Well, orientation at Theda care was nothing like my first assignment. It was scheduled from 9:00-10:00am. I didn’t really believe it would only take an hour to do all of the human resources stuff since it took 9 hrs in New Mexico. I found the parking and the office easy enough. Someone greeted me right away and pointed me in the direction of getting my picture taken for a name badge. There were eight of us lined up and one right after the other got pictures taken then were shown to a room where we would receive a packet of procedures and protocols. We went over the no tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol, HIPAA, and harassment in the work place. Signed that we received the policies got our name badge and then were dismissed. Wow. Now what to do with the rest of my day… two days actually since my schedule for this week is Wednesday and Thursday Day shift, Friday night shift.
We decided we had time we should go explore door county, the little tiny thumb peninsula off the east side of the state out into Lake Michigan.

We drove first to Green Bay then up the coast (you can call the shore that on a big lake right?) that took us right past the Packer’s stadium.

We tried to get a good look at Bailey’s light house but it is on private land so we could only see the top and didn’t get any kind of picture. We then stopped at the Cana light house but they charged a steep admission price so we didn’t end up doing that either. The next stop was Renards Cheese’s famous cheese curds.

We finally got a good look at the lake. It is hard to see because there is sooo much vegetation and greenery and few public access points.

Chad got a handful of lake water and splashed us. It was just a turnaround not really a good place for the kids to get out. We did all get out at Sister Bay city park. The kids had a ball playing on the play ground and in the sand. Eve decided to go swimming which made me quite glad I had grabbed some extra clothes on the way out the door for her.

I took some flower pictures just for Jill but they are so pretty I will share them here too.

Chad picked up some dessert for after dinner.

We liked the decorated goats all around town.

We noticed Egg Harbor had the same kind of thing with decorated eggs all over town.
We stopped in Fish Creek (or was it cove) for dinner in a cute second story restaurant.

Then we checked out the market down stairs and found these Wisconsin made Root Beers. We had seen so many Wisconsin brews of the alcoholic kind we had been keeping our eyes open for a Wisconsin Root Beer and although it did contain corn syrup was quite good and a fun way to experience Wisconsin.

Then we enjoyed the scenic ride home and the beautiful sun set.

Not at all what I thought we would be doing today but we sure did enjoy our drive and that won’t be the last time we visit Door County.

We love the fair and go to the Oregon State fair every year, so when we noticed that the Wisconsin state fair was going on at the time when we would be passing through that part of the state we decided to make a plan to attend it. In years past we have gone to the Oregon State Fair in Salem and the Idaho State Fair in Boise, so I wrongly assumed that the Wisconsin State Fair was in Madison. So this morning we woke up in Madison found a kennel for Myra and then punched the state fair address into the GPS only for it to come up as and 1hr and 20 min. away drive in Milwaukee…. Milwaukee? Then why did we come to Madison? We already had our campsite for another night and Myra in the Kennel so we decided we still wanted to attend the fair and so we headed towards Milwaukee. The fair was big and unfamiliar. There was a lot of the same things, the deep fried Oreos and animal barns. We usually go through the fair quite methodically seeing every animal, eating lunch in the horse pavilion then the artisan village and the 4 H barn. That would be followed by the other two exhibit halls looking at every cake, quilt and talking to the local authors getting a piece of Hermiston watermelon to munch on as we check out the chicks. Then the photography and tent after tent, row after row of venders. The main large expo building a few shows, the reptiles, petting zoos, and big cats. The police dogs, water dogs the dirt bikes and forestry sections.
With the layout and buildings being unfamiliar it felt like we didn’t have a game plan at all. We saw the 4 H barn first it was awesome and the kids loved it.

The kids got their faces painted.

They braided friendship bracelets, made water cycle bracelets and learned about UV light.

Then we went into the cow barn. They had a long row of dairy cows for each county in Wisconsin.

We learned that there are 40,000 dairies in Wisconsin and how much milk on average a dairy cow gives per day.

We thought the Oregonians would like this.

Lunch was good. Then we found the products of Wisconsin expo building….yummy maple cotton candy. I was kind of sad we were then too sweeted out for the maple bacon Sunday.

Here are some nice overalls for all you Green Bay or Oregon Duck fans out there.

Some honey comb since the kids had never tried it.

Caleb, Hannah, and Chad shot some paint ball guns at cast iron frying pans. There was a cute little camping village for kids to “play” camping.

Then a fishing and forestry building.

the kids made postcards from wildlife stamps and drew pictures of ducks. A man with a big camera came and took a picture of Eve drawing then asked where we were from. I think he was from a newspaper because when I said Salem, Oregon he said “Oh, I need someone local.” When we went to leave the fish and wildlife building it was downpouring along with lightning and thunder. We re-looked at the exhibits in the building and then darted out to the next closest building. This is how we came into the cream puff building and another that was all dairy products where we watched a man make fudge. We found a few empty seats in a dining tent and had some dinner. We had to make a bit of a dash to any other tents or buildings and were all fairly wet by this point. Eve had kept sneaking out from under the tent cover to dance in the rain so she was especially wet. It was at this point where we gave up on staying dry and just waded through the puddles and embraced the downpour.

Two hours into the rain and the businesses were giving up on the rain stopping anytime soon. They were all closing up shop and all the rides were grounded do to the lightning (not that we were going to ride them anyway) so there wasn’t much left that we could do so we headed for the car and back to Madison to our tents that, lucky for us, had faired the rain quite well and were completely dry. Let’s hope everything dries out over the night to make packing up camp a little easier.
Good night!