Adventure Stories

This last week was a whirlwind. We have some fun recent adventures to tell you about in this blog post - talking, talking, and more talking, little kids acting out our life story, and going to a secret club. Intrigued yet? Or just confused?

Our week started off with a trip up to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. We were invited up to Kohler-Andrae State Park to give a talk at their spring dinner. We stayed at their campground for 2 days during our trip around the lake, so we were excited to be back up in the area to share our full story. We did our normal presentation - as per usual we got quite a few laughs :)

Here we talked about all of the great people that helped us out when we were passing by Sheboygan! We reminisced about the days spent at the state park on our trip - Ed, the park manager, and his wife, Carol, helped us get into town to go to the library to blog and to the grocery store to pick up some essential Wisconsin brats...we did an epoxy repair on the beach...the kayaking group came down to see Makeba on the shore after sunset, having a racoon break into our tent to eat some of our food...good times.

We stayed with Ed and Carol and their friends Pat and Pat. We have realized that we are awful at remembering to take pictures with our new friends...so if you ever meet us, be sure to remind us that we want a photo with you. Because we do.

These are the only photographs that got snapped the next morning - us working on a puzzle and Pat cooking the bacon and eggs. We had a blast!

On the drive home we stopped at the John Kohler Arts Center. We highly recommend stoppping by this cool outsider art gallery! If for nothing more than using their public restrooms that also have great wall art. This is the ladies room, the men's room was great as well. Yes, we took a peak.

 We were also sure to pick up some Wisconsin cheese and beer before we left the state. The beer we found was from New Glarus Brewing and was called "Two Women." We paired it with some of Leinenkugel's "Canoe Paddler." Could we have picked better beer for such an adventure?!

Our next adventure involved heading over to the Porter County Museum of History  (where Makeba is on display until June 15th!) At the museum some local students were participating in a Reader's Theatre about the stories featured in the museum's exhibits. Groups of first graders and fifth graders performed skits written by Valparaiso University Elementary Education majors. It was almost too cute to handle.

Here is a group of first graders acting out how Makeba came to be a traveling boat. They started with tree headbands and then turned them around to show a construction paper canoe on the back. I'll say it again, adorable.

There were 8 parts written into the next groups skit, so Amy got to play herself in the play. Here we are practicing our lines outside.

Get ready, we're up next!

Amy with Little Mary - paddling in Makeba, which was made up of two other young actresses. Other actors were the Wind, Sail, and Tent.

At this point in the skit Amy and Little Mary found an old talking treasure chest on the beach. I wish this actually happened on our trip!

Amy and Little Amy from another adorable skit! I wish I were wearing my glasses in this picture.

After the skits, we checked out the dream wall in the exhibit. There are some great dreams being put up these days!

Then this past Saturday we were invited to dinner at the Adventurers Club of Chicago. We weren't sure what to expect other than great things. We gotta say, their Clubhouse really delivered on exceptional stories and great company.

Flags of past adventures and prestigious expeditions hang on the ceiling.

And there are epic mountings and paintings everywhere you look. Here is a painting of one of their most famous members, Theodore Roosevelt.

Mary, smiling for the camera. And if you didn't notice, there is a giant polar bear behind Mary.

Exactly what you'd expect from a long standing adventurers club. They even had shrunken heads - which once again, we failed to get a picture of. Doh!

We tried to stay classy while viewing the Clubhouse, but it was just so hard. Everything was so amazing that we couldn't help but get a little excited. We had fun shooting the breeze with some long-standing members.

After a fantastic meal, we were treated to a talk by Marthe Cohn. She is one amazing lady and the author of "Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany." She told us about life during German occupation in France, followed by her enlistment to the French Army as a registered nurse, and how she was inducted into the Army Intelligence Service, and how she performed her service as a spy in Germany during the Holocaust. Here are the numerous impressive awards that she has received from all around the world for her service during the war.

The Adventurers Club presented her with a certificate for her great achievements.

She was also incredibly adorable and charming. We overheard that she was 93 years old and she told us that at her tallest she was 4'11". Many times during the resistance she was told to go home to her mother by different authorities. She ended up becoming an insturmental spy in the ending of the war. It was like hearing a history book tell it's story. We are so glad we were present to hear her speak.

Here we are with some of our dinner neighbors. What an exciting time!

Adventure on!