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the gb weekend
Monday, Mar. 07, 2005,

the gb weekend

Well, I suppose I should recap the weekend for posterity. We had fun. Went up to GB on Saturday morning, with the niece in tow. Stopped on the way at a nice little family-style restaurant, Bublitz's in Saukville. Had a nice breakfast (Quiche Lorraine, of all things) and got back on the road. We got to GB early--about 11:30, and drove around town awhile to get our bearings. Popped over to DePere and went to Seroogy's for chocolates and caramel apples and some of their brilliant ginger cookies dipped in white chocolate. Roawer!

Spouse had called ahead on the way up, and we were promised a 1:00 check-in. As it turned out, they were unable to accommodate us with that. However, they allowed us to do a preliminary check-in, and thus get the use of the pool. Niece and I took advantage, and swam for awhile. Spouse sat and watched us for awhile, then went back out to the lobby to investigate the room availability. When he came back at 1:30, we still weren't able to get into the room that had been promised for 1:00. But he'd found an interesting item in the little "what's happening" paper from the lobby. There was a bead show at the Public Museum! Niece and I changed back into our street clothes, and we all headed over to check it out.
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The bead show was small, but pretty good. A mix of vendors, with both beads and finished pieces for sale. I got a phenomenal deal a large hank of vintage french seed beads. Eight strands in the hank, and only six bucks for the whole thing. Around here, it would have been more than that per strand! (They are a approximately 10 or 11 in size, in a beautiful soft green--almost my favorite "Coke bottle" green. I want to do something combining them with Swarovski crystals in a darker green and clear crystal. I don't have it exactly in my head yet, but I'm working on it.)

Niece found a cute little necklace for $8, so I got it for her, and Spouse waited patiently for us to check out all the booths and watch a fused glass bead-making demo. Then we went to the mall, to find a pair of jeans for a certain little girl who forgot to pack anything but athletic pants.
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Remember what I said in Friday's post? "... I dread shopping, I find it grueling and depressing, and I HATE it."
Ohh, lordy. Try it with an eleven-going-on-twelve-year-old some time! One who hates shopping and trying on clothes as much as I do, no less. She argued and argued about size, style, and having to try them on. I figured out that she's a junior size, 9 or 11, and couldn't wear low-rise. She pretty much told me I was nuts. We called her mom. Mom says her jeans at home that she loves are size 11, mid-rise.

Argue with a former women's clothing salesperson, will ya? So we were off to Kohl's, because Miss Thang had to have Levis, and nothing less would do. Just as soon as I paid for the candy-pink top I'd fallen in love with for ME, that is.

Kohl's, Green Bay, Saturday afternoon? What s friggin' zoo. After much searching and digging and rummaging, found the one pair of pants left in the whole store in her size/style, and made a desperate attempt to get a fitting room.

I never shopped at Kohl's, because their stuff didn't come in my size, and now that I'm smaller, I know that I will never shop there because their stores are seriously fucked up in their layout. Just havoc. Eventually, I got her in them, she said they fit, we bought them, and got the hell out.
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We went back to the hotel at this point, and were finally able to check in. However, when we got up to the room, on the third floor? ONE BED. Uhhh, no. Called the desk, and they said they would move us across the hall. So while Niece and I stood in the hall with the bags, Spouse went back down to the desk. And when he came back? NOT the room across the hall. The room directly below us on the FIRST floor. Schlep the bags back down, and finally--FINALLY--into the room.

Fucking Ramada.
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After all that, we decided we needed another swim before dinner, so we were off to the pool. The first time we went in, earlier, I'd worn my "good" suit, but once it got wet, it had been just too big. At one point, Niece had pulled on the "skirt" of the suit, and as I was swimming away at the time, she inadvertently "let the dogs out".
I popped them back into the top pretty fast, so I don't think anyone noticed. But anyway, this time, I put on the suit from back in 2000, when I was slimmer. It is a truly great suit to swim in, because it doesn't have the usual fat-lady swimsuit bullshit of skirts or ruffles, but it does have marvelous built-in control for bra and tummy. I love that suit, and I'm thrilled that I can wear it again. So the kid and I spent a couple of hours playing in the pool. racing laps, going down the waterslides, and dodging all the other people that were there.

Speaking of which. I understand that a kid wants a pool party for his birthday. But the hotel should limit how many parties can set up in the pool area at one time. There were so many tables full of pizza and birthday cake, that you couldn't even walk all the way around the pool. Not to mention the sound level in there of all the shrieking kids. The only saving grace was that this was Green Bay, and the kids were all pretty much well-behaved and polite.
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The epiphany of the pool was my niece deciding that she loved to be with me because I am not worried about looking like an ass. I just do what I want to do have fun and I'm not afraid to have people look at me. And that makes me cool.

Good thing I was in the pool--so she couldn't tell I was crying. Way to make your old Auntie feel completely validated, kid.

I don't know what made me happier--that someone had perceived me that way, or that my niece has such a great outlook on what constitutes "cool".
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Well, we played in the pool until we were so starved we had to get out and get ready to go to dinner. So off to the room, wash out the chlorine, get dressed, go over to Titletown Brew Pub. On the way into the restaurant from the parking lot, Niece informs me that her new jeans are too big in the waist, and are "giving her wedgies". To short in the rise, in other words. ARRGH. Too bad, so sad, she's stuck with them. The time to tell me they were wrong was in the dressing room.
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It was fairly quiet at Titletown, and we had a great dinner. Spouse ordered their Fish and Chips, I ordered the Sesame Chicken, and we special-ordered a plain steak with mashed potatoes for Niece. Spouse tried a couple of different beers, andthe girls had their wonderful Sno-Cap Root Beer.

Of course, we had to send her steak back for more cooking, she refused to eat the vegetables, she hated the mashed potatoes...sigh.

I insisted that she at least eat the carrots, I made her cut up her own steak (she's nearly twelve!) and Spouse traded his chips (pub fries) for her mashers. So she ended up eating fairly well. Spouse loves their Fish and Chips, so he was sweet to give up the pub fries, but he still enjoyed his dinner. I loved the Sesame Chicken--it was wonderful, and just the sort of thing I was in the mood for. We ordered dessert, as well...Niece and I shared a sundae built on top of a warm chocolate chip cookie, and Spouse had some sort of Root Beer Cheesecake. The desserts were enormous, and even with both of us working on it, we barely made a dent in that sundae.

And more coolness? A train went through while we were eating. That's the kind of thing that makes eating in the old train station REALLY neat.

There was confusion with the check. When we first got it, it was for only $59.00, which was just ridiculous. On closer inspection, we realized the waiter had neglected to add in dessert. Yeah, we're honest about stuff like that. SO?

Then, after we got the corrected bill, Spouse's poor eyesight read it as $87.00 instead of $67.00, so he miscalculated the tip and total. Well, his eyes saw it, and his brain didn't argue, because eight bucks? for those two monster, ultra-fab desserts? That's like--nothing.

Once we got it all straight and paid, Spouse and the kid dropped me off and headed back to the hotel.
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Dropped me off where? Why, at a Very Bad Bar, of course!

I really didn't stay long. Only about an hour and a half. I didn't want to keep Spouse and Niece up too late, as I knew they were both pretty beat.

But I was quietly adamant about at least dropping in to say hello. And check the place out.

BAD BAR POST IS NEXT ENTRY
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Spouse picked me up around 11:00, and left the kid asleep in the room. When we got back, I snarfed a quick smoke and we headed up to the room and into the bed. I figured I'd sleep better sharing with Niece, but she almost killed me with her flopping around, all lethal knees and elbows. Still, I managed to sleep the sleep of the truly exhausted, until about 6:30 when I woke up abruptly and fully wide awake, for some reason.

Everybody else woke up in the next twenty minutes, and since the pool and "fitness center" opened at seven, Niece and I got up and went to get our exercise. I did 1.25 miles in 25 minutes, and then went for a swim for about an hour, so I know I got my exercise yesterday. Spouse took the opportunity to get cleaned up and dressed, then came to see what we were up to. After a while, we all decided we were starved, so Niece and I went and got cleaned up, and took of for the Reservation for the casino breakfast buffet. Which is not too damn shabby, and compares favorably with several in Vegas. We all ate like stevedores, and I, for one, got my caffiene back up to acceptable levels.

We considered the Train museum, and went so far as to go there--but Spouse's ankle and knee just weren't up to it. His arthritis was making him miserable, and driving all the way home was going to be bad enough without walking around the museum. So we looked around a little, checked out the gift shop, and then got in the car to head home.

I dozed off and on all the way back, and so did the kid. After we dropped her off, we stopped and got some groceries, and then came home to unpack, do laundry, and fiddle on the PC (me) and to lay on the couch with the heating pad (Spouse). Pizza for dinner, and early to bed.

And that was the Green Bay weekend.

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