To Marinette and Back Home

Last week I had to travel to Marinette, WI for work.  Marinette is quite a hike from Madison.  It's about a 3 1/2 hour drive one-way.  I always tell the same story about Marinette.  When I first got to Wisconsin and the Human Resources Manager for the company I work for told me Marinette was in my area of supervision, I had to ask where it was because I had never heard of it.  He told me that Marinette is located north of Green Bay.  I responded with indignant exasperation:  "North of Green Bay??  I didn't know there was anything north of Green Bay.....except Canada."

But, alas, way up there north of Green Bay is Marinette, Wisconsin.  It's a backwards kind of small town.  The reason I went up there last week was to attend the areas annual employee recognition event, combined with celebrating the company's 35th anniversary.  It was the 7th of these events I have attended this year.  7 down, 1 to go.  I'm ready for them to be over.

One of the people we support in Marinette (keep in mind we support people with developmental disabilities), walked into the party and immediately asked loudly:  "Where's the beer??"  When he was told there wasn't any, his follow-up question was:  "What kind of party is this??"  I'm thinking: I know, right??  When giving out the recognition awards to staff, this same gentleman proclaimed, "you need a hair cut" when one particular staff went up to get her award.  Needless to say, I was highly amused by this gentleman.  (And the staff person did need a hair cut.)

One more note about an attendee at the party.  This woman took a shine to the HR manager.  She tried to lay a big fat kiss on him right in the party.  The next day, we visited her at her home.  She told me how much she loves The Backstreet Boys and kept referring to one of the band members by name, but I couldn't really understand what she was saying.  She did tell me that she wanted to hug and kiss this guy from The Backstreet Boys.....and she also told me she wanted to give him a hickey.  I'm sure it was totally wrong that I laughed out loud.

Anyhoo, my past trips to Marinette have always been (long) day trips.  This time, though, because of the things I was scheduled to do when I was there, I stayed over night.  I didn't actually stay in Marinette.  If you cross the bridge in downtown Marinette, you end up in Michigan.  I stayed at a very average AmericInn in Menominee, Michigan.  While the hotel itself wasn't anything to write home about, what was amazing about it was that it was about 50 yards from Green Bay (the body of water, not the city).  My room had a balcony that looked right out on the water.  Pretty cool.  It was stormy with high winds the night I was there, so the water in the Bay was very choppy.  I took the picture below from the balcony of my room.

You can see how rough the water is in the shot above.  You can also see where that tree snapped in the high winds.

Down the street from the hotel was this place.

Pasties?  Aren't those the things stripper wear to cover up certain private parts?

Apparently in this case, pasties are actually meat pies.  (There has to be a joke here somewhere......)

I did my thing in Marinette on Thursday and Friday then headed for home, driving under a spectacular Wisconsin sky.

I am fascinated by the sky here (in case you haven't noticed by how often I write about it.)  I took the picture above out the windshield of my car while I was driving.  Is taking pictures while you are driving worse than texting?  Probably. But I did it fast.  The clouds here seem to sit so low, making the sky look vividly 3-D.

I was glad to get home Friday afternoon.  My trip to Marinette was good, but home is always my favorite place to be.  Scott and I went out for a few cocktails and then to dinner.  We had a drink at The Continental and another one at Bon Fyre.  We then tried a new place (new to us) for a casual dinner named Tony Franks.  We were told this is the oldest bar in Madison.  I think the bar tender said it has been in the same location since 1929.  It's in an old house, right off the Beltline, close to my office.

Inside was typical tavern:  nothing fancy.  comfortable.

Tony Franks has one of those flat top grills behind the bar.

 

In my experience, some damn good food comes off those things.  This was no exception.  Scott has a "Coach's Reuben", which was basically just a Reuben with creamy cole slaw instead of sauerkraut and I had a bacon bleu cheese burger.  Both were so flippin' good.  Healthy?  No.  Damn good?  Yes.

Now, I'm going to tell you something about myself that maybe I should be ashamed to admit (although I think I admitted this before when I wrote a post about The Old Fashioned).  I like PBR.  Not out of a can or bottle, but on draught when it's really cold.

Well, look-y there.  Tony Franks has PBR on draught. (Of course they do).  I ordered one up.

Scott made fun of me at first, but don't think he didn't end up ordering one too.  Nice and cold.  Went down smooth.

So, that about sums it up for now.  A little about my trip to Marinette (and Michigan) and dinner at Tony Franks.  I'm going to write about a stop I made at a cheese shop on my way home from Marinette.  Next time.  For now I'll say (write) this:

#1  I'm glad to be home from Marinette.
#2  Tony Franks is on the "we'll go there again sometime" list.