For four days I went swimming in the lake, I ate bratwurst and fresh corn and perfectly ripe peachs from a nearby farm, I saw a cardinal, I heard a lot of family history, I slept late in the mornings, I drove around a lot of trunk roads and country lanes, I was uncharacteristically polite and charming to the sister-in-law with whom I usually get into a spat, I amused my niece Ariel who is a charming young lady of two and a half, I had a lot of fun talking to my other sister-in-law (Ariel's mom) who is a violinist with the Milwaukee Symphony, I played the Sims on my computer in the warm evenings out on the back porch overlooking the sunset, and I read three books.

I went antique shopping, as one does in the country, but without much thought of what I would find, content to let fate guide me. I found the perfect vintage light fixture for our living room but alas, it was unsuitable as a carry-on item for the plane home and it was $475. Fate did not let me go home empty handed, however. I found a Sunbeam Coffeemaster Model C30 electric percolator in pristine and working condition for twenty bucks at a quaint antiques store in quaint Poy Sippi. It was made between 1940 and 1946. I think mine must have been a wedding present that was rarely used and carefully stored. It had all the original parts, one original cloth filter, an empty filter packet, and instructions. I abolutely love this coffeemaker. It has a beautiful Deco design etched on the side of each pot, very sleek and modern in every way. It goes perfectly with my 1939 house.

The day I found my percolator it was 101F in the shade and unspeakably humid. I have never been more grateful for a thunderstorm in my life when one finally rolled in that evening. A few days later we drove to Madison via the Dells, Wisconsin's answer to Gatlinburg, where we took the Lower Dells river tour. I fled in terror afterwards. If you feel you must go yourself, do not be expecting, as I inexplicably was, a small, quiet collection of educational tourist attractions. "Hokey" and "vulgar" pretty much sums up the entire experience, although being on a boat on a river is always a fine thing. We also stopped by the famous International Crane Foundation in Baraboo which was fantastic. We saw a great many cranes from around the world (the one below is an African crowned crane). I was particularly taken with the method for training Whooping Cranes raised as chicks at the ICF to fly to their wintering grounds in Florida. It involves a guy in a crane suit flying an ultra light and a robot arm dispensing mealworms in mid-air.

Wilting from the heat, we forged on towards Madison. I like Madison a lot and someday I hope to see it when the weather is not kicking my ass. We spent two days with some of my favorite people in the universe: Jeanne Gomoll, Scott Custis, Tracy Benton, and Bill Bodden. I finally saw the campus where my husband and quite a lot of my friends were undergraduates. As a memento I bought a UW commuter coffee cup which is delightfully red and features Bucky Badger and his aggressively curled underlip.

My second night there I invited Karen Meisner over to Jeanne and Scott's for dessert so we could do some catching up. I met her via her marvelous former online diary called 'Thought Experiment' (and in person at a Northern California Journalers party a couple of years ago). She had previously met our hosts when she got involved with this year's Wiscon and everyone got along very well. We talked about science fiction fandom and online diary fandom, and science fiction itself (Karen is a Clarion graduate). I love it when I can combine two parts of my life like that. It's so much easier when all my friends know each other.

After that it was back to Milwaukee and a fair bit of genealogy work to be done. We stayed with Bruce and Mary and Ariel Bartelt, and ran around visiting historical societies and old churches and graveyards for our last three days. We eschewed Germanfest (I was still wary of crowds after the Dells experience) but we did see the extremely attractive Milwaukee Art Museum. They have the Lawrence portrait of the Duke of Wellington! I was very excited, and a little surprised to see it there. I rather thought it belonged to the National Portrait Gallery, but famous art doesn't seem to stay in its native country. We mostly saw the European stuff. I have no taste for modern art at all.

And then we came home. Our pets were fine, I've done ten loads of wash, the house is clean again, and the weather is delightfully mild. Except for this strange, unaccustomed sense of relaxation I would say everything's back to normal.

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