Entries Tagged as 'kelly'

Blarney Island

August 26th, 2011 · No Comments

So, we took the boat over from Port of Blarney to Blarney Island. Let me be clear when I say that this is not a bar ON and island, but the bar IS the island. It’s location is a mile off-shore in Green Lake, nearby Antioch, IL, inspiring their slogan “A Mile Away From Reality.”

The story is that in the early 1900s Blarney Island was a houseboat on the Fox River. Jack O’Connor owned this houseboat and across the way he had some big competition from Shorty Shobin’s place, known as Shorty’s. Well, one night in a poker game they each bet their businesses and Shorty lost. Over the years Blarney Island has grown immensely and changed hands many times. IN 1939, a dam was put up in McHenry, which flooded the riverbanks. The dam created what is now Grass Lake and also cut Blarney Island off from dry land access, making it an official island.

Ok. Enough of the history lesson. If you want to read more, go here.


Dallas

When we arrived we all got out of the boat and kind of looked around, wandered around. Dallas bee-lined for the food ordering window, which was the best thing we could have done. (Aside from my bee-line for the bathroom.)

We sat inside at the lower bar for a while and ate and had a beer. Someone (not me) took these photos of our scantily-clad waitresses down there.

Really gross, though. I looked up and saw all this underwear hanging from the ceiling! Ugh! Time to go outside!

Outside it was a gorgeous day. There was a band playing cover songs. Pretty fun. Actually, when they went on a break they were just playing songs on the speakers and I danced with Brian to All the Single Ladies and possibly more songs. When the band came back, I was on the stage talking to them about what to play. I requested Miley Cyrus (inside joke) but they said no.


Front: Rachelle & Christine Back: Dallas, Sara, Todd, Kelly

The deck outside was really nice. It was great to be in the sun, as this summer comes to a close. There were outside bars, outside band, outside dance floor, outside tables and chairs. This is not a place to go in bad weather.

Here’s the outside bar. Blarney Island claims to be “The Key West of the Midwest” and not only that, also “The Greatest Boating Bar in the World.” Key West because it’s decorated with “palm trees, boats, babes, bikinis, booze and more“. The greatest boating bar because it’s an island you can drive your boat right up to.


Mike & Sara

I honestly do not know how long we sat outside drinking beer and listening to the band. Here’s Mikey with my sunglasses on. My busted sunglasses. Adam and I were spinning in circles.. more like he grabbed my arm and spun me… and my sunglasses went flying off and the lenses popped out. No biggie, though. I only get cheapo sunglasses for this reason!

Maybe Blarney Island should also claim to be the best helicopter bar. At one point a helicopter landed there and some guys got out to hang out at the bar. Crazy. I ran over to see what was going on and some bouncer/security stopped me before I could get too close. I think he said one of the owners has a helicopter? I’m not sure now.

Saw this funny sign in the bathroom.


Kelly, Sara, Rachelle

At some point (I have no idea what time it was) we had to go to meet the van we hired to pick us up (no cabs out here). Here we are waiting for the boat to arrive to take us back to the Port of Blarney.


Christine & Adam

Adam & Christine waiting for the boat.


Dallas

Dallas being an idiot on the boat…..


Sara & Brian

… while Sara and Brian enjoy a romantic boat ride.


Brian, Todd, Dallas

At that point we probably should have just gone home, but NO. We ended up going to some townie bars in Antioch. First was The Tavern Depot. If I remember correctly, this was in a strip mall kind of area. And it was empty. Like just us and the band. The bartender was sweet though, and we filled up on free popcorn and some pizza while playing pool.


Todd

Next we walked over to Limerick Lounge, which was really packed. It was a party going on in there!


Todd, Mike, Brian

At some point some of our group left and went to Rugans, which was where we finally met up. There was a guy here playing the guitar and singing. I asked him to play Miley Cyrus and he said NO. I was getting so tired by now. As you can see above, everyone was pretty much DONE! Time to go home.

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Port of Blarney

August 25th, 2011 · No Comments


Port of Blarney

Our day at the Bristol Renaissance Faire was a long one, but little did I realize at the time, it was only about half over! The van picked us up from the faire and took us on a short ride to a bar called Port of Blarney in Antioch, IL.


Port of Blarney

Here’s a fun fact: I spent an entire evening and night in Antioch and thought I was in Wisconsin! Antioch is about a mile or so south of the Wisconsin and Illinois border, but is on the Illinois side.


Brian, Mike, Adam, Adam

So, why’s the bar called PORT of Blarney? Because it’s where you go to take a boat out to Blarney Island, an island bar known as the Key West of the Midwest…. according to them. I didn’t really understand before we got there. I thought there was an island in Grass Lake and someone built a bar on the island. The fact is that the bar IS the island.


Rachelle, Kelly, Sara, Christine

It was a beautiful day, so we all sat outside and enjoyed some beverages while we waited for the boat to arrive to pick us up. This guy kept getting in our photos.


Kelly, Rachelle, Photobomber

See? It was on purpose, I’m sure!


Sara, Brian, Kelly, Todd

Finally, after about one drink, the boat arrived and took us out to Blarney Island. More on that to come….

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Bristol Renaissance Faire – Part 2

August 24th, 2011 · No Comments

Continuing on with our day at the Bristol Renaissance Faire (see part 1 here). We continued walking on and came upon this parade of people dressed up. This jester(?) got all up in our faces yelling about “the queen is coming! the queen is coming!”

The parade was actually pretty cool. People were dressed very elaborately. No one was really doing any tricks or anything.. just walking.

When we could see the queen then the jester really went nuts in his excitement. Dallas asked “Which one’s the queen?” and the jester was all like “duh!”

Dallas said something like “You’re the queen?” and the queen looked back and waved, saying “One of them!”

Dallas looked on in disbelief.

Shortly after we posed for a photo. Kelly took this photo three times to get it just right. I didn’t realize til later that “just right” meant getting Adam and Brian’s head perfectly between ours in the background! Photobomb!

Throwing more knives. One of the actors let Adam wear his hat. He looks like a Country Western singer. I’m not sure that’s exactly what this hat is supposed to do.

And then we came upon another Jacobs Ladder. Adam had already failled at this thing several times earlier in the day. Here he is getting suckered into trying it again.

What did he think? 5 more beers would help his balance?

Uh… nope!

I’m not going to call this guy a jerk, but……

… right after Adam failed to climb the ladder three more times, this guy had to go and climb the ladder backwards, standing straight up, just to show off.


Dallas, Christine, Kelly, Todd, Adam, Mike


Christine

Christine really wanted me to go on this ride with her. She asked me beforehand but I said I’d have to see it. I didn’t totally “get” what it was. No one else wanted to go, and before I could figure out what it was and if I wanted to do it, I was getting strapped in.

The contraption mixes trampolines with bungees so when you jump you spring up 50 feet (?) 100 feet (?) in the air. It looked something like this. Christine had gone on this thing a few times before and was an advanced jumper. She was even doing flips and stuff. Check out this video of this girl doing a zillion flips on this bungee trampoline. Christine didn’t do that many, but enough to freak me out.

I didn’t do flips. I just held on. And screamed. I made a mistake in the beginning by telling the ride operator that my friend made me go on this thing. And then as he was hooking me in he made some comment like “oh, you got the broken harness. I don’t know why they keep sending people back with this broken harness. I keep telling them not to. ” And then he sprung me into the air 100 feet. And I screamed!!! I don’t know why I even believed him. Oh, wait. It was because I drank 10 beers that day. Also, I made the mistake of telling him that my friend right there was doing flips but there was no way I was going to do a flip. Then he told me he was going to press the button to make me do a flip. “Ready? 1…. 2….. 3…” And I was screaming “Don’t press the button!! I Don’t want to flip!” As if there’s a button to press to do that! Again….. 10 beers! Anyway, by the time I got out of there I was just thankful to be alive. Everyone was watching the whole time and got a good laugh. Dallas took this photo and while it’s not very flattering, I think it’s hysterical, so I had to post it.

Since I’d just had a near-death experience, I passed on the rock climbing wall we came across next. It seemed like too much work! I did a lot of wall climbing in high school, but I had no idea if I could still do it today.

Christine, Adam, Kelly and I think Brian were all over the wall.

Todd climbed too. And he got beat by a little girl. He did not get teased at all!

I showed this photo to Adam on my little camera screen and he was all “Whoa! Where is she!?” and then when I pointed he seemed so disappointed that it was a statue. Hilarious.

I don’t think I’ve ever been on an elephant before? I don’t know how I feel about this feature, in hindsight. The elephants didn’t seem to have a very good life. Kind of like the ponies you see everywhere for kids. Adam tried to say something about this and the workers were quick to point out this bulletin board they had displayed with photos of the elephants living it up in the off season. They must hear this complaint a lot.

Plus, for $6 you only got to go in one small lap. Plus, I had to let Mikey O straddle me!

Near the exit I spotted these two. No expressions. They didn’t move. Kind of freaky.

And that was about it. Fun, fun, fun first trip to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. I’m almost afraid to go again because it can’t live up to it!

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Bristol Renaissance Fair – Part 1

August 23rd, 2011 · No Comments

On Saturday we joined friends, Adam, Christine, Todd, Kelly, Brian, Sara, Mike, and Adam, at the Bristol Renaissance Faire just over the Wisconsin/Illinois border in Bristol, Wisconsin. I’d never been to the faire before and was interested to see what it was like.

Adam, Todd and Brian have a lake house nearby Bristol and they’ve gone to the faire the past few years. Since their house is so close, we made plans to stay there overnight. Also, because we’re old responsible people now, we hired a van to take us to the faire and then to some bars and then back home. There aren’t really cabs up there, so that was the only option for not drinking and driving.

Ok. First things first. I had no idea what to expect of this faire and what I really did not expect were permanent, solid structures. They must use these buildings for 3 months (the faire runs July – September) of the year and then they must just sit for the 3 other seasons of the year. Also, you don’t have to wear costumes to attend, but the people working there all have on very elaborate period costumes. They also all act in character. Some work at stands, some are in shows, some are just wandering around. I’m really interested to know what these people do on the off season!


Adam Crack

One of the first things we saw when we came in the door was a guy doing a show with a whip. His name was Adam Crack. This guy holds 7 Guinness World Records for things like longest whip ever cracked, most whip cracks in a minute, most candles extinguished in a minute with a whip and most drink cans broken with a whip in three minutes. Pretty impressive, but we moved on quickly. It was past noon and we needed food and drink pronto!


Clockwise: Brian, Adam, Adam & Todd, Mike

I’d been hearing the guys talking about the turkey legs you get at the Renaissance Faire. They were pretty much exactly what I imagined. I don’t know why guys like these things so much! I didn’t even take one bite.


Artichokes, Spanish Fries, Kabob-wich

Here are a few things I did bite, though. Artichoke hearts freshly steamed and served with butter. In the middle are Spanish fries. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. These were like potato wedges with grilled onions and nacho cheese sauce. Still good, though. Kelly and I split one of these kabob-wiches: garlic and lemon buttered skewers with fresh veggies on a bun. We also split a sausage with onions and sauerkraut. Oh, and Dallas and I tried a free sample of cheese fritters and they were so light and puffy and delicious.


Adam + Big Pickle

Adam seemed to really enjoy this very large pickle!

And….. it was Wisconsin, afterall. Brats!


Adam & Mike

Sword and shield shop. Boys will be boys!


Black Widow

This lady did not talk or attempt contact at all. She just quietly made her spiderwebs. It was eery!


Adam

Adam got suckered into trying this game. The ladder is secured at the top with a rope on a tree and on the bottom to the ground. For $2 you get three tries to climb it. If you make it to the top they give you $10. That should have been the first indication of how hard it is!


Adam

Here’s what happened to him every time. That guy had straw on him all day. Just to prove it can be done, the faire worker climbed up the ladder after Adam failed several times.

I visited this area many times during the day!

We arrived at this area right in time for the jousting match. Some knight called Maximilian won. Later on Dallas somehow recognized him in the parade and shouted out to him.


Dallas

Dallas got caught up in this Vegetable Justice game. As he was walking buy some guy told him that he could get a free toss because he was wearing a hat. Of course, he ended up buying more tosses. (He took the hat off while throwing.)

The thing with this game is that you have to throw tomatoes. And you know how much Dallas hates tomatoes! The tomatoes are cut in a way that makes them hard to throw. Also, the guy you’re trying to hit is launching insults at you the whole time, so it’s hard to concentrate. They even had a sign that said “This is an insult game! Do not play if you are easily offended!” I can’t remember what they said about Dallas. Something about Charlie Sheen is so far undercover that he’s disguising himself as Asian. Something like that. Look at how hard the couple behind Dallas are laughing. It must have been something funny!


Adam

Next up: Archery. Beer and arrows: What could go wrong!?


Adam

I don’t think I’ve shot an arrow since archery in junior high. Sara said she had to take it in junior high too. I still have bruises on my arm from where the bow string snapped me back.

Even better than archery: Knife throwing! Beer and knives: What could go wrong!?


Dallas

Actually, there were quite a few areas that you could throw different kind of knives and axes. I think the guys hit them all up.

Elaborately dressed and rich with our money faire worker!


Todd


Brian

Next up was the strong man competition. I think we bought about 15 swings and everyone got at least one turn.


Rachelle

Every guy hit the bell, some on the first try, some after a few tries. Every girl only made it to the plague flea level!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Bristol Renaissance Faire day!

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Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

August 17th, 2011 · 2 Comments

Over the weekend Dallas and I drove up to Wisconsin to visit my parents. They moved from their house in Waupaca to a new house in Greenville shortly before our wedding in February, but we just have not gotten a chance to get up and see it until now. The area where they live is very nice. The house is newer, the yard is bigger than a city lot, but not too big to keep up. I realized when I got home that I had not even one photo from their house!

When we arrived, we hung around and barbecued. My cousins Dawn and Kelly visited. Kelly brought Mark along and it was nice to finally meet him. We ate tons of food. I can’t even think of it all: Spinach dip, fruit salad, homemade salsa, Kelly brought pasta salad, turkey burgers, salmon, brats, cheddarwurst… We brought down Chicago-brewed Finch’s beer, my dad had some Wisconsin-brewed Central Waters, and there was also the local classic, Miller Lite.


Rachelle & Fang


Fox Cities Stadium Beer


Dad, Dawn, Rachelle, Dallas, Kelly, Mark, Mom

After dinner, my mom and dad treated us to a baseball game at Fox Cities Stadium. This is where the minor league Wisconsin Timber Rattlers play. The stadium was just opened right before I moved away from Wisconsin. I’d been to a game there maybe once or twice, but it had been 10+ years ago.

It was a fun time. Something different to do. The crowd there was really into the game. The Wisconsin Timbler Rattlers were playing the Quad Cities River Bandits. Before the game my dad made me get my photo taken with the Timber Rattler’s mascot, Fang. So, I stood in line behind the 8-year-olds and got my photo taken. I think it turned out cute, though.

From concessions, we drank beer specially made for the Timber Rattlers: Snaketail Ale and Rattler Brau Scottish Ale. Both are locally made in Appleton by the Stone Cellar Brew Pub. The Snaketail Ale was pretty good.


The Sweet Adelines sang the Star Spangled Banner.


Play Ball Kid, sponsored by the Post Crescent


Our seats were right behind Home Plate. At $10, they were the most expensive seats in the park!


Game highlights via TimberRattlerTV on YouTube


Strange bachelorette party in front of us.


Post-game fireworks.

The game itself was pretty interesting. The Timber Rattlers did not get even one run, but it was still fun. Dallas wasn’t cheering for them anyway! We were looking through the program before the game started and he noticed that the opposing team had a player, Kolten Wong, from Hilo who went to Dallas’s old school, Kamehameha, so he decided to cheer for them!

Minor League games are a lot different than Major League. Most notably, everything has a sponsor. Everything. Even the lighting was sponsored by a local lighting company. And in between batting and innings, there were all kinds of promos. Tons of promos. And they, of course, were all sponsored. Dallas said maybe this is to off set the cost of the stadium?

After the game we stayed in our seats for a fireworks show. It was pretty good. We didn’t see fireworks on the Fourth of July, so this made up for that. Mark and Kelly headed home and Dawn came over to my parents to visit just a bit longer, while Dallas attempted to polish off the last of her spinach dip. (He didn’t succeed but we took it home and he finished it the next night!)


Blueberry Hill Pancake House, Appleton, WI

In the morning we got up and went to breakfast at Blueberry Hill Pancake House, a place Dawn recommended to us. She mentioned it was the old Country Kitchen, but it wasn’t until I was inside sitting down that I realized how many times I’d been there before. Late night and for breakfasts and dinners. Total flashback!

Overall a great trip to Wisconsin. Short, but still good. It was nice to finally see where my parents are living. I’m a little envious of their yard and patio off the dining room. I wish we had a bit more grass. Anyway, their place is nice and they seem to really enjoy it and that’s what counts.

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