Sweet [ fill-in-the blank] Chicago // #MakingMajorLifeDecisions

This weekend I followed the roads down Lake Michigan that led to Chicago! Green Bay is not exactly the most exciting place, I mean, it has it's moments. But for the most part, there is a reason why Wisconsin is known so well for beer... you generally need to be drunk to enjoy most of what's here!

Okay, cool your jets fellow Wisconsinites! That last statement was definitely harsh and not entirely true. Wisconsin is gorgeous with a bounty of outdoor activities, but, you have to admit, it does lack severely in the big city offerings.

Where in Wisconsin would streets be shut down for a huge festival celebrating the LGTB community? I can't think of anywhere either. I happened to have an appointment in Boystown on Saturday where I was greeted with the rowdy crowds for Market Days. Unfortunately I missed out on Neon Trees performing Today! 

It's okay though, because I got an even more interesting show by some fabulous queens! These ladies seriously know how to radiate confidence and gather crowds! 

This is the one street in Chicago I know I know I will never be harassed by men.

Now, for the real reason I drove down to Chitown this Saturday?

I signed a lease! 

That appointment I mentioned above, was with my new real estate company! In a month I'll be packing my bags and moving down to the most perfect, little studio apartment! I am currently in progress of applying to Dev Bootcamp, an intensive 9-week course that pumps out some pretty solid web developers... and I hope to make myself one of them! 

Here's a sneak-peek into the furnishings and decor of my soon-to-be room. I've already named my new apartment "The Bullpen", because I clearly have no shame and I basically grew up in barns. Between Ikea, Target and the many junk piles of my parent's backyard, I have been able to go wild with turning my inner-city apartment into a little piece of Wisconsin. Yes, there's going to be a cowhide rug and bull-horns along with lots of natural, exposed wood.

All I think it needs is more cowbell! 

Cheers!

#4thOfJuly Weekend Festivities

After an insane winter, the warmth of summer feels so incredibly nice. I'll even take the humidity! There is nothing like falling asleep to the hum of the air conditioner, having sunnies permanently affixed to my head or long naps in the sun. Better yet, was having all this glorious weather present for the long holiday weekend! 

Friday started with a Starbucks fueled ride up to Door County with my sister and her family, keeping north until we hit the top of the peninsula. The most I've ever seen of  the islands off the tip of Door County was in the distance, but on the fourth a 45-minute ferry ride fixed that. And let me tell ya, it's not easy keeping a gaggle of 5-7 year olds entertained in all that time either... which is why I left that up to the captains. On both trips. Yes, those kids weaseled their way next to the crew twice!

On the island, the first stop was to get some food and join the infamous Bitter Club. After much debate with my sister on what bitters actually is, we took the challenge of taking a shot! The second it went down I wiped my mouth and it looked like I was bleeding from the mouth. It was disgusting. That little business-card sized piece of paper was totally worth it.

After our induction the club of all clubs on the island, we went to the beach of all beaches. Schoolhouse beach is known for it's rounded, white-pebbled beach, which is a dream if you're the type of person who never seems to be able to get rid of sand even weeks after last visiting a beach! 

As I mentioned, the winter was loooong and cold, leaving Lake Michigan in a chilly state, still. That didn't hold me back from at least a few solid minutes of snorkeling around the rocky beach. I can confirm there is not much to see except for large, white rocks of varying size. 

 

The trip wasn't without some thrill, for the kiddos at least! One stop had them strapping up and zipping down a 30ft tower. While I've never been zip lining, I had jumped off cliffs higher than this tower. I figured I'd save my first time for something special and exotic. Recommendations are always welcome!

Of course the 4th isn't complete without ending the night with a series of incredibly bright and loud bangs! Our chauffeur drove us back down to Kewaunee where we hung out in one of the old, industrial buildings near the lakeshore until dusk, mostly to avoid the chill of the lake breeze (anyone who's been around the Great Lakes knows what I'm talking about).

When dusk approached, we headed towards the beach, arguing along the way on where the fireworks were going to be shot off. Turns out, they weren't launched from the usual location and our view was initially obscured by trees. They were not distracting us enough from the bumps arising on our skin from the cool night air and accompanying mosquitoes. We started heading back to the car when we thought they were finished and ended up watching the rest in the comfort of the car. 

Saturday made up for the lackluster display in Kewaunee as my very large, extended family gathered at my aunt's annual 4th of July party. As always, there was plenty of food, fireworks and drunk relatives. I self-proclaimed myself the event photographer for the night and literally took hundreds of photos of fireworks. Without fail, if there are fireworks, I cannot stop taking photos. I have a problem. 

They're just so pretty though! Aren't they!?

Hope you had a great holiday weekend!

 Here's the the 2nd half of summer,

Cheers!

#BigPlans // #BigCity // #LittleBlogPost

So, I have some big, exciting, semi-ambitious plans in the works! And no, unfortunately it does not involve moving to Chicago. Even as sweet as that would be, I have to be satisfied with mere weekend trips to get my fix of big city life. As much as I'd love to get back into a real city, that's going to have to wait a little bit longer... 

I did tease myself last weekend as I drove into the city and immersed myself back into crowds of interesting folks, stunning architecture and the constant hustle. I had to stop myself multiple times from even entertaining the idea of moving down here! As much as I'd love to, I reminded myself the situation I have up in Wisconsin is good.... especially for saving money. 

The money I'm saving is pretty crucial for what I have planned in the next coming months, I won't tease too much since there is still a lot of planning and figuring out of visas'n'such, *hint hint*. BUT(!), my weekend in Chi-town revolved around a two-day class that I hope will help significantly with my grand plans! 

There is a fantastic group called Girl Develop It, if you haven't heard of them, check it out! They're based in a lot of major U.S. cities and even a few international ones. They are an incredibly welcoming community of female (and some male) coders that hold regular meetups and classes. I took a two-day intermediate HTML and CSS class that I learned a heap from!

I am continuing on with several online courses to further the mind-boggling task of learning to build websites. I really want to immerse myself to the level of being able to pretty much do everything myself as much as possible, and the class I took verified this is going to be a long process! So far Skillshare, Lynda, Skillfeed & Treehouse are all proving to be fantastic resources to expedite the process! I'm loving Skillshare and Treehouse the most so far! 

What all this basically means is that you may see a makeover done to this blog very soon, one that includes ditching blogger. Gasp! I'm super excited though to learn Wordpress and play with my new Adobe Creative Cloud programs and features! I finally stopped being stingy after many failed attempts to torrent it and first now realized how nice and extensive the new cloud service really is! 

I have a lot to keep me busy with this summer, but I'll do my best to continue storytelling about my European, Tasmanian and Great Lakes trips I took last year! 

Cheers!

Saying Goodbye to Grandpa

Hey there, I just wanted to pop in for a moment and say 'hey' to everybody, including all the new followers. I assure you, I'm not usually this quiet on here! The past couple weeks I had a steady stream of posts planned, mainly on my Tasmanian and Great Lakes road trips, but then one of those unplanned, unfortunate life events happened; my Grandpa died.

It came as a shock to everybody, as he was doing all his usual bumming around and making jokes the few days before we received the call about him being rushed to the hospital in critical condition. I knew it was serious, but he'd had heart problems before. I assumed he'd come out the hospital as he usually did in the past. But this time he didn't. A group of us gathered around him as he took his last breaths.

While I don't usually get too personal here, on the blog, this seems like one of one the more worthy personal details of my life worth mentioning. When I was twelve, my grandpa had retired and sold everything on his farm after my grandma had died. It was sad seeing that part of his life being sold off at auction, but it gave him a freedom that led him all over the U.S. and abroad.

Being so young at the time, it was hugely influential on me, especially as he started using a digital camera and need my help with processing his photos. I started itching for my own adventures as I went through the memory cards of his first few trips around Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Hawaii.

While I've always been determined to get a bachelors degree, mostly out of sheer stubbornness, I took a few years off of studying to fulfill the urges to explore. My Grandpa took advantage of his retirement to adventure, I didn't want to wait until then.

I really think the standard to shoving kids off to college right after high school is a waste of the new found freedom of adulthood. After a year and a half into my studies, I dropped-out and moved to Australia while meeting and badgering foreigners with questions about the world of traveling. I liked school, but I didn't want to get stuck in the same rut as everybody else, fulfilling what we're all 'suppose' to do as we graduate.

Before I go off on too long of a tangent, I'm going to bring it back to my Grandpa, who I was fortunate enough to have with me my first 24 years of life. Half of those, on the farm, doing chores in the barn. The other half, seeing his more adventurous, worry-free side. It's bittersweet not having him around anymore, but at least he was still able-bodied and free to do all his usual mischief til the end. Never once did we have to see him suffer, and while I selfishly believe he should have lived another 25 years, I am happy that he had a good 74, almost 75, years on earth.

I'm going to get back to my flow of posting more regularly, but these last couple weeks away from the blog had been much needed as everything sunk in and the family gathered to prepare all the proper arrangements.

 It's been close to two-weeks since he passed, and it still feels so surreal. 

#LifeLately // Birthday Weekend

Friday I had my 24th birthday, and while I was anticipating the possibility of moving to a new city, those plans have been put on hold, leaving me clueless on what I should do to celebrate. When your birthday lands on the coldest week of the year, options are slim. Sure I can drink myself silly, but honestly, the Green Bay scene isn't all that exciting unless you're either a Packer fan or love country music, both of which I exaggeratedly roll my eyes at. 

Sadie, that pup in the photo with me, doesn't really have a birthday, or at least I don't know it. All I know is that she was about a month old when I received her for my 14th birthday, meaning this year would also be a momentum of having this fine mutt for ten years. 

When Friday came around, I ignored my alarm to wake me up early, instead lazily slinking out of bed while I piled on some layers and packed the car for the hour and a half drive up to Door County. Sadie and I were both getting a bad case of cabin fever as January has been a never-ending cold spell of subzero temps. I barely glanced at any forecast or thermometer, I was satisfied enough not seeing a negative symbol before the number.

Our first trail was the longest in the park, where we were alone with the freshly fallen snow... in the 2 degree Fahrenheit temp (-20c). Like I said, I had no idea of the actual temperature as we hit the trail, and about halfway through, we were both starting to feel how much we underestimated it. We were outside for roughly two hours, the first half we were both took our time, Sadie was taking in all the new smells while I constantly took photos. The second half, we were practically jogging back to the car. 

The second I saw the car, I clumsily dug out my keys with my numb hands, jumped in and started the car as quickly as I could. I sat for a while, only feeling about half of my body while I debated climbing the Eagle Tower. I've climbed up it several times before, most recently during my autumn road trip, but have never seen the scene during winter! Oh the dilemma!

As you can see, my curiosity overcame me as I justified letting the car warm up for another ten minutes during my climb. I didn't last long as I made it to the windy top, but I at least got the newly blanketed view of the lake and outlying islands! Worked for me! 

After the hike, I decided to stop at a couple of my favorite Door County shops before having dinner and ice cream cake with the family. The next day I also was able to see my kindergarten niece wrestle for the first time! Unfortunately they had placed her in the wrong category, meaning she was wrestling kids two years older than her. Her usual second place title was compromised to last because of the fluke, though the disappointment was quickly overshadowed by a trip to Happy Joe's with the rest of the family. 

In the meantime I'm still exploring some my options both home, out of state and abroad! Fingers crossed something good comes my way!

Cheers!