Balloons, Vino, Art, and Abe

There is a weekend in August when I can't help but be incredibly excited that I live in L-Town. It's a weekend that I wish came more than once a year.

It happened last weekend. It's the Art & Balloon festival, which now also includes a wine festival and flea markets galore.

This year, downtown L-Town was packed with people attending the art fair, the wine fest, the farmer's markets, and the flea markets.

And out at the airport, there were more crowds enjoying fair food and rides, live music, and (of course) the beautiful hot-air balloons.

On Saturday morning, I headed straight for the farmer's market on my bike (with my new basket for carrying my purchases). I also made a stop at the annual book sale in the basement of the library.

And I even hit up a few garage sales on the way home.

At one, I ran into Abe Lincoln. For real. A walking, talking Abe dressed for work in his standard black suit. He rode up to the garage sale on his motorcycle, with his signature hat strapped to the back of the bike.

I guess even lawyers and presidents like Abe enjoy a good garage sale now and then.

About an hour later, I went back downtown on my bike and checked out the flea markets a bit.

And then two hours after that, I joined Kid Sister and Conservative Mom downtown again for the art fair.


We perused the art and sculpture and pottery and jewelry. And before we left, I bought a mug to match the one I bought two years ago. And some beautiful copper earrings with the Celtic circle, which represents the interdependence of life.

Then, that evening, Conservative Hubby and I headed to Kid Sister and T-Bear's for a BBQ. It was delicious and fun, so much so that we almost missed the balloon glow at the airport. Fortunately, we arrived just in time to see the end of it and enjoy the band a bit.



And Sunday? Sunday it was time for the wine tent. We (even Conservative Hubby!) sampled a variety of tasty Central Illinois wines, and I bought a bottle of driest red I could find. (Note to self: Central Illinois is all about sweet wine.)


All in all, not a bad weekend, eh?

You're welcome to join us for the fun next year. Assuming we're not at a wedding, that is ...

Trouble in Milwaukee

As I mentioned when I introduced you to the lovely little Norah the other day, when the girls took over Milwaukee for the weekend we got into a bit of trouble.

You see, we decided to head downtown for an afternoon at the Summerfest grounds, even though we didn't hit the city on the right weekend to actually attend Summerfest. Instead, we hit up Polish Fest.


We figured it was a good substitution for a big music festival. Besides, when we get together we're all about food anyway, and you know there's going to be good food at a Polish festival.

Especially a Polish festival in Wisconsin.

That's why we began our exploration with cheese. Fried cheese, to be exact. One of my all-time favorite festival foods.


Next we decided to cool off with a nice lemonade with vodka. Of course we drank vodka, silly. Need I remind you where we were already?


Then it was on to some serious Polish food. A few of us went for the works, which included pierogis, potato pancakes, cabbage rolls, and kielbasa with sauerkraut. It was heavenly. I don't think I have any polish blood in me, but I'd be happy to pretend I did if it meant I could eat this sort of fare on occasion.


After we were sufficiently stuffed, we decided it was time to work off some of those Polish Fest calories. This was accomplished by watching other people dance.


But then, just as we were leaving, our lack of polka-ing got us in serious trouble. Big trouble. Huge.

That was when we got stopped by the Polka Police.

You do not want to mess with the Polka Police. They are serious. Very serious.


See? I told you that you wouldn't want to mess with them. This fine officer of the law even made us—gasp!—dance the polka before we could leave.

Somehow, even after eating way too many pierogis, we managed to kick up our heels and dance well enough that the Polka Police allowed us to leave.

Whew. Disaster narrowly averted. We learned a very important lesson at the festival, which I would like to share with you now:


Please don't ever forget it.