Weekend adventures

I realize I've been crazy busy and not really filled in too well on my weekend fun. So I've decided to dedicate this post to my recent weekend happenings. :)

Early in August I spent a weekend in Ames. Amy and I spent most of the weekend chilling, hanging out with her friends, and wandering around Iowa State campus. We ended up spending about an hour and half walking around campus taking pictures of different buildings and cool architectural pieces, per the examples. 

I never knew there were so many awesome public art pieces on campus and around the city. I don't have too many pics of them. I caught quite a few on campus, but I didn't bring my camera with me when I was downtown. Downtown Ames is cute, especially when you play the "how many hairdresser places can you put on a 3-block street" game. I found the cutest magenta bag at this adorable store for $7. Love it. 

I also got to spend time playing Nertz. Well, first I had to learn how to play (correctly...long story about me and my inability to score correctly.) and then it ended up being more fun (although I didn't win quite as much that way!)

After weekend jaunts to Madison and home to J-town, I ended up back in Clear Lake hangin with Gretchen. There was some rummage saling and mocking of the rich and U.S. Open watching. We (read me) decided it would be fun to day trip down to Ames on Sunday to see Amy and hit the used book/movie/music store and a coffee shop. We also had to stop so I could take a picture of the Ames Pantorium sign, which for what we can tell is advertising a laundromat :)

Then I spent a weekend in Milwaukee with my girl Anna. I met her downtown at work. Once again the public art rocks. I kinda wonder why there isn't more public art in Dubuque. It's a cool cultured city. I demand public art! Anyway, back to Milwaukee. I got to snap a few pics right on the lake just outside the art museum (the building that looks like it has wings).

Anna works at the Betty Brinn children's museum. She had to show off the Mr. Potato Head exhibit that they created/developed/curated (what is the right term??) It was fabulous. Sadly, I could have spent at least an hour wandering around and having fun in the exhibit, which is pretty impressive considering my attention span which is equivalent to a 5-year old's. I really loved the potato-glyphs, the space portion, and especially the motion-sensored light wall. You wave your hand in front of the wall and it lights up as you pass in front of it. I can't exactly to it justice in print, but trust me, you want one too.

As much as I loved the children's museum, the real reason I was in Milwaukee was to take my girl to the Brewers game. We were playing the Padres and more importantly it was Cervecero's day. Yup, that would be Brewers en espanol. Oddly, of the like 5 times I've been to Miller Park to see a game, it's been Cerveceros day twice now. Crazy, no? Anyway. The reason I took this particular photo was the fact that there's a marching band on the field. They played "America the Beautiful." There was also a mariachi band and what we can only imagine was supposed to be a person dressed up as a hot pepper. Now, I'm a big supporter of the people dressed as sausages, but a giant jalepeno pepper wandering around the stadium is kinda scary and wrong. 
Someone who isn't scary and wrong...J.J. Hardy. This is just one of the cute photos they showed on the video screen. Anna and I did have mocking the version than involved the players walking up to the camera and then nodding awkwardly, at which point they freeze the video as if it's a photo. Mostly they catch the players looking like they're staring off into space. We decided that clearly none of the boys had seen ANTM where Tyra would have taught them how to smile with their eyes. (Especially J.J.'s baby blues!)

Here's the traditional one-handed self-taken photo. Yup, we had lots of fun. A ballpark dinner of nachos and seasoned nuts, and a frozen mojito for each of us. Not so traditional for a ballpark, but totally balanced. There was cheese, peppers, chicken, sugar, corn from the chips, and lime from the mojito. Totally balanced :)  We did do some traditional Miller Park stuff...like getting a picture taken with the lifesize cutout of Ryan Braun, watching kids try and out run Cory Hart, oogle the Padres outfielders, mock the awkward looking larger than life size 3D Ryan Braun. 

After the quickest 1-0 complete game ever (2 hours and 8 mins from first pitch to final pitch), we decided to stick around and "stalk" some players on their way out to their cars. The first person out was Seth McClung, a relief pitcher. He came over and signed autographs. That was really cool. The reason the photo is so fuzzy is because I feel like a stalker with my huge camera and its flash, so I turned off the flash and took it without. It still felt a little creepy, but way less noticeable. No one else came over to sign autographs, but we did get waves from Corey Hart and Ryan Braun. It was kinda funny to watch Ryan come out to his vehicle on a golf cart with like 4 girls. We deicded this must be the girlfriend and the girlfriend's friends. What a playa! And yet we still love him :) (Mostly cause we'd love to be those girls!)

After Saturday, I got up early and headed to Madtown to see the choir kids. I love those kids. I miss them terribly and if I could figure out how to not have to pay for gas to drive myself there, I would be there every weekend hanging out with them.

That has pretty much been my weekends for the last month and a half. (Also Manda's trip to Dubuque to see Gaelic Storm.) This weekend has been pretty chill. Hope everyone's enjoyed this photo journey of my weekends.