Wisconsin Day

After the funeral, we had one final full day together, and we packed a lot into it. To start things off, Peter and Troy and I went for a run along the Mississippi. 

Next, we made our first of two trips over to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. And we did what any self-respecting former Wisconsin family does: we ate at Culver's. Andy, who had never eaten at Culver's before (nor had he been to Wisconsin before), got an authentic experience in its home state.

We took a lot of pictures in front of the Wisconsin welcome sign. I love them all but this one of the three Wisconsin Harrison kids might be my favorite. We moved away from Wisconsin in 2009 and while all of us have been back in the state since then, we've never been there at the same time. Until last week.

I cannot tell you how hard it is to find a wiffle ball set in Prairie du Chien. We went to multiple stores and came up empty-handed. We finally had to settle for an inferior model from Dollar Tree. But along the way Peter and Mary bought us surprise team t-shirts at Piggly Wiggly, and then Kathy, Lauren, and Brian were recruited to join us. We had a fun game of wiffle ball, where Jessa was the Most Valuable Player. 

That evening we went back to Prairie du Chien to watch game 5 of the NBA championship. While neither Mary, Brad, nor I are big Milwaukee Bucks fans, Peter and John have been for years. The game was interesting (and the Bucks won it, as well as the championship a few nights later) but the best part for me was watching these two brothers watch their team together, and in Wisconsin no less. We had a big room all to ourselves in a pizza parlor/bar/bowling alley. Kathy and Lauren and Brian, as well as our niece Emily and her boyfriend Evan, joined us (everybody else had left town by then) and those that didn't want to watch NBA bowled.

The bowlers all had fun, the basketball watchers had fun, and it was an all-around great night in Wisconsin. The next day began the exodus from our Airbnb. Everybody was on a slightly different schedule, but by mid-morning all the kids had left. Brad and I were there for another night before we headed south to visit some friends in the Quad Cities. More on all that tomorrow.