Metal Bands
Adam and I joined friends, Kevin and Shannon, at The Rave in Milwaukee on July 12 for a Battle of the Bands -- that's Battle of Metal Bands! Metal music isn't usually my music of choice, but it was really fun. The coolest part about all of it, and what attracted us there in the first place, is that Kevin is the Bass player/singer for Midian, one of the bands that was competing.
Adam and I were both very impressed with their group. They played last, having sold the most tickets for the show, and they really stood out from the rest of the bands.
I have to be honest, having never been to a live metal concert of any sort, I was getting a little nervous watching the other bands as we waited for Midian to go on stage. But when they came on, I thought they were really good!
Don't get me wrong, though, I give the other bands a TON of credit!! A few of them looked like a VERY young group. I think the drummer from one group couldn't have been any older than 10 years old! They all did well, and maybe I'm biased, but Midian just rocked the house that night -- I can't be too crazy, though, because they won the show!! So Midian will be heading to the finals in September, I believe. We don't actually know the date yet, but the final Battle will be at the Rave again. If you're reading this, and you're local, you should check it out. It's a cool experience!
Maybe next time I'll get the courage to join the mosh pit. :)
The Woods
I got Adam to go backpacking with me for a weekend. It was the perfect trip for beginner backpackers. I think after it's all said and done, Adam enjoyed himself -- all except the whole 'sleeping outside on the hard ground' part... which is quite a large part. So I don't know that it'll be soon before we go out on any sort of extended backpacking trip again. But I'm going to wait until the memories fade and see if I can convince him to make another go at it. (I hope he misses this entry... ;) J/K...Anyway, it was really fun. I went up with him to Green Bay Friday after work and dropped him off. Then I went to the YMCA and ran for about 45 minutes, showered, and head out to do a little shopping -- I had to pick up some hiking socks for Adam.
When Adam was done with class, we head out towards the Nicolet National Forest, where a few of our friends were already camping. Since Adam deals with sleep apnea and needs his CPAP machine to sleep, he doesn't like to go out for more than one night. So we grabbed a cute ma & pa motel just south of Mountain, WI. We plan to go back there. It's a place called Moutain Springs Motel. The owners were very nice, and we discovered that they have a fire pit in the back for guests to use with a large wood pile. So we are planning on going back for a weekend, staying there, taking dayhikes and mini-kayak trips during the day and chilling by the fire at night... and sleeping in a soft bed. :)
So anyway... Saturday morning we got up nice and early, and head out towards Fanny Lake where our friends were camped. The campsite was about 1/2 mile from the parking area, so Adam and I got our packs on and hiked in. They were all there ready to hike when we arrived, so we dropped a couple things out of our packs, since we were camping in that same spot Saturday night, and started out hiking. I had a great time. I let Adam lead so he could pick his pace. He did really well for his first time out on trails with pack weight. I was so proud... and he looked so cute... We did a lot of talking which was lots of fun. We played movie quotes games and laughed a lot about episodes of Family Guy and Robot Chicken that we've seen together recently.
Back at camp we ate some lunch, chilled a bit, then I tried trail running! I loved it! It's so much better than road running, because the trees seem like they're flying by at amazing speeds because they're so close. I was probably running slower because of the trails, but it felt like I was cruising! I ran around the lake 3 times, which totaled about 2.1 miles. I'm going to have to do that again!
After my run, most everyone was either napping or collecting firewood (Adam and Randall went out for wood), so I jumped in the lake to rinse off the sweat and nasty from the day. It was nice and warm, and just the perfect way to end my day and head into the evening.
We all made different versions of pizza over the fire for dinner. Adam and I used bagels, Ken and Randall used premade Boboli-style crusts, and Kweejee actually brought the ingredients to make his own dough -- and they all turned out pretty good! That was good fun. Oh, and Charlene, the Peanut Butter Nutter, brought smores... and peanut butter... and chocolate frosting. Those were some of the best smores EVER! I usually can only eat one and that's too sweet, but I had to have two because they were so good! After stuffing ourselves silly, we basically sat around the fire and BS'd until bedtime. Got up the next morning and head out. It was another good weekend in the woods. I've felt pretty spoiled so far this summer. I've gotten a lot of woods and nature in, and I'm just a happy girl! I'm going out again this weekend with Pam, Ken, and a guy I haven't hiked with yet named Dave who teaches some Fit classes at the Y here in Oshkosh. I'm looking forward to this trip mostly because we're heading into new territory. We're trying out a section of the Ice Age Trail, coordinated by Ken. It's near Medford, WI, which is about an hour drive south of Phillips, where my parents live. So there will be stories from that trip in an upcoming blog.
