Super, Secret Wednesday Adventure

This is actually Adventure #4. I didn't blog about the middle two because, well, they weren't that adventurous. In fact, about Adventure #2, Daisy said, "That was boring. All we did was drive around and then go to Culvers." Hey, we HAD ice cream! On Adventure #3, we went to the Humane Society to look for a new cat and didn't find one.

So, on to Adventure #4. "This was the best one yet!" exclaimed Daisy.

Our first stop was Tornado Park. It's a thin memorial to the 51 or so people who died in a little town called Williamsonville in 1871.

Do you know what happened on October 8, 1871? If you say, yes, I do, you'll probably say it was the Chicago Fire. You know, Old Mrs. Leary and her cow? You'd be right. Chicago burned down. However, 1200 people also died that same day in Peshtigo, WI in a fire and 2/3 of the 71 people living in Williamsonville were burned to death.

At Tornado Park, you can see the site of the original well where 7 people (5 of whom survived) took refuge. And that's about it. There's another small plaque across the park and it's a nice wayside and picnic spot. For a more detailed retelling, you can visit the Door County Historical Museum and see a map of excavation sites and some archaeological finds (mostly dishes and pottery).

Next we went to Potowatomi State Park and climbed the tower where Mr. GT and I were engaged. The kids love to hear the retelling of THAT story.

The night before we were engaged, Mr. GT and I had been out to dinner with his parents. Out to dinner means we ate hamburgers at a bar. Anyway, as we were leaving the bar, I convinced Mr. GT to buy me a capsule from the bubblegum machine. Remember those little capsules with a prize inside for 25 cents?

My prize was a little blue plastic violin charm. wow. After admiring it, I had Mr. GT put it in his pocket. Whatever i was wearing didn't have one.

The next day, Mr. GT and I had a date and we went to Pot Park (only called that, as far as *I* am aware, because Pot is shorter than Potowatomi). We climbed the tower, as we often did and we were enjoying the view of the Sturgeon Bay canal.

Suddenly, Mr. GT reached into his pocket and said, "Oh, here. I should give this back to you," and handed me the capsule from the night before.

My first instinct was to be silly and say, "Oh, thanks," and see how far I could throw it off the tower. I had it in my hand.

THANK GOODNESS something stopped me and I didn't, because the next words out of his mouth were, "Will you marry me?" and he told me to open the capsule.

Guess what was inside?

Of course, I said yes and we kissed and all that.

The kids LOVE this story and when we climbed the tower last night, I showed them just where we were standing when Daddy proposed. There was some speculation about where the ring would have landed if I had thrown it.

After the tower-climbing, we drove down to the shore and skipped rocks. Pepper proved to be the most skilled. Well, except for Mommy, who has been skipping rocks her whole life. Sunshine liked the "plunk" the big rocks made when he threw them in.
Next we ate pizza (yay! We didn't have to go to Culvers!) which everyone deemed "just ok." We ordered a medium BBQ chicken, since RoseBud wasn't along (she hates BBQ chicken, having once gotten sick on it) and we ordered a small Buffalo chicken. Guess which one everyone liked best?

Our last super, secret stop was at the new bridge. I remember walking across the old bridge as a kid and the thrill mixed with utter terror as you crossed the draw part which was all metal grate. The water swirled menacingly below you, the railings seemed too frail to stop you from falling. We always hurried across the grating part, yet we couldn't wait to do it again the next time. I loved walking across the bridge.

So we walked across the new bridge which is entirely cement. No grating. Pepper couldn't wait to see the place where it comes apart to open. We looked at the guard rail, the stop light, the teeth where the two parts meet in the middle.

You CAN see the water beneath at that point, but the crack is so small--maybe an inch--that it's not even scary. They also enjoyed looking out at the canal over the railing.

I should mention that the new bridge was actually every bit as terrifying as the old bridge but for the reason that there is nothing separating the sidewalk from the street on the bridge and the railing isn't all that terribly high. And I had Sunshine along. I was holding my breath, yelling "Stay close to Mommy!!!!" the whole time as he wove back and forth along the sidewalk. My heart is pounding now just thinking about it.