4829. Go to the AirVenture Museum at EAA in Oshkosh

When tickets for the Free Museum Day were available, I was excited to see the EAA Museum was on the list again. I wanted to go last year but ran out of time. The hubby rarely has time to check out local museums so I was looking forward to heading down to the EAA with Danielle and Gavin.

The EAA AirVenture Museum has airplanes of all types.. some of them are just models of the originals. I found that disappointing. I really wanted to see the real thing. However, you would never know that they were models.

The museum is split into 2 levels. The Upper Level is a bit more hands on. There is a display on space and thrust. You could actually touch a meteorite.

Also upstairs is the kids area. We were advised to check this out last and we heeded the advice. More about that later.

Downstairs housed a whole lot of planes. It is broken down into three galleries -- Pioneers of Flight, Innovations, and Eagle Hanger.

The Eagle Hanger was my favorite. It housed all the WWII planes which are probably some of my favorite planes ever.

The planes were cool but there was also an exhibit of nose art. I LOVE nose art. It was such a morale booster to the pilots and some of it is gorgeous. There was one entire room full of "adult" nose art. I really love how detailed some of the art was.

The Pioneers of Flight showed all different kinds of planes. There was a replica of the Wright Bros first plane. I wish we took a little more time to look at all the wonderful replicas and original planes in this area.

The kids area was designed for kids to climb and explore planes in one room. The second room was all simulator.. planes, hang glides, hot air balloons. I didn't have a chance to explore any of the simulators but they really looked like fun. I wished I tried hang gliding.

After dragging Gavin away from flying planes, we headed over to the observation tower where we saw planes take off. You can take a flight in a bi plane if you want while there. It was neat just watching them take off but I'd really like to get up in one some day.

I don't know what has taken me so long to get to the EAA Museum. It is a wonderful museum for kids and adults alike. It is worth checking out if you are ever in Oshkosh.

Volcanic.. Er I mean Tree Art Fun

When Danielle asked if I wanted to go to the Trout Museum to see The Giving Tree exhibit, I was all game. I really like Shel Silverstein's books and I thought it was would be cool to see. Well it turns out Danielle read the FAN Pass wrong and we weren't looking at Shel Silverstein art but creating our own art based on his book The Giving Tree.

The Giving Tree was the theme for the Family Studio Workshop. We to create our own hand print trees to tie in with the the tree in the The Giving Tree. I was not expecting to paint or actually get messy with this activity. After I got over my initial shock of actually doing art, I was all about getting messy and dirty.

So I got busy. I painted my hand with paint. Or I had Danielle paint my hand because well the other one was covered in paint.

I made some hand print leaves overlapping in the middle of the paper. Then I painted on a trunk... My very fat tree turned into a volcano. Hey at least I was creative.

Instead of being discouraged, I grabbed another piece of paper and some more paint. This time I stuck with a skinny trunk and it looked more like a tree than a volcano.

Then I decided I wanted to do one last tree of just thumbprint leaves. So I had Gavin and Danielle help make my tree. The hubby said it looks like a Skittles tree. Can't knock a girl for trying.

To make your own volcano trees you will need

1. Paper
2. Washable Paint (Crayola works best)
3. Brown marker
4.

Draw a fat tree trunk on the paper with the brown marker. Squeeze some paint on to a paper plate and dip your hand into the paint. Press to paper. Repeat with different colors until your volcano/tree is full of leaves.

It is a similar fun art project that just about anyone can do. Who knows maybe one day my volcano tree will be worth millions of dollars.

4957. See the Uecker Seats at Miller Park

When we picked up 101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out, we looked at places we could go. When I saw that the Uecker seats statue was on the list, I knew we finally had an excuse to climb all the way up there.

Not only does Miller Park and the Brewers honor long timer announcer and former player, Bob Uecker, with a statue outside but they also gave him one inside. Right where he belongs.. up in the very top row of the stadium behind a steel girder. These obstructed, nose bleed seats are affectionately known as Uecker Seats.

As we were leaving the game tonight, we decided to pay Ueck a visit since we were only a few sections over (and rows down). We made our way over to section 422 and then made the climb all the way up to the top. We snapped a few pictures and took turns sitting with Ueck to watch a few pitches. We then slowly descended all twenty or so rows back to the concourse and made our way back down to the lower levels of the stadium to leave.

If you are a baseball fan and never made it up to see Uecker, I would suggest taking time to make the climb. It is an unique piece of Milwaukee Baseball and everyone such get their picture taken with Uecker at least once.

I like Big Trucks.. yes I do

Stacy mentioned that they were going to be in Oshkosh for Touch-a-Truck and wanted to know if I wanted to meet for lunch. That sounded like a good idea. However, once I got to the Leach Amphitheater there was a slight change in plans which was okay by me. We grabbed lunch at the food truck there. Then I hung out with Riley as he told me all about all the different trucks.

Touch-a-Truck, which is put on by Oshkosh truck, allows kids (and okay adults) to get up close and personal with various trucks... military vehicles, police vehicles, fire trucks, construction vehicles, buses, semis.. basically anything that moves. It is free to be able to climb on, climb in, and gawk at some really big trucks. I always wanted to check it out and thanks to Stacy I was able to.

Riley being a master of all things that move was more than happy to show me around and explain what kind of truck I was sitting in. He could name each part and tell me what the vehicle was used for.

By far my favorite vehicles were the military and SWAT Team trucks. I just wish there was an old school mail jeep.

After exploring all sorts of trucks, we headed to the bounce houses and other inflatables with Bob, Tanya, and Jayden. Riley got a few minutes of bouncing while Jayden shot some hoops. There was plenty of inflatables to keep everyone happy... and lets kids burn off steam after all those trucks.

I would recommend anyone that has kids to bring them to a Touch-a-Truck event. There are hand outs, fun, and who knows maybe even some good food trucks.

Baseball Stadium Tour 2018: Wrigley Field

The hubby wanted to go back to Wrigley Field after they updated it to see how it changed and make it an official visit. However I really had no ambition to go back to Wrigley and hang out with Cub Fans. Besides I really hate the el -- the platform scares me. I guess if I wanted to have the Wrigley Field check in on my app, I had to suck it up and deal with Cub Fans and scary el Platforms.

The Brewers were playing the Cubs at Wrigley on a Wednesday night. Because both teams are in the hunt for October, we figured we'd see a good game. We wantethd to get really good seats down the first base line but the Cubs and Illinois wanted to tack on over $40 in fees. I swear there was a fee just because we were Brewer fans. So we got seats down the left field line in the former bullpen area.

I got out of work early and we headed down to Chicago. We parked and picked up the train at Jarvis. We barely had a two block walk to the station. The train was relatively empty as we go towards Wrigley -- getting there 3 hours before game time might have had something to do it.

We checked out Wrigleyview for the first time. Being not much of one to enjoy the bar scene, we just kind of wandered into a few stores and then stumbled upon the highlight of the Wrigleyview, in my opinion -- Wrigleyview Station 78.

We turned the corner and I was like we are going there.We snapped a few pictures outside of the station when one of the fire fighters invited us in and told us to look around. The engine was in for repairs but it was still really cool to see a Chicago Fire House.

Wrigley Field is really unchanged. Yes the bullpens are no longer on the field and they added some electronic sign boards but it's still Wrigley -- few restrooms and the concessions still under the stands. And if you get there early enough, food is cheaper. We both had really good steak sandwiches.

We got there in time for Brewers batting practice. How often do you get to see the Brewers take practice or even any team any more? It was amazing. We stood in the left field corner and tried to get a ball that was hit in the corner. I am not happy with Hader at the moment, he'd rather give a ball the annoying Cubs munchkins instead of a Brewer Fan. I'm not bitter or anything... I still believe my ball got lost in the ivy anyways.

The game was really good. Our seats were amazing. The Brewers won. We spent a lot of time standing in the later innings to be able to see. The game really did have a play off atmosphere.

The ride back on the el was something else. Two or three southbound trains came and went before a northbound train showed up. And the train was packed even before it got to the station.We actually managed to snag a seat and by the time we got to Jarvis it was rather empty.

When the Cubs start losing again and they decide not to tax the heck of us Wisconsinites, I may actually get over my fear of the el and head back to Wrigley Field. However until then I will be more than happy to stay away from Wrigleyview.