My daughter and her hubby came to visit about noon last Friday, June 19th. I had presents for them to open (it was her hubby's birthday on Tuesday and I always have a little something for my daughter, too). We ate some cheese and sausage and talked a bit, and then headed out. We decided to go to the Vines and Rushes Winery, but first drove up to Omro to take a short walk, since a walk was also on the agenda. We walked across a bridge in Omro, took some pictures, and then drove to the winery.
We tasted some wines and then ordered pizza. The pizza could have been better, not the oven's fault. We sat outside and talked for awhile, then decided to drive into town. It really had not crossed my mind that it was Ripon Fest. I wasn't paying attention to the announcement on social media.
First we walked down to the Patina Vie, a beautiful shop that just won an award as the best Independent Home Decor store in the nation for 2026. We spend some time browsing the beautiful items, some quite reasonable, others very spendy. The we started making our way back down the street to where we were parked.
Suddenly....music! 80's Rock and Roll! My daughter (an 80's girl) announced "On to the music!" and we headed to the park. A band named Cherry Pie was playing. My daughter was over the moon.
I must tell you a short story. When my daughter turned 16, she and I were playing her favorite songs. I was 36 at that time. It was late. The street was dark. We put on Van Haylen's "Jump". Oh, who can sit still with that playing?!?! We cranked it up and ran outside. We ran out to the middle of the street and were dancing like a couple of crazy happy kids. Suddenly we noticed way down at the other end of the block, headlights flipped on. They just sat there. Then they pulled out slowly. We ran inside, killed the music, closed the door and blinds, turned off the lights and looked out cautiously, just in time to watch the police creep slowly by.
Guess what song the band played...Jump!
Here is a video from June 19th in Ripon, from the Cherry Pie website. My son-in-law is on the right at 33 seconds. My daughter is next to him but they didn't pan over far enough to show her face.
We stayed quite awhile before heading back to our apartment. My daughter and hubby had to leave early because they had a race to attend in the morning. They love going to the races, and attend the Indy 500 and several other races every year.
We are happy that my daughter and her hubby have so much fun here.
Saturday, while they were at the race, hubby and I went to Grafton to walk the Lion's Den Gorge. It was a mild day, not too hot or humid. We walked all the way to the bridge, which was broken in half by a tree. We took the 100 steps down to the beach and took a long walk. We took some pictures and walked back, up all the stairs and all the way back to the parking lot. Close to 2 miles. Our feet hurt from walking on the rocks along the shore!
That's it for tonight. This post is getting quite long.
