plus some fries and karaage chicken! Loved the restaurant and the neighborhood!

Our last activity in Seattle before heading to the airport was the Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit. Dale Chihuly is from Tacoma and famous for his glass sculptures. I was so excited that we could now see his work while visiting Seattle – last time it was only in Tacoma. Everything was so gorgeous, I took sooo many photos!

Bring Your Kid to Work Day

 Since our acquisition Pizza Hut has been trying to bring some of the cool culture into our office. One thing they did was host a Bring Your Kid to Work Day. It was so much fun to hang out with the kids and get to know our coworkers a bit more by meeting their families.

 Makai was really surprised about how many toys people had on their desks! He liked Chris’s toys!

 Grace is boss!

 Video games!

 Pizza-themed art!

Big ups to Casey, who had just started working here on Monday and who planned and executed the whole day without a hitch! She planned activities, treat bags, and food for all of the kids!

After our office activities, we all got on a trolly and went to Navy Pier! Everyone took a spin on the ferris wheel. Afterwards, Makai and I also went on a boat ride. Fun fun day!

Update: The next day my coworkers noticed that Makai “tagged” at least 3 whiteboards with his name!

Navy Pier

On Jess’s second day of her visit I took her to Navy Pier. I haven’t been to the pier for years, so it was time. Jess had visited Navy Pier before, but she was very young (2004, 2005). I asked her if she remembered and she said she can’t remember a lot from when she was little. Funny. In my mind she is still “little.” Hahha. She is the ripe old age of 8.


Rachelle & Jessica :: Seadog Boat Cruise


Quinn :: Seadog Boat Cruise


Our captain.


Chicago Skyline from Seadog Lake Cruise


Chicago Harbor Lighthouse from the Seadog Lake Cruise

A month or so ago I saw a Groupon for Seadog boat cruises. I thought this would be something fun for Jess and I to do, so I bought it. I invited Quinn to join us, so we met Jen and Chad and Chad’s dad, who was in town from Baltimore, on the pier. We were doing the 30-minute lake tour. Seadog also does Chicago River architecture tours and some kind of extreme ride where they go really fast and spin in circles and who knows what.

For the lake tour we would go fast for a bit and then slow down and the guide would point out some things in the skyline and then go fast again. I think we went about 40 mph. I’m not sure, though, because the guide was terrible and had really bad jokes, so I was trying not to listen. It was a fun ride. Definitely worth the Groupon price of $13. And, it was great to be on the water and get the breeze, since it was 90+ degrees, 100 with the heat index, that day. HOT.


Navy Pier Swings

After the boat ride, Quinn went off to the Children’s Museum (located on the pier) for a while and Jess and I headed for the rides on Navy Pier. Jess had been telling me about how she went to Bay Beach, an amusement park in Green Bay, and how she really liked the swing ride there. She wanted to try the swings on Navy Pier, but wasn’t so sure when I told her she’d have to ride herself because I get sick going in circles! I told her I’d wait right at the exit and it would be fine. She manned up and went on the ride and even told me later on that she was brave enough to barely even hold on! Daredevil.

Funny side note about Bay Beach. Our family used to go there when I was young. The way that Jess was describing the rides to me, it seems like nothing has changed. I remembered going on the rides she told me she went on. One difference was that Jess told me they had a roller coaster now, which they never had before. Back when we used to go, it was like our parents and aunts and uncles would stake out a spot by Lake Michigan and hand my cousins and I some money. We’d go buy tickets and candy or whatever and disappear for the day. Just meet them back up on the grass for a picnic later. I don’t think this is how Jess’s trip went!

So, after the swings we met back up with Quinn and his family for lunch and then we were back on our own, off for more rides!


Jessica on the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel


Rachelle & Jessica. Right after this Jess actually spoke up to request that I don’t take any more photos of her!


Views from the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel


View of the swings from the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel

Jess had also told me that the ferris wheel at Bay Beach was boring and she didn’t like it. When she saw how big the ferris wheel at Navy Pier was, she decided she wanted to give it a second try. Here’s the thing: The Navy Pier ferris wheel goes so slow. Like so slow that it never even stops to let people on and off. They just exit and board while the thing is moving… slowly moving. And you only get one trip around. Afterwards Jess told me that it was boring and she didn’t like it. Figures!


Cirque Shanghai Extreme


Cirque Shanghai Extreme Motorcycle


Cirque Shanghai Extreme Motorcycle stunt


There are FOUR motorcycles in there!

Our final activity on the pier was to see the Cirque Shanghai Extreme show. I took my other niece Stephanie to a show similar to this a couple years ago and she really liked it. This Cirque show is kind of like a variety show with groups of performers coming out and doing different tricks and acrobatics and balancing acts. One of the biggest additions to this show was the acrobatics they did with motorcycles in the show’s finale. They rode the motorbikes on a wire over the audience and did tricks from above the middle of the audience. They also rode the bikes in a metal ball. I thought it was impressive when they did one, but then they added another and another and another. At the end there were 4 motorcycles riding around in the metal ball. Crazy. I couldn’t tell if Jess liked the show or not. She seemed interested, but afterwards wouldn’t really say. (She is still SO SO shy and mostly not talkative around us. Especially Dallas, who she has not spoken a word to in her whole life.)

This day turned out to be a long day, just because it was so hot outside, I think. I was so sweaty and tired when we got home. Plus, we took a bus and a train each way to get out there. Ugh! But it was a fun day and worth it. On the ride north to meet Amanda, I did get Jess to admit she had a fun weekend, so that is good. Before her visit she had told me more than once that she didn’t even want to come for a visit, but I’m glad she did. Despite her shyness and lack of openness to us, I think it is good for her and fun for me to have her around. Hopefully it will get better as she gets older (I’ve been saying this for about 6 years!).

Toys R Us Times Square is Hell on Earth
During the Holiday Shopping Season

Toys R Us Ferris Wheel

Toys R Us Ferris Wheel

Toys R Us Ferris Wheel

Toys R Us Ferris Wheel
Ferris Wheel, Toys R Us, Times Square, Manhattan

Toys R Us
Crowds of People at Toys R Us, Times Square, Manhattan

I think it’s the number of people that really gets to me inside Toys R Us. That, and it’s all lit up with crazy music playing because it’s in Times Square. And when you walk in you’re greeted with a huge Ferris wheel that is as tall as the store’s 3 stories. So people are there for entertainment, not just shopping. And there are little kids running around everywhere. And I wander around for almost 2 hours and still only have one toy picked out. I love shopping for clothes for my nieces but when it comes to toys I never know what to get. I like looking at the toys but when it comes to buying them I never know what is age appropriate for them and since I only see them a couple times a year I’m not sure what they’re into and what they already have. And everything is so foreign to me.

Christmas 2001 Toys R Us Shopping Stress