On the Road with That Wisconsin Couple

91. let’s catch up - Duluth, NFL Draft, & Port Washington

• Hayden + Julia Silvers • Episode 91

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It's been a busy couple of weeks... let's catch up on all the adventures. Hayden traveled to the NFL Draft with Travel Wisconsin. Julia checked out two dog-friendly hotels.

 
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Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of On the Road with that Wisconsin Couple as always. I'm Hayden. And I'm Julia. Today we got episode number 91. We're throwing a couple of different things at you here'cause we had some excitement happen in the last couple weeks. So literally all of this happened in the last two weeks since you heard from his last. This has all happened. We'll get you caught up here. With a fun filled episode today, but before we do all that, Julia. Hit him with a fun fact. My fun fact is that wild lupine, lupin, I don't know how you say it, is native to Wisconsin. So it's this beautiful purple wildflower. And it is the soul. Host plant for the endangered carner blue butterfly. So this pretty purple flower is a nitrogen fixing plant, so that plays a crucial role in grasslands ecosystems, and it's really pretty. But I recently learned about this on a hike that I did on the Ice Age Trail. They had a beautiful information little like kiosk that told me all about this beautiful butterfly. And it's spring. And these beautiful purple flowers usually happen to bloom at the end of May, to mid-June. And I'm gonna tell you a couple places you can see it because. I like these flowers. The first one is the Miramax segment of the Ice Age Trail, specifically closer to Roinos Meadow, which is like the end of the Devil's Lake segment. Beautiful. That is like the place I've seen them the most. It's usually like the last weekend in May. And you can check the Ice Age Trails website. They sometimes put an event up to let you know that the lupin and Bloom. In Bayfield just off of Highway 13 north of Washburn, you can see like this, like big field of them. It's crazy. And they are like three different colors, like purple, pink, blue, it's pretty epic at the UW Madison Arboretum Visitor Center. You can also see them there. And then the Emmonds Creek State Natural area. That's where I saw this kiosk that I decided I was gonna make this a podcast. One fact. It's ice age trail segment near Hartman Creek State Park. So just south of there is Emmonds Creek segment of the is age trail and yeah, there's like this big prairie grassland that apparently blooms to these beautiful purple flowers in the spring. There you go. That is a in detailed. Fun fact. Oh, was it too much? No, it was great. Okay. I'm excited to see them again. Oh yeah. So yeah, we have lots to catch you up on. Since you've heard from us last, actually the day the last podcast episode came out, I was in Duluth and Hayden was at the NFL draft. Yeah. It was awesome. Yes. And then this past weekend I went to Port Washington, I guess on a Thursday, Friday. Yeah, let's chat. Hell yeah. Do you wanna start with your trip to Duluth there, Jules? Or do you want to mix and mingle everything in, why don't I go first and then you can be in the middle and I'll sandwich you. Just so you guys know, if you have any trouble finding any of these places we were talking about on the podcast, never Fear, we have a Google Map, one time fee. You get to keep it forever. Every week. It gains new pins about everything that we recommend every other week, every other we still could add the pins every week, I only add them for like after the pod goes out. Yeah. For each podcast that goes live. But so still lots of really good things in there. Go the more you know. So every pod, so now every other week, it gains new pins about everything that we recommend on this podcast. Pretty cool little thing that Julia put together. It is pretty awesome. I will agree. All right why don't you just kick us off with Duluth here, babe. So Duluth was the reason I could not attend the NFL draft, and originally you and both dogs were gonna come to Duluth with me. But we'll try get into your experience later. But we stayed up the, by we, Leinenkugel, our yellow lab, and I stayed at the Trailside Hotel. In Duluth. The thing I forget about Duluth, because it's so close to Superior and superior, Wisconsin is like a small town. Duluth is a real city. Not a big one, but it's like city esque for sure. When I like pulled into Duluth, I was like, God, like I'm coming over the bridge and there's just like all these lights and I'm like, what did I get myself into? But the Trailside hotel is tucked away. Like just outside of the city. On the west side, I feel it's like in the city, but it's not near hustle and bustle. And it is. Glorious. It is a beautiful spot. So first of all, there's like a nice like creek that runs by and it's spring so you can hear it like babbling and flowing and it just sounds like calming. The second you step outside your hotel room, a babbling brook. Yeah. Yeah. And then it's like one of those hotels where you enter your room from the outside. There's not like a hallway, which is always preferred when you're with your dog. I feel like a little motel action. Yeah. So motel vibes for sure. And my bed was really cozy. It had a little kitchenette with induction stove top and all the little gadgets, toaster, coffee maker, all those kinds of things. So I loved that I was able to like make some of my meals and then just like a really aesthetic, like it's very, a vibe, like a north woodsy. Up northy, hiking vibe. And then they have a sauna outdoors, a cold plunge. They have these really nice fire pits spread out throughout this big yard. So every little group could have their own little fire pit. There are all these picnic tables to enjoy outdoor meals. They have the room I was in was like a king bed with the kitchenette, but they also have these little bunk rooms. Which would be like great for through hikers of the Superior Hiking Trail. And it literally sits right on the superior hiking trail. So the Trailside Hotel is right on the superior hiking trail. Butts up to a ski mountain has a mountain bike trail, like you can get two from there. And it's 30 minutes from J Cook State Park. It's just it's great. It's literally so great. I was very excited about this trip to head back to the Superior Hiking Trail that I visited for the first time in September. And on day one I woke up and moseyed on up north. It's a little bit further of a drive, but like my goal was to get back to Tete Park because I didn't know if I was gonna get back up there this year. And I really love. This Minnesota State Park. It is epic if you ask me. So I stopped at Cedar Coffee Company, which has a nice dog friendly patio and ordered a breakfast burrito, sat outside with Linnie and gobbled that up to fuel up my hike. And then went to Goode Park and the goal was to hike to Mount Trudy. And I made it like five miles into my hike to find. No, like three and a half miles into my hike to find Mountain Trudy Snowden. So I didn't even get to go to the top. But it was like a muddy, springy happy mess. And Linnie and I were just frolicking through the Superior Hiking Trail. And it was a really great training for my upcoming Ice Sage Trail through Hike because the superior hiking trail, she's brutal. She has so many ups and downs, lots of ridges. Yeah, it's it's much more challenging terrain than what we see like in Wisconsin and or typically in Wisconsin. Loved that. That was really good. It was humbling. It was humbling, but like in a good way. And I just didn't have good enough sour candy for that kind of hike. That was like the real problem I think. But on our way back to Duluth, we stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park, which is about it's under an hour. It's about 45 minutes, 45 50 minutes from the Trailside Hotel to Gooseberry Falls State Park, which is in my opinion, I'm not from Minnesota. I'm not an expert on the North Shore, but in my head this is like the gateway to the North Shore. Like this is your first stop. It's like the first big state park. It's beautiful. And it has these multiple, like three tiers of waterfalls and they're all like a quarter of a mile from the parking lot. It's such an easy like pit stop. When we did this podcast episode when I went there in September, I kinda said they use their state parks, like a rest stop. So like when you pull off into the state park it has these big parking lots and then they have a really nice visitor center, but it's like a majority bathroom. Sure. Like a rest stop would be. And then there's still like a really good gift shop and all this stuff, but it's just a really good use in getting people into the park too. And like I said, you go, you're driving up the highway to, I think it's Highway 62, like up the North Shore and you have to pee. Oh, it's like a block to a waterfall. It's just a really, I love that about. Minnesota North Shore, so Gooseberry Falls State Park. And then we went back to Trailside, took a shower before mowing into Duluth. And I visited Free Air Life which is like a really cute boutique store. That moved locations. But when I went, this has gotta be like episode seven or nine. A few years ago when Hayden was on a guy's golf trip. I took both dogs and car camped in Pattison State Park and I went into Duluth for the first time and saw this cutie little store, that very very dog friendly store. And it's like all this like really cute, fashionable, shall I say, outdoor wear. So really cute, like tank tops and active wear. Nothing in my price range, but really cute stuff nonetheless. I got you of that candle there actually. Oh yeah. And then we just made our way just a little bit up the street to Ursa Mine brewing. I also went there on that trip to Patterson State Park with my pups. But. They have really good pizza and really good sours, which is exactly what I needed. And my plan was to just get the pizza and then whatever I didn't eat, I would bring back to the hotel, put it in the fridge, and have for dinner the next day. My hike was very hard. It was like eight miles and it was hard. Like I've been doing way longer hikes than that. But that elevation gain. Really took it to me and I Yeah, you were, I ate the whole pizza. Yeah. You were mentioning the difficult terrain, which is something that you weren't used to in your previous trainings. Yeah. And so that was interesting that you're, you've hiked like 12 more miles multiple times at one time, only hiking eight this time. Was burning you out was, I was like, oh, dang. That must have been some serious stuff. Yeah. And I think part of it was I didn't eat dinner the day before because on Thursday night it's, Duluth is pretty far, it's four and a half hours from where we live. And. That drive. I didn't wanna stop for food, and so I had an uncrustable and called it dinner, which really an uncrustable is a snack and I don't let anybody tell you differently. So not having dinner the night before and then Yeah, just not having good sour candy. That's a bummer. And then, yeah, it was humbling, but it was good training. Like I don't regret it at all. But yeah I was starving. I was tired. I. And yeah, eight, eight miles wiped me on the Superior Hiking Trail. But yeah, that was my day one in Duluth, day two, I, of course had to go back to the Superior Hiking trail because. I really like it. If you don't know, the Spear Hiking Trail is a 300 mile trail that like goes basically from just south of Duluth to the Canadian border. And it's it gives you incredible views of like superior, but it's a really nice through hike. So I do recommend it, but it also is part of the North Country Trail. So the North Country Trail goes from new York to North Dakota and this, when it goes through Minnesota, it turns into the superior hiking trail along that shoreline. So I really wanted to see at the Wisconsin border where they meet and it's like a, you park on the Wisconsin side, there's an a mile approach to where you see the state line. And first of all, the Southern Terminus is really cool, and I don't know if I'm saying that because at the Ice Age Trail conference people were saying Terminus and Tus, and I don't know which one's right. But at the southern terminus of the Superior Hiking Trail where it like crosses from w Wisconsin's North Country Trail technically is still the North Venture Trail, but turns into the Spear hiking trail. They have this big like. but it's not, it's like flat at the top, but like you can walk through it and it says Wisconsin on one side, Minnesota and the other at the top. And then on there's this is the southern tomato. It was just really cute. And I did really like it because. It's different when you can walk underneath it, like crossing into Minnesota. Because on at the Wisconsin, like at ice age trail borders, there's just a big rock. Like a big rock. Yeah. But it's like on the ground you can sit on it, but it's not as cool as like walking underneath it. So I was like, oh, this is a cool perspective. So yeah, I thought that was really cool. And then we hiked up. I think like from there it was like a mile in. So like through. Almost three miles more. And literally like the second we crossed into Minnesota, it was like up and down ridges again. It was like totally fine. That one mile was like my fastest mile of the weekend, that one mile in from in crossing Wisconsin to get into Minnesota. So that was fun and challenging, but it is a cool thing to see if you're interested. And there's like a campground if you're looking for an easy backpacking trip, just a little bit further into Minnesota. And it has a privy, it has a little outhouse, which I. Appreciated. And from there we went to J Cook State Park and checked out a different section of the superior Hiking Trail. They have a very cool swaying bridge that was built by the CCC like a long time ago.'cause they have these super old pictures of it to like, what it looks like today. And it's like the the water has eroded away some of the rocks, but like the bridge still looks the same. Sure. So that was really cool and I really thought, I really enjoyed that. Got a patch and just did some exploring of that park just'cause I hadn't been there before. And then from there I decided to go into Duluth and just walk around a bit. So Duluth has this lake walk and it's like a big gigantic sidewalk boardwalk that goes along the shore, front of Lake Superior, all through the city. It's about seven miles total. And. I parked at the parking garage, which is connected to fit's which is like a mall essentially, but it's dog friendly. So I went in there, they have a pet store, got linnie, some treats, and a chewy and a toy. And then we put that in the car and then headed out on the lake walk. But it's really accessible to a lot of things. You can go past the lighthouse, but then there's a canal district, I think what it's called. And first of all they have that cool lift bridge. You know what I'm talking about? Oh, like a draw bridge. But so it's not a draw bridge. So like you go over it, but then when a boat comes, the whole bridge lifts up. I would imagine that's just a different style of drawbridge. It's not like opening up. Yeah. But it's elevating to let the boat go underneath of it. Yeah. I don't know. But that's cool. And then I walked past the lighthouse and saw the, I love lighthouses, so for tiny, and I took a picture, but then I went to, I. Vicar Distillery, which is dog friendly. They can come inside, but it's like craft cocktails and they're make like a Scandinavian spirit that's pretty famous. Is too expensive. I couldn't bring any home, but I thought about it. But a really cool like chill cocktail lounge if you're into that and like fancy drinks. But by that point we had put some miles on our feet. The Lenny was tired. I was tired. So we on our walk back to the car at the parking garage from the Lake walk. Grabbed a sandwich at Rocket Deli and it was a really good like a peasy sandwich and went back to the hotel, did the sauna, had a fire, and just relaxed. It was a really good day. Hell yeah. That sound like a nice day. It was pretty good. Rocket deli. Sounds delicious. Yeah. You love Sammy. I love a good deli. Alright while she was all off doing that, I got the privilege to take one of my good buddies, Josh, with me, to the 2025 NFL draft in Green Bay. Yeah. Can I give a little background story? Yeah. Okay. Travel Wisconsin sent us an email inviting us with them to the draft. And I had already committed to this collaboration on the North Shore and Hayden was not sure if he was actually gonna be able to get the PTO or not. And we like just were back and forth. But I knew I was gonna go and we were hoping him and the dogs to join me. And then we get this email and I'm like, Hayden, you gotta figure out the PTO. This is too good of an experience to pass up, but also I'm not going with you. So this is Hayden's first. I do solo collaborations all the time. Yep. But this is his first one, and there could not have been a better fit, and I'm so glad it worked out. Yeah. And josh has got the golden ticket. He didn't have to worry about a darn thing. He just got to go have a super fun time at the draft. Do you know what that is? That's usually your role, right? Absolutely. All right. But anyways, this was a really fun event. Like Julia said, that was put on by travel Wisconsin. They were kind enough to make us the Wisconsin content creators that got to go on the trip with them. That is crazy. I still can't believe it. And we're so thankful. Yeah. So it started out on Wednesday the day before the draft, and we drove to the Iron Horse Hotel in Milwaukee. Checked in, had some downtime to. Get settled in the first day we had probably hour and a half maybe before, after we checked in to meet down at the lobby and take a little shuttle to American Family Insurance Field As a Cubs fan, I love saying that because the brewer's completely ruined having the coolest name stadium in the league, but. It was awesome. Also they like are brewers, like they brew beer at Miller Park. It just all was fitting and yeah. Money talks. Money talks. It's okay. Also like we are that Wisconsin couple. You are a Die Hard Packers fan, but a Cubs fan. Yeah. Die hard Cubs fan too. For like ever. Yeah, absolutely. But as a Cubs fan, obviously American Family Insurance Field is. Not Wrigley Field, but it is a gorgeous baseball stadium. It is like we gotta take a tour of it. We got to walk through the press boxes, some new additions that they put on in left field with the new three new like we've talked about, like the grateful shed has those like permanent. Food trucks that are inside. Miller Park or American Family Insurance Field did this very similar thing. They put three stationary food trucks in the corridors of the right off the left field foul pole, and they have like Italian and tacos and burritos. I don't remember what the third truck was, but it was just a cool new area. And that's where the Leinenkugel has actually bruised their beer there now. Not all of it. Just some of their beer now. Yeah. They have a, they set up like a mini brewery in left field as well, and it's a really cool spot. Cool thing, we, when we were walking up through like the press box and the media box, they overlook home plate and it's obviously behind home plate and they have windows that like open up. To have like fresh air come into the box and quite often players hit foul balls straight back above the net. They go into the press box and there is baseball size holes in the plaster. From the foul balls that come up and whoever's sitting closest to where the foul ball hit, turns around when the marker and writes the name of the person that hit it and the date that the foul ball got hit, and then they just leave the hole there. Oh, that's fine. Yeah. I think they patched it a couple of times just because it got excessive. Excessive, but they were having foundational issues. Yeah. Wilson Contreras has hit quite a few. He had quite a few up there. One was actually on my birthday last year. I saw that on Josh's story, and I was just like, why is there a hole in the wall? Yeah. Why, who signed it? I was like, what? Yeah, it was crazy. I get it now. We got to walk by. Just got to walk by. But Bob ERs calling center, like where he called the games and they had the whole thing like. Blocked off so he couldn't see in there. I think they're just letting it be because he just press in peace. Yeah. He just recently passed away and he's an absolute, not only a brewer's legend, but a baseball legend in general. That would've been super fun to be able to see where he sat and caught the games, but I completely understand. Also while we were there, they were closing the roof in real time'cause it is a retractable roof. That they can open and close. It takes about 15 minutes to open and close only 15 minutes. Yeah. And guess how much money? Guess how much money it costs the brewers to open and close the roof.$1. Surprisingly not a bad guess. Oh, 12 bucks. Oh, that's not bad. I know. I said 10 grand. Why would it cost 10 grand? Why would, like It's a huge humongous. Hunk of moving metal four panel, four huge metal panels that slide, but they're on electric motors, which makes a little bit more sense, but I was just surprised that it was that cheap. It was pretty cool. We are very different humans and that is, it's funny'cause like you jokingly said, a dollar, not jokingly. But anyways. So that was really cool to see. And it didn't take long at all. We got to walk down into the, field level corridors where like the players get bused in. We got to go through the visiting park the visiting locker room. And you remember when we went on Lambos tour? And the visiting locker room was like the most bare bones. Yeah. Uncomfortable designed to not be nice. They had to walk down 20 steps just to get to the field. Yeah. That is not the case in baseball. In baseball. It is so nice. Yeah. Like leather seats everywhere. The nicest lockers, humongous space tables. There's like a full gym right off of the visitors locker room. Decked out in TVs. There was a bunch of board games. Just a cool like hangout spot for like bigger than the football locker room. And there is. Half the amount of players on a team in baseball, and naturally they're smaller athletes. You know what, also it makes sense because like baseball you like that's a pretty boy sport. That's not what I was gonna say. But like you play a lot of games in a row at the same place. You do play 162 games. Yeah. You just play a lot more. So I feel like comfort is more important than when you're like one day over the week. Yeah. You're going to stay in Milwaukee for, yeah, for a three day stint. I guess it's. You're spending a lot of time at the stadium. Can we circle back to the roof thing? Yeah. They probably have to open it pretty often. So like the grass can get sun, right? I think majority, nah. I don't know if it's, I don't know if they said majority of it. A lot of the grass is sod. Oh, okay. So like Lambo? Yeah, like the. In the outfield where the players like normally stand? Yeah, between pitches and like the most frequently used areas. A lot of that is sod, but also it is Kentucky Bluegrass mixed in with it as well. Oh, what that means? It's just a nice grass. Okay. Go grass. But yeah, like I, I've, a lot of it was sod and it was a mixture of sod and real grass. But it was weird, like I've never seen. A big old stadium, I guess Lambo, but that's open. I've never seen like an enclosed stadium. Completely empty, was weird. My high school graduation was there. Yeah, that's sweet. Yeah. And when I graduated high school in Wango High School, I dunno if they still do, but when I graduated, had their graduation at Miller Park, I was in my gymnasium in borough. We would not all fit in our Yeah, sure chi. So we got to go. Into the visitor's dugout. And then we also got to go up onto the field and walk around the warning track all the way to the outfield, to the bullpen where the visiting team or where the brewer's bullpen is in left field. That was really cool. Like the, where the sausages run, like in the dart part? Yep. The exact, that's how you walk into graduation. You walk that whole lap. It's a long lap. It is a very long lap. But it was. It was an awesome stadium. It really puts into perspective how big it is when you're actually on the ground level. We couldn't go on the actual field at all, obviously, it's a big no-no. But it was really cool to just walk around the warning track and go into the bullpen and just get to see the behind the scenes stuff that happens at the baseball field, which was sweet. And then we got to head up to the, I don't know if this is the newest edition. To American Family Insurance, but they have a new ex golf area where there's nine simulators. It's in left field, second deck, there's top of the line, ex golf golfing simulators. They had the newest clubs at every single bay that we got to hang out and hit at. They had a full service bar and really fun fact. All you need is a ticket to the game. Any ticket to the game gets you access to the X golf area, and it's first come, first serve, unless obviously it's rented out and reserved. But you can just go there. If you're one of the first people there, there is a row of like 20 leather recliners front right off the window in left field that you can watch the game from it and get a drink behind you. And then if you want, you can pay extra to play X golf during the game as well. It seemed like a really cool spot to rent off for a bachelor party or something. And they did tell me that during the week it is, there's usually always room. During the entire game, Monday through Thursday to watch it there. To go watch there. So you don't have to pay to anything or like to, you don't have to golf, you can just go and watch there. Yep. Yeah, you can just go and watch and then you can choose to pay for golf if you want. Or you can just go up there and have drinks at the bar and watch the game. All you need is a ticket to get you into the stadium, which is a pretty cool feature. And you can get brew tickets for cheap. Yeah. You can get brew tickets real cheap. We had really good they catered us a little, kinda like a lunch there too. They have really good brisket, sliders. They gave us each, or they gave everybody two drinks that you could use. So I had a co we, we had a couple beers. We hit the golf balls and we had a pretty good lunch. Then we shuttled back to the Iron Horse where we had a little bit of downtime again. But they travel Wisconsin was very kind. They gave us a bunch of vouchers to go. Exploring, explore, see whatever we wanted to do. Josh and I decided to go to the Bobblehead Museum and you were so excited. It's so cool. It, it was awesome. Like what a cool way to kill an hour. 45 minutes to an hour. The ticket was only$5 too. Oh, so it's not even a, it's, yeah, it's definitely not like a break the bank, but it was. Really awesome. They're just very adamant not to touch any of the bobblehead get, which is understandable. And then they also have a, where's Waldo Bobblehead like hunt that they do there every time you go in where they hide a wall, A Waldo Bobblehead, and you gotta find, try to find it. Did it, Josh did, you didn't. Josh found it first and then I saw it. Okay, got it. Yeah, but it's not easy. There's so many bobbleheads in there. It was really cool. And then we met up with your sister. Love her. Yeah. We went to Z's bar, which is reminded me just of the Downtowner. It was like the Milwaukee version of the downtown or our hometown bar. Yeah, the Downtowners in Barbo. For those of you who dunno. And. Just a cool, dive bar. And then we walked down the block to Indeed Brewing where we had a beer out on the sidewalk patio. And then we had to stop in Hailey had to go to work and then we had to stop into Shakers as well. Porter's or Josh is pretty into like paranormal activity. Oh yeah. It's famously haunted. Yeah. He was he was asking the bartenders, if they'd had any weird experiences and one girl talked about how. She was using the restroom and she was the only one in there while she was using the restroom. The sink turned on and she didn't hear anybody come in or go out. You know it. It was all fun stories and it's also a cigar bar too, so you can sit and have a cigar and have really nice upscale cocktails as well. It does have a fascinating history. Yeah. It was like a brothel and then it was run by the mafia or the mob and or Al Capone or something, and it was like it was built on like an old witch graveyard. Okay. Like it was too much. Too much shakers. It was okay. Move on. It was crazy. Anyways so after that we met up with the rest of the content creators that were on the trip. If you guys don't know, like Jack the pool boy or pool guy, or Joey Cold cuts they're two. Very popular content creators. And Hayden got nerdy. Yeah, it was cool. It was cool. Like I was just sitting there with Josh at dinner waiting for everybody to show up and I'm like looking out the window. I was like, man, that, that's definitely Joey Cold cuts from Bob does sports. And I was like, oh, that's sweet. And then I'm like, he's coming in here. And then Carla's yeah, he's eating dinner with us and he's with us all day tomorrow. I was like, oh sweet. That's pretty, that's a pretty cool little surprise. So got to sit and. Shoot the shit with him and his buddy Mike. Also, like this just goes to show in like today's day and age fame is so relevant. So many people are so famous to such different people. Like you're like, this guy has so many followers. And I'm like, don't get me wrong, he does. But I'm like, okay, but I don't know who he is. Yeah, sure. Like fame is so relevant to like, who's in your circle? Who you pay attention to. Yeah. What's your feed? Feeds you. Yeah. And yeah. So that's crazy. But I had no idea who this man was and I kept calling him lunch meat. Yeah, that was hilarious. Send me a picture of you in lunch meat. That was, he got a good kick outta that. But yeah, that's fun that you got to see one of your social media dudes. Yeah. And so we had dinner Lydia's, we got the recommended by Billy, the brother-in-law. Ruben Rolls, which is just like a Ruben egg roll. It was pretty darn delicious. The cheese curds were awesome and the wings were delicious. They had a spicy sea Caesar wing, by the way, we made the mistake of going with three, what? They were like hot. I didn't expect them to be as hot as they were. So we had three servings of wings that were so spicy, pretty darn spicy, and then one that was not spicy. So it was a little bit of a warm dinner there. But, then we went back to the hotel and called the night.'cause we had an early morning to get on the Travel Wisconsin bus, which was sick. Just a big, it's like the ES ESP N radio bus. It had their faces on it. Just a giant coach bus that was wrapped in the travel Wisconsin rap. It was awesome. And on the bus where a couple of sports legends in Wisconsin, one being Ben Breast, he hit a huge shot against Michigan. He was an old badger basketball player back when I was. Just outta high school when the badgers were really good. And he was just down to earth. Awesome guy that I think, I'm pretty sure he works for Tribal Wisconsin now. And he just ushered us along the way, rode on the bus, had some fun stories that we could talk to him at a couple stops. And then Brian Bega Super Bowl champion for the Green Bay Packers offensive lineman. Played with Aaron Rogers in the Glory Days, and he's a mountain of a man. He made you look so small. He's so tall and he's probably a hundred pounds less than when he was actually playing. But he was a gigantic guy who was so cool, was nice enough to have a q and a with us. And we, asked a bunch of goofy sports questions and asked him about Aaron Rogers and John Coon. And all the packer legends, and he was very gracious and shared some pretty cool stories. And that all happened at Black Wolf Run Golf Course, which is owned by Kohler. And they have a gorgeous clubhouse there where they put on like an omelet bar and a bloody Mary bar. Your bougie tailgate. Yeah, absolutely. It was awesome. Then we hopped on the bus and finally went to Lambo where. We parked and walked into the rest of the awesome VIP sections that we got to go to. It was so cool because there was 206,000 people there in a one parking lot, and just everything we got hooked up with, it just seemed like we were away from the big crowds and had room to do everything. We went, the first stop was the Tundra Trio, which is just a couple houses right on the outside of Lambo that, was just for wristband people who got to go in and they had some free drinks. Shout out to Carless and Meat Compo, a couple of products that I sell that was sponsoring the draft. Yay. It was awesome. They had cool swag bags, another spot to sit and have some food just hang out and talk with the rest of the people that were with us. And after that, we went to the lodge, Kohler VIP section where. There was an option where it was indoor at the lodge, cooler heated. You could sit down and watch the draft on TV in case the weather got bad and that was very nice. They had food in there as well and drinks. Probably the most annoying thing was waiting 45 minutes in line for food, but it was a delicious guro, so it was worth the wait for sure. And then we went to the pro shop. After we got a tour of Lambo, we went to the rooftop that we talked about before on our green Bay, put green Bay 2.0 episode Green Bay, 2.2 0.0 episode. That was awesome. Porter's very afraid of heights, so I felt bad. Oh, you didn't think about that? Yeah. That was tough for him. But he did a very good job and once we got back inside, he was fine. And then did he take a picture? He did. He got some pictures with us. Okay. We did a big group, the big dude, we did a big group. We did a big group photo and. He got the photos that he was able to take. It was awesome. And then he's also a diehard packer and Brewer fan. Absolutely. He really lucked out on this. Yes. And then the draft itself, we got hooked up with such awesome seats for this well seats. It was standing room only, but it was literally like a 20 yard wide or 20 yards deep area between the crazy chaotic sea of people. Then the super bougie VIP in front of us and then the stage. So we had an awesome view of the whole draft and we fought out the weather and the weather was fine. It got chilly, but we hung out there until the Packers picked number 23, and then we slowly walked back and met up with the rest of the group inside the Kohler Lodge. Hayden was in like this upfront, like VIP area. He's got his media pass on. Yeah. And he looks so official and I could like, just like the pictures he was sending me, I was like, this man is going to remember this day for the rest of his life. It is such like an epic day. I just giggled because I was like, also at the same time being like, I am so thankful I'm not there. Yeah. Because I do not like crowds. I don't, I'm not comfortable in crowds. I don't like a lot of people like going to Packer games overwhelms me. Sure. And to much less be in that. I'm like, oh my. There's definitely not that many people at Packer games. Yeah true. But I was just like. That was just craziness, and I'm so happy you got to experience it and do all these really cool things. But at the same time, it definitely worked out in my favor that we could, it worked out in both of our favors and we each got to do our own thing that weekend. Yeah. The coolest thing was just the pop from the crowd. Just every time a pick happened, like it was just like. The greatest thing that ever happened, like the Packers picked a wide receiver in the first round for the first time in 22 years. And the Brian Gut Kunz, the Packers general manager was up there and he. He's just I'm proud to announce, and the crowd is like waiting for what he's gonna say and he's for the first time in 22 years. And before he even said the pick, the entire place went. Absolutely Ben. It was like an earthquake.'cause everybody knew they were picking a wide receiver and everybody knew they were gonna take Matthew Golden'cause he was the best wide receiver available. And it. Exploded. And then he gave such a cool speech about how he was honored to be the first pick, in 22 years. And he was excited to get to Green Bay and get to work. He was so cute in his video, like I saw it online, but he was like he was like in the green room, and he like, gets the call and he, his mom's like, where? And he goes right across the street. Yeah, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm staying here. Yeah. That's so cute. So cool for him and just it was a very, for how many people were there too? It was a very well. Run an organized event. Yes, there was mass crowds of people, but I felt like they did a pretty good job of shuffling people around and not making it crazy. And surprisingly didn't see a lot of like super drunk people where you would expect like at a tailgate like that, a big football tailgate. But like it wasn't the easiest unless you like hunker down in like a beer tent. It was not super accessible to get beer on a regular basis. Yeah. But also being in the beer tent, like you're not like watching the drafty draft so you don't experiencing Yeah. Yeah. You're just, you're probably just live in Green Bay and you're just there to party, you free party for three days. So Yeah. I like to see that too. Yeah. But that was, and then we shuttled back very late back to the hotel and got up the next morning and called it a weekend. Yeah, it was awesome. It sounded really cool. And I'm very happy for you. Alright, now that we got the draft outta the way, Julia's gonna bring it home with her. Trip to Port Washington? Yes. And just a disclosure in April, we spent quite a few weekends apart, but this is just a reminder that like you can still be a good partner and love your person and not be able to spend every weekend together. Yeah, back off. Yeah. People always come at me. For this not you ever but me for not being with you, they're just wasting their breath talking to me. I am about to post this content as well, the Port Washington content. And obviously you're not in it, but port Washington, I went with my sister. The reason Hayden wasn't with me is because he had to work. I, left straight from work on Thursday night. Drove down there, got some takeout from the Schooner pub which is right in downtown Fort Washington, right on the water. And we stayed at the hotel directly across the street, which is the Harbor View Hotel in Port Washington. And it is. Charming. It is so cute. It's right on the water. It's like actually like in this little like peninsula bay area, so it's like you're surrounded by water. When I was walking out there at night, you could see the fish jumping and the birds flying and it was just like. Hailey kept being like, we're on like a beach vacation. Like we're on the ocean front. And I was like, yeah, I just kept being like fresh coast girlies. It was me, Hailey, and Ani. It's dog friendly. Yeah, they have a big indoor pool. And then you get a breakfast voucher with your stay and they have a restaurant inside the hotel. It's definitely a hotel that has been like recently remodeled. Everything was really nice. And the location is like 10 outta 10. Okay. So not only is it right on the water port Washington also has like a harbor trail, like that Duluth like path I was talking about. That's like right on the water. And you just follow like the shoreline. That's their harbor trail. And it goes like right by the marina. There's a brewery right there. You can take it out to the lighthouse. There are like some jetties you can walk on. Fabulous. I really enjoyed Port Washington. My only other visit to Port Washington, I have been to like anti Kathleen's boat. Sure. So I haven't spent a ton of time in the town. But really cute. Really cute. Night one. Yeah. Got some takeout. We did our virtual book club and then the next day we woke up for breakfast. We hiked at Lionstone Gorge, which is a very short, 10 minute drive north. It's beautiful. We hiked there with Jessica one time and you can take those big staircase down to the beach. Gorgeous. Very beautiful. And it definitely is giving fresh coast vibes for sure. Really enjoyed that hike. Came back to town. We did some shopping. I would highly recommend Sherpa. Again, this is like an outdoor adventure clothing gear store. And they had a ton of great, like new things and all the colors of the rainbow, all the fun, like new patterns but then they also had this giant discount room. Which had a whole bunch of markdowns and clearance items and also had a like vintage rack of sourced vintage clothing. That was really cool that Haley found some good finds at some like surplus items. Yeah, it was just really like a good stop and is dog friendly. Duluth Trading Company is also dog friendly. Yeah, just a really, like lots of good stops. We grabbed a little appetizer from Inventors Brew Pub. Again, this is Waterfront right by the marina. Really good food and some fun beers. Inventor Brew Hub also is not a far walk from the lighthouse. So I would definitely recommend that you all know I love a lighthouse by this point. And then binds to Sellar Winery is dog friendly, but the owner does have two dogs. He keeps off leash in the winery. So if that doesn't work for your dog, great. Like we wouldn't be able to take Paps there because those dogs were off leash. But Leni. Mye can play with everybody. Let's get real. Yeah. So she did great. And then we just grabbed some takeout pizza from John's Pizza in downtown. Took it back to the hotel, stuffed our faces. And then right in front of the hotel is like Rotary Park. And I got a notification on my phone that said like the northern lights are out. And I was like, okay, whiny, let's go to the bathroom before we go to bed and we'll take a peek. And I couldn't really see them just'cause the lights were so bright in town. But this little park is a really good place to stargaze in the city because I could still see a lot of stars and it's just like this cute little park with a big like Gilmore girls gazebo in the center. And it's it's really nice. So I cannot recommend. Harborview would make a great little like romantic getaway this summer. If you're looking for a little escape with or without your pup, hell yeah. And that's a long episode for us. That's a couple of jam packed weekends there, guys. Yeah. We appreciate you guys riding along always too. We ask for a little shout outs on the podcast if you wanna share this with. One or two people that you know, give us five stars. Please just spread the word and give us a five star on Apple Podcasts. When you're out and about using the hashtag on the road with twc, we wanna see where you've been and where we should go. If you were at the draft, let me know what the most fun part was. Was it the actual draft selections itself? Was it the sweet singalongs that they were doing in between picks and just the bump, just the entire spectacle. That was the 2025 NFL draft. Use that hashtag on the road with TWC and we will see you guys next time. Thank you. Yes. We'll talk to you in two weeks. Thanks for riding along. Bye bye.