Sharmwar's Pakistani Yeti Grill: Wisconsin Trip, Day Five: The Journey Home (the long way 'round)

Upsettingly, we were VERY on time this morning as far as getting out of the condo and on the road. We left pretty much RIGHT when we needed to...until we realized we had to stop for gas and cheese curds. So we should have left an hour and a half EARLIER. That would have set our day perfectly, but alas. We are poor planners. 

Well.

We made our way to Woodman's, and hunted out our glorious cheeses. And glorious cheese is exactly what we got. 

CHEESE.

A true embarrassment of cheesy riches, what are we supposed to do with all of these choices???? BUY ALL OF THE CHEESE??? Oh. Yeah. Yes. That's the obvious answer. My mistake. 

Oh, America. 

When your husband wants a snacking cheese, you get a block of muenster. We snack in ways that defy god and nature, taunting the laws of common decency and decorum. Those rules are not for us, we cry as we tear off chunks of cheese with our teeth, the crumbs of lesser bits tumbling off onto our shirts. We eat cheese as gods of old, without reservation, fear, or fork. 

I wanted this to be MY snacking cheese, but I cannot recall if I got it or not. It sounds fucking delightful.

HEY. 

In our defense...

So we normally do a big charcuterie board for NYE. Tradition every year. I never ask for presents for myself, I ask for gift cards so I can go balls out on cheeses every year. Last year we spent an impressive 600 dollars on our NYE charcuterie board, and it was EPIC. 

Being in Wisconsin...the cheese state of the midwest...we had easy access to all of the yummiest cheeses at ridiculous prices. We ended up buying several pounds of cheese and amish butter for 100 bucks, and all of this would normally cost us at least 300. Straight from the source for the win!

On to our bigger aim: 

Milwaukee. Which is Algonquin for "the good land". 

Our first stop was at Klode Park. It wasn't as cold out as I thought it was going to be, but it was fairly nippy. And I was a little upset, because I had to pee, and there wasn't a restroom in sight. Well. Not a "civilized" bathroom. I ended up popping a squat in a rock formation. You'll see!

The first little place I went looking for rocks, and I didn't turn up much, but the waves really reinforced how much I had to fucking pee. 

I met up with Derek at this little rock bunch. While he was wandering the shoreline, I was climbing around the rocks. Until he told me I wasn't supposed to do that. Oops! But I also am guilty of needing to pee REALLY fucking bad. Like, I deeply had to pee. Urgent. Emergency. 

So here is a shot of my husband, inside of the rock hole I pissed in not two minutes after this photo. Turns out we're both disrespectful heathens. 

Derek, seen here ignoring my calls to move on to the next beach spot. 

It took an additional twenty minutes for him to stop hunching over and to get in the car so we could move on to our next location.

All of my rocks so far!!

We drove over to Doctor's Park, and it ended up being our last rock hounding spot for this trip. 

It was really pretty! And still pretty cold, but at Klode I made the bold choice to take off my flippies and walk around in the water, which wasn't as cold as I assumed it was going to be, but also wasn't even close to fuckin' decent. It was pretty fucking cold. And I wanted to wade out for better rocks, so I had to put on my wellies. 

Derek and I wandered up the first path for about a quarter mile until I realized we weren't really making our way to the beach, we were just...moseying AROUND. We walked back the way we came, and discovered that we needed to take the path that went down and away from the parking lot. So we toddled downwards like the old fuddy duddies we are. 

This shit sucked going back up to the car. It LOOKS flat, but it's actually a pretty steep  uphill climb. I was breathing embarrassingly harder than I would have assumed, given how much cardio I do every day, but there I was, huffing and puffing. But that's not this part of the beach adventure. That's a later Drea problem. 

Well. It certainly isn't as pretty as Klode at the waterfront, but the water was also cloudier and choppier, so it also has those things counting against it. 

We had a really great time looking for rocks, though!! Derek was all about the yooperlites on Lake Superior, and here he was all about crinoids and fossils. I was just after rocks that I thought looked pretty. And I found a glut. 

I found TWO death plates and a big ass crinoid clump, and so many other pretty little rocks. A very successful rock adventure, if I do say so myself! And I do.

I had to pee again, and because it's winter, the facilities here for pottying were closed for the season. As if bladders give a shit. Anyway the moral of the story is, I walked all the way to the bathrooms, found them to be locked until spring, and then pissed all over the walls like a feral cat. I showed them!

Derek and I decided we actually wanted to go to Kimchi Pop 2 for lunch in Chicago, so we looked up the hours....closed until 5:30. We found another place with a reportedly delicious kimchi pancake, put it in the GPS, and were dismayed to see it was an almost three hour drive to Chicago. So we switched course, found a grocery store, bought snacks, and drove immediately home. 

In some very dense fog. Again.

But we made it in one piece! And we had so much fun rockhounding, and we were so sad to not get to spend more time on Lake Superior that we have been planning a trip back out there before we leave Missouri. We ALMOST booked a trip for the end of December, but thought better against it because the weather would probably be ass. 

So there we go! Our ten year anniversary trip was an all around success. 

Sharmwar's Pakistani Yeti Grill: Wisconsin trip, Day Four

Derek and I were SO EXCITED about this excursion. Today was the day we drove to Lake Superior to go agate and yooperlite hunting. In true us fashion, we did not get on the road exactly when we wanted to, but we were only an hour behind, so not too bad. 

It was foggy as fuck out:

And I initially thought nothing of it as far as concern for how the lake would be until we stopped about halfway through our trip and I saw snow EVERYWHERE. Apparently there had been a dece little snow storm, and I was suddenly worried the lake would be frozen over and our trip would be foiled. Good news from the future: It wasn't!

Derek chose a place called Little Girl's Point (...ew, potentially?) and our intention was to stop here first and mosey on over to two other locations, but that is not at all what happened. We stayed here the whole time. We arrived at around 2, which gave us really only 2.5 hours of light, and we got VERY wrapped up in rocks. 

There's the love of my life, looking for Yooperlites! I took this photo while putting on eight pairs of socks and my wooly boots, because it was truly cold as fuck out. 

I was trying to call out to Derek that a bald eagle was flying directly overhead, but he could not hear me over the sound of the waves and his hat covering his ears. I took a terrible picture of it for posterity. 

We were enveloped for the entire 2.5 hours of our entire proposed rock hounding time. I thought every single rock was a treasure, and Derek was being more discerning. I walked away with literally dozens of rocks, Derek was more particular. I told him we needed to go, since we still had a 4.5 hour drive home, and then we had to wake up early to leave tomorrow to go home, and he said I was right but then spent another 45 minutes looking for yooperlites. We did quarrel about that in the car on the way home, but oh well. Sunset was GLORIOUS. 

Thank you, Michigan, for a lovely time!

On our way home, we tried to figure out where to eat and ended up asking Heather if she'd pick up Ha Long Bay for us because we'd get back too late to pick it up ourselves. Allison grabbed it for us and left us a lovely little note on the bag:

During the drive, we decided that we would change up our proposed route home and instead leave early in the AM, head to Woodman's for cheese curds, then drive to Milwaukee and go rock hounding on Lake Michigan, then stop in Chicago for lunch at our favorite dim sum house, and THEN drive home. We'd arrive late, but thoroughly blissed out on rock hounding. And just as we were about to arrive back at the condo, I noticed this street sign and was perplexed at how to pronounce it:

...wat. 

Derek and I ate our dinner, I showered, he played with his rocks. I packed our suitcase, he played with his rocks. And then we went to bed, super excited for our busy day ahead and the long, re-routed trip home. 

Sharmwar's Pakistani Yeti Grill: Wisconsin Trip, Day Three

This is a pretty low level day. Derek and I ended up staying at the condo. I blogged, he repaired some stuff for his mom, and then we went and had dinner at Ha Long Bay with Heather and her girlfriend, Allison. Where Derek and I talked everybody's ears off for the entire two hours we were together. 

But the food was lovely!

Cute!!

I just love the buddha shaped beer. 

No beer for me!

We ate family style, and our spread was GORGEOUS. 

I was vaguely miffed that they brought me tom yum instead of the tom kha I ordered, but Allison ate it for me, as I am never going to say a negative word about service no matter how bad it is. 

A little laundry hamper of sticky rice! 

The soup I was so excited about. We had this about a decade ago, the first time we went to Wisconsin together, and I was obsessed with the soup. I have since learned to make it, and mine is superior. Sorry, Ha Long Bay. 

Dinner was on the high end of mediocre, if I'm being honest. It was GOOD, but Derek and I can make better. And the spice levels left a lot to be desired. Namely heat. But the company for dinner was fantastic. I love Allison, and I love Heather, and I love seeing Heather so happy. 

When we dropped Allison off at her place, a couple of F35s flew overhead, extremely loud and incredibly close (sorry, Johnathon Safran Foer, it isn't intentional that I steal that from you, it's just a really apt description), but they did look really cool in the extreme fog we had that night. Then Heather took us back to the condo, Derek and I stayed up and chatted for a little bit, and then we fell asleep. At an old person's hour. But this was the first night of full sleep I got at the condo. I was having weird dreams, and I kept getting up and pacing the condo during the night. 

Next day, MICHIGAN!

Sharmwar's Pakistani Yeti Grill: Wisconsin Trip, Day Two (part two)

After being greatly disappointed at both my inability to think about checking hours at Taliesin and the hours at Taliesin, Derek and I made our way back to Madison proper. We had determined that no trip to Wisconsin was acceptable without dedicating an obscene amount of time to cheese and cheeseries, so we found a cheesery to head to and charted our course. 

On the way in to The area that somehow houses House on the Rock AND Taliesin, I laughed at a building that I had initially thought was abandoned...and very horror movie looking.

Nice try, MURDER HOUSE.

I made a joke about the pumpkin stand luring in easily duped white women, and I just kind of enjoyed the general empty, creepy vibe of the place. 

....of what?

Oh.

But as we were slowly cruising the murder building, we heard a dog barking furiously at us, and assumed it may not be operational as a museum, but it is for sure not abandoned. I yelled a hello to the doggie (I'm still VERY white) and we drove through the small town to get pictures of a restaurant sign that we were perplexed and delighted by. 

What Derek and I could not determine was what was the worse reality for the image: that this place was owned by Asians who knew that the city is super racist and only wants to see white folks making "ethnic" food, or it was owned by white folks who were like, "we don't need inclusion in our logo!". We also mused over whether it would have been WORSE if there was an Asian cartoon image....how racist would that have been? We for sure chuckled over this in a way that made...at least me...feel slimy. 

We had about an hour drive back to Madison proper, chatting about this and that thing, I think I mostly complained about being tired. 

Hello, Madison skyline!

Don't you just hate the theater?

It didn't take long to spot the place where we were heading, it's pretty much right in the capitol district. 

We chose Fromagination as our cheesery destination for two reasons:

1) the pun;

B) it's queer owned and operated. 

How fucking CUTE is this little cheese shop????

I was immediately taken by this place. It is so warm and inviting when you walk in, and the people are every  bit as warm and inviting. 

Oh mylanta. 

All of the jams and jellies looked so delicious, but we didn't end up buying any. Derek correctly pointed out that I would be buying things based on what I wanted to eat, but would barely be able to have more than a tiny little taste. And while I love supporting local artisans over corporations, I feel desperately ill when I eat sugar. So. The jams and jellies remained untried and unpurchased. 

I was basking in the glory of allllll the cheese. 

We were matched up with a cheese monger who reminded me of Gianmarco Soresi, we very much enjoyed their company and I was super impressed by their monger knowledge. We started with the cheddars. Derek was SUPER intrigued by the 20 year from Hooks. 

That cheese is older than my youngest child, and almost as old as my oldest! 

...Unfortunately, I think my children would have tasted better. I fucking HATED the 20 year cheddar. I thought it tasted like a fucking belt that someone buried in fresh hay and then farted on. Dreadful taste. Very indelicately I asked for a napkin and spit out the cheese, politeness be damned, Ms. Manners can suck it. Derek loved the cheese, but didn't end up buying any for reasons I cannot recall. We both liked the 8 year, though. That was an incredible cheese, and wound up being the oldest cheese we purchased. I just could not fucking hack an older than 8 cheddar. Derek was like, you're on your period, you know it fucks up your taste buds! He's right...but I think that cheese was just gross. Like, full stop. I will not enjoy it on any other part of my cycle. No thank you. 

Notably absent from the tasting notes are leather belt, hay, and farts, but I promise you they're there.

My oldest love love LOVES tinned critters of the wet variety, and I so badly wanted to buy them some! But I think I'm going to grab them some from The Brown Derby in Springfield a little closer to NYE. But look how cute!!!

We mostly had the place to ourselves, so I felt ok to be my authentic self and openly hate the cheeses with boldness instead of trying to seem refined and polite. When I hated a cheese, I wore that hatred on my face proudly. 

I also cannot control things like that. 

BUT I didn't have to feel my usual embarrassment about it when it happened!

They sold local boozes, too, and Derek and I decided we would come back and purchase a few, as is our wont when we travel. Spoiler: we did not do that, we forgot, remembering only on our way to Milwaukee and by then it was too late. Sorry, booze makers of Wisconsin!!! Next time. 

Derek and I tried so many cheeses, and honestly, we could have done SO MUCH MORE financial damage to ourselves when we left, but we left with a very modest 100 dollar price tag and just a few of our favorite cheeses:

I couldn't POSSIBLY love cheese more. 

This really is a very modest outing for us. You'll see. 

We tipped our cheese monger handsomely, and left with our spoils. I'm fast-forwarding a bit to talk about the cheeses:

This was hands down my favorite cheese buy. Canela sounds like a super simple cheese, but it really packs a flavor whollop. I took one bite of this at Fromagination and said, "yeah, I'm gonna want a fucking pound of that." Derek was not terribly enamored on this cheese, but that's a boon for me, as I got to eat every last crumb. 

I'm writing this literally weeks after being home, and I am getting a little depressed that I ate all of this cheese already. This is Roelli's Little Mountain, an alpine style cheddar that I gasped audibly over at Fromagination. My second favorite cheese from our bunch. 

I had to really dig to recall what cheese this was, because I am not always consistent in checking my work when it comes to making sure I have all labels accounted for to credit the things I buy. But I found it after about 20 minutes of checking. This is St. Isadore's Bandaged Cheddar Cheese, an absolutely WILD cheese experience. The mouthfeel has all the hallmarks of an exceptional, aged cheddar...the old wax sensation highlighted by the crystalline crunch a tremendous cheddar gets as it ages, but the taste is like eating a caramel stuffed full of Fruity Pebbles. In the cheesiest way. I cannot explain how it works as a cheese, it should be disgusting because it borders on cloyingly sweet (for a cheese, that is. It isn't ACTUALLY sweet, but comparatively it is), but it's fucking incredible. I should have bought more. I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT MORE. 

Derek got a bleu (they're one of his favorite types of cheese, if not his favorite) for himself. This is Roth's Blue Affinee, a buttermilk bleu, that I cared not one whit for. 

Up next...

Hook's Eight Year Cheddar, which borders on delicious and not my thing. I was alright with it in the cheesery, but I haven't tried it again since getting home and finishing my period (does anybody else's period fuck with their sense of taste and smell?). 

And the last cheese we have I don't have a picture of, because I fucking HATED IT in the store, but Derek was super convinced I would love it when I was finished bleeding. 

Blakesville Creamery's Shabby Shoe is a soft goat cheese with a geotrichum rind, and that's the least of its problems. One of my favorite soft cheese is from Cypress Grove Farms, the Humboldt Fog. I find it juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust funky enough with the grassy tartness of goat cheese to balance out the sharp edge of toe jam taste, and I get a little bit every year for our NYE bash. Derek and I shared this with our cheese monger and we were presented with Shabby Shoe. I instantly fucking hated it, Derek found it quite lovely, and he said I really needed to try it another day, because he was dead set on the idea that I would LOVE IT. I have not yet gone for it again. I hated it that much. 

We gathered our spoils and made our way to Global Market and Food Hall, highly recommended by my SIL. The light was so pretty, and I know it doesn't translate in this photo, but I'm posting it, anyway. 

There was one place I saw that I could reliably eat at there, and so many places Derek could try, so off we went. 

Looks promising to me!! 

No self-respecting international supermarket and food court can be without a tchotchke area that also includes huge vases and art pieces. 

And additional gift areas. 

This is where Derek ended up getting his food from, despite me telling him to get stuff from the African restaurant so he could FINALLY try fufu (I've been after him to try fufu for AGES, but every time I suggest we head to Levels for dinner, he sweetly chastises me about how I literally cannot eat anything on their menu), but I was GAGGING over this customer's seafood boil. I could smell it, it smelled amazing, and I fuckin' knew they meant god damn business when they handed over a bag that was double knotted. They were not fucking around. 

I was pretty surprised that this place was as empty as it was, the parking lot looked pretty full. That dark little restaurant? That's the place I could have gotten food from. Oh well!

So here's the place Derek got his food, he didn't get his from the Seafood Boil place they share a kitchen with. I actually think they're the same vendor. I'm not mad at it. 

And here is where Derek SHOULD have gotten his dinner from. I just wanted to snag a bite of plantain and fufu!!!! Can't do the simplest thing for his wife. SELFISH. 

After Derek placed his order, I wandered around the market to see if there was anything for me to get myself to cook when we got back to the townhouse. There was not, but there WAS AI Slop products!

I ALMOST bought these for the kids because I rolled my eyes so fucking hard at the pictures, and was practically dead with curiosity over what the biscuits actually looked like, and to top it off they were only 4 bucks a box, but then I decided better against it. 

I wandered around the grocery area, found myself missing Pan Asia and GW, and headed back over to Derek, disappointed in my lack of food options. Derek got his, though, and they smelled AMAZING. 

He ate a little bit in the car, said it was super salty, and then drove me to the store so I could pick up my own food and he could eat his in the car while I shopped. And then back to the townhouse we went. A pretty uneventful rest of our day.