Vacation Time!

     This September I've been away in Wisconsin. My grandmother and I went to visit her third husband's cousin's wife (very complicated, I know) in Madison. It was a wonderful trip and we got to see a lot of different places and sights. Some highlights were the American Players Theatre production of Hamlet, the Mid-Continent Railway Museum, the Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue, and spending a week in the Northwoods.
     Hamlet was a stunning production. The American Players Theatre is centered in Spring Green, WI and has both an indoor and outdoor stage. This summer the woman my Gra'ma and I were staying with, we'll call her Mrs. Lucas, went to see APT's production of Hamlet. She absolutely loved it and insisted we go to a production. I have seen a couple different versions of the play, including Kenneth Branaugh's movie and Laurence Olivier's performance, and I wasn't expecting to be impressed, let alone blown away. Matt Schwader as Hamlet was stunning. I absolutely loved it! Mrs. Lucas also took Gra'ma and I to The Night of the Iguana, a Tennessee Williams play, and I was still spinning from how completely the cast of Hamlet took me from my here and now and transported me into the story like only a good book does.
     I think my favorite part, however, was that afterward the audience was given the opportunity to speak with the actors and have questions answered. I learned that Eric Parks, Laertes, attended my Alma Mater and I got to speak with him about that as well as the play itself. A bonus was that one of the women in the audience also attended Pacific Lutheran University, and her son roomed with Matt in college. Not only was the experience amazing theatrically, but it was driven home to me how interconnected the world can be, and how influential collegiate connections can be.

     Over the course of my four weeks in Wisconsin, Mrs. Lucas did not have internet. This is understandable: she gave up her computer when her husband became ill several years ago and there was no reason to continue paying for internet when she had no ability to use it. This did make for some complications though. You'd never realize how much we depend on the internet, or any of our other electronics, until they are taken away completely. I learned this when we trekked into the Northwoods for a week. It was a wonderful week full of visiting with friends and exploring the beauty of Autumn descending on the Midwest, but it was also a week without television, internet, cell phones, or even a landline! The next nearest neighbor was ten minutes down the road, and the nearest internet connection was an hour into town. In contrast I got a lot of reading done, wrote about the books I'd read, and just relaxed. With Gra'ma and Mrs. Lucas reminiscing about everything and anything they could come up with, it was nice to have some time to myself. Especially in such a beautiful setting.
     In our last couple weeks in Wisconsin, Mrs. Lucas wanted to expose both Gra'ma and me to as much of the area as possible. We started with a trip to the Overture Center where we had a beautiful dinner atop the building at the rooftop restaurant Fresco. Then we explored a Swiss town to the south west that didn't seem much different than any Midwest town I'd been to, but it was some sort of tourist spot. Next Mrs. Lucas took us to Baraboo and the surrounding area where we went to the Railway museum and rode the train.
     The Mid-Continent Railway Museum is in North Freedom, Wisconsin, and houses several steam and diesel engines. They both restore and run the trains that are donated to the Museum. All the work is done by volunteers, with some experts called in for specialty work, and the only paid workers are the ticket agents and the gift-shop employees. It was a wonderful place, the people were friendly and wanted to share their love of railways with everyone. The train rides are over three miles of track owned and operated by the museum and its volunteers. The rides run over the summer, ending the third week of October each year, with special events in November and February.
     We got to ride the train first class in the dining car. It was exciting; I've always loved trains and getting to visit the Jamestown, California, train museum made this trip no less exciting. Trains on the west coast are different than trains in the Midwest, though most people wouldn't think so. Gra'ma kept telling us about her experiences on trains when her father was a roundhouse foreman. She even knew the name of a particular train when no one else did! It was interesting to see such a vibrant recreation of the past in a small town in Southern Wisconsin.
     On the way back from the Railway Museum, we stopped by the Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue. They have twenty-nine cats that have been donated, rescued, or born at the rescue. We were there around naptime so the cats weren't very active, but they were beautiful! It was a nice foil to a small zoo we visited in Baraboo, WI. The zoo wasn't anything near what I've always considered a zoo, only three or four acres. They had some pretty cool animals, most of which are from North America. They had a bear, a couple wolves, deer, llamas, and a couple golden pheasants. I wasn't too impressed, but it was in a beautiful park and it was a free zoo, so I'm surprised they had so many animals from outside the area.
     I had a great time in Wisconsin; caught up on reading, explored the area, and had fun with family. I missed my parents, and especially my dog. But It's always fun to get away from daily life. I hope everyone gets a chance to do something like my trip, something out of the ordinary, and something to simply get away.

Stephie