August 21, 2017

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My parents were married on August 21, 1949.  Happy 68th Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

This image was made by my daughter, in Olbrich Park in Madison, WI.  She captioned it this way:  "Happy 68th wedding anniversary to the greatest lovebirds I know, my grandparents, who still hold hands whenever they sit side by side or go for a walk together in the park. ❤️"

Still being friends after more than 68 years is not to be taken for granted!  You are good role models, Mom and Dad!  ❤️



It was great to have a chance to see so many family members in Madison.  I'm glad to have seen my sister and brother-in-law and their daughter.  Nice to see their fabulous living space, and to have seen some of their excellent city.  We visited many interesting spots, and ate in lovely places.

It was so good to see my brother and sister-in-law and my nephew. 

It was very nice to get caught up with my cousins, all of whom are engaged in interesting and satisfying activity.

Organizing this kind of get-together is a big job.  My sister and brother-in-law did a good job with all of that work and the myriad details.  Thank you for making it happen!

On our way home.

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August 20, 2017

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On August 20, 2017, most of the extended family met for breakfast at a restaurant with an extensive buffet.  It was great to have so many different choices, and nice to have a bit more time to chat before people needed to head home.

(Madison has a VERY convenient airport, but it is small-ish and doesn't have direct flights to many places.  Milwaukee has a bigger airport, and is about an hour away from Madison, so flying in and out of Milwaukee is often a better choice.  Detroit is one of the places with direct flights to Madison.  It was a piece of cake to pick up our daughter -- who didn't have two days to spend traveling in a car -- and then to return her to the airport, so she could come and go more quickly than we needed to.)



We did not want to be traveling on eclipse day, so we stayed in Madison for another day and night, and went home on the 21st.


The 20th was a cloudy day.  Disappointing, for those who hoped to see as much eclipse as there was in Madison.

Looking south from my sister and brother-in-law's balcony.

I had picked up a bunch of eclipse glasses in Ann Arbor.

The eclipse glasses did an excellent job of seeing through all but the thickest of clouds!  There were times when we couldn't see anything, but, mostly, we could see the outline of the sun very clearly.

There was never totality in Madison, on August 20, 2017, but most of the sun was obscured for a while.This is an imaginative rendition of what we could see at various times, with an indication of the clouds between us and the sun and moon. 

Looking at the world -- not the sun! -- with naked eyes, it never got dark.  The light got funny, I thought, when most of the sun was behind the moon, but it didn't seem darker than a cloudy day might be.

After the eclipse.  Cool clouds......

Another beautiful sunset over Lake Monona.

Those eclipse glasses were like a miracle.  We wouldn't have seen any eclipse without them.

We did try the usual "shine the sun's light through a small hole onto another surface, and look at that surface" method, but couldn't see anything but circles.  No crescents of sunlight.  Our hypothesis is that the clouds made the light more diffuse [less direct], and that made the "small hole" technique useless.

There's going to be another total eclipse over the USA in 6 years -- when the time comes, I urge you to pick up some eclipse glasses at your local science museum (because the ones in the grocery might not actually work....).  Even without totality (and we were hours and hours drive north of the nearest point of totality) we could enjoy this rare opportunity with the eclipse glasses.

THANK YOU to all scientists and engineers and inventors who made these easy cheap eclipse glasses possible!  The last solar eclipse I experienced was nearly 25 years ago, and in those days there was no safe way to look at the eclipse directly.  Luckily that was a clear day and the "small hole" method worked.  I remember looking down at dappled shade on the sidewalk and seeing hundreds of crescent suns..............

This time I saw pictures someone had taken, holding a colander between the sun and something plain and white.  Dozens of tiny crescent suns were visible on the white surface......  I'm going to try to hold that thought and use a colander (as well as eclipse glasses!) for the next eclipse.  There's going to be totality over Toledo, Ohio, about an hour south of us................. 


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August 19, 2017

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On August 19, 2017, we were joined by three of my cousins (and one cousin-in-law).  It was great to see all of them.  So glad they were able to come to Madison.  There was much catching up, laughing, chatting, looking at pictures, enjoying tasty treats.

There was even bocce ball on the lawn between the condo and the lake.  The tree is between us and the players.  People at right; balls at left.  (I'll show you closer crops.)

Another look at the view from my sister and brother-in-law's capacious balcony.  The view is basically to the south.  On the 18th of August we looked westward toward the sunset.  This is the view a bit more to the east.

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August 18, 2017 Olbrich Botanical Gardens

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On August 18, 2017, we joined my parents, my siblings, their spouses, and some of their children at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, WI.

These are spectacular gardens, with something beautiful and interesting everywhere your eyes turn.

Hydrangea.

I think this is a trandescantia.

Layers and layers.  Day lilies in the foreground.  I don't know what the purple things are, nor the chartreuse in the upper left corner, nor the darker green in back.

Hibiscus.

They have a very special Thai pavilion.  (It was hard to get a pic of the pavilion that did not include lots of strangers.)

A river runs through the gardens.  Looking upstream.

Looking downstream toward one of Madison's lovely lakes.

Another look at the pavilion.

A closer look at the plants visible at bottom, above.

Closer look at the end of the pavilion.

Plants beside the pavilion.

Something exotic in front of the pavilion.

Reflecting pool by the pavilion.

I think these may have been the biggest day lily blooms I'd ever seen.  More than 8" across, maybe?

Fancy pink begonias.  (Angelwing, maybe?)  Note matching daddy longlegs at upper right.

We enjoyed lunch at a restaurant.  (I'm slowly slowly catching up, blogging all the pics that were taken after we got home from the southwest.  But I'm still 6 months behind, and I can't remember a lot of details, alas.)

Awning across the street from the restaurant.

My sister and brother-in-law are in the process of retiring in Madison.  They really did their homework, and found a great place to land.  They bought a condo right on Lake Monona, within a mile walk of the library, the farmers' market, tons of restaurants, cafes, and bakeries.  Madison offers a lot to do, and even has real, removed-from-automobile-traffic bike paths (which take you near the Olbrich Gardens).

This is part of the view from their balcony.  !!!

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August 17, 2017 -- on our way to Wisconsin

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Home for less than three weeks after Toronto, and on August 17, 2017, we were off on our next expedition.

Headed to Wisconsin for a family reunion and celebration of my mom's 90th birthday and my parents' 68th wedding anniversary.

It rained.

Oak trees at a roadside stop along the highway.

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