Jason headed to the gym this morning and I headed to the hot tub.
The hotel had a really nice pool area and a hot tub but the water in the hot tub wasn't hot, it was barely even luke warm.
So I hung out in there just until Jason finished up - he was going to join me but I told him not to bother because it wasn't really that enjoyable.
So instead, we packed up and checked out.
This is the hotel we stayed out.
We made a quick stop at the Walmart then we looked for a spot to have some lunch.
There was a Mexican restaurant nearby that had really good reviews called Tulum so we went there.
As soon as we walked in we knew we were going to like it.
It was clean, well taken care of and it had a really good vibe.
They brought free chips and salsa to the table and the chips were probably the best chips we've ever had.
We ordered guacamole and bean dip and more chips.
The bean dip had some cheese or something on it and it was delicious.
We shared an order of birria tacos.
The shells weren't as crispy as we are used to having but the meat and the sauce was great.
The backs of the chairs were cool.
I like all the decor in the whole place actually.
Another cool chair.
We left the a little note to let them know how much we enjoyed the food.
We noticed this on the wall by the door on the way out and Jason thought it was funny.
We kind of felt like we were ready to move on so we hit the road for our next destination, Green Bay.
On the way, we noticed this quilt store along the highway so we decided to pop in and have a look.
I liked the quilt patterns on the side of the building.
Also, we noticed that all the flags everywhere are at half mast and I think it's for Dolly Parton who just passed away on the 25th.
Love the old truck too.
This was the building next door.
I don't know if they buildings were both part of the same business but they were both beautiful buildings.
As soon as we walked into the quilt store I was in awe.
There were beautiful quilts every where you looked.
I love this Halloween quilt with all the pumpkins.
I've been wanting to try making a quilt lately and there were so many ideas here.
I love these pumpkin pillows too.
I'd also like to try making one of these.
There were just amazing things everywhere you looked.
Jason was impressed as well and he was snapping pictures left and right.
He liked the quilt store far more than he thought he would.
I could have stayed in there for hours just taking it all in.
Every where you looked there was something interesting to see.
Quilts upon quilts every where you looked.
Lots of samples of other things too, like embroidery.
And another example of embroidery.
I like the birds and the flowers.
Cross stitch.
Christmas cross stitch.
Jason really liked this one.
I'm not sure what it's called when you sew fabric onto other fabric to make pictures like this - maybe another form of quilting?
I'm not sure but I liked it.
This caught Jason's eye.
This was some called needle punch - kind of like miniature rug hooking.
More cross stitch.
These are all pictures that Jason took - he was really impressed by the place.
He took this picture too but I like it.
This is another example of the needle punching.
I considered getting a kit and the needle to do it with but I already have so many things I want to try, I'll save this for another time.
What a great quilt, it's a combo since it has some embroidery on it too.
Another one that impressed Jason.
I think I'd like to try making a Halloween quilt of squares with different Halloween things in them so I was taking pictures of different ideas for each square.
I may also consider doing something like this - It's so fun.
Made us think of our Professor Snuggles.
This was just a small square but I thought it would look great as a regular size quilt - I would love to put something like this on our bed at Christmas time.
It seems like a pretty straight forward pattern.
I love the snowman fabric picture and the ornaments above.
I also thought that a Christmas quilt would be nice too with a bunch of different Christmas things on each square.
This bee sampler was super cute - another of Jason's favorites.
He really loved this one too - maybe his favorite over all.
This was an example of the needle punching but I think I could copy it and do it either in paint or with felt pieces.
I liked these snowmen with the earmuffs and the bird.
More needle punching examples.
The patterns were basically just fabric with the pattern outlined on it so you know where to punch the colors in.
I really liked the Halloween ones.
Isn't this one so cute?
Another idea for a square on a Halloween quilt.
And another.
The gnomes are cute but they aren't really my thing.
They do look cute on a pillow though and they are easy to make because you don't have to worry about making the faces.
Another of Jason's picks.
This was a full sized quilt - I like these picture kinds where they use all the pieces of fabric to make a scene.
This looks like a painting.
Jason took this picture too - I didn't even see it.
These tiny little stockings were super cute.
More ideas for squares on a Christmas belt.
They are so fun.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder if any of these were for sale?
I love this saying - it would be a great square for a Christmas quilt too.
Another sampler that has lots of good ideas for a Christmas square or I could just copy it exactly for one square.
I love the reindeer - he would look super cute on a quilt or on a pillow maybe.
So many great ideas!
I think this was embroidered.
So nice but a lot of work.
More cute ideas for Christmas squares.
I like the American flag made out of circles.
Another example of needle punching.
I really like these - one day I'll give them a try.
The frames add to the look of them.
I love this one.
This was a regular size quilt - the cows head was huge.
They had these sweatshirts with this quilted outline of Wisconsin.
I considered getting one but decided not to in the end.
Another version of Wisconsin - this one made up of flowers.
Halloween quilt square idea.
I loved these strawberries.
This quilt was beautiful and it was hand sewn.
It's really hard to see it but there is a detail sewn on the white part of the quilt like a border and it was gorgeous.
Safe to say we both thoroughly enjoyed our stop at the quilt store.
It was amazing.
After that pit stop, we carried on to our destination.
We went straight to check into our room which we booked at the Oneida Casino which is just on the outskirts of Green Bay.
The lobby area was very nice, there were two of these chunky coffee tables - just a very simple design but I really liked them.
There were no sharp edges - I'd like Jason to try to make one for our house.
The room was really nice too - and it's our first king bed of the trip.
The sheets and pillow were wonderful so I'm really looking forward to sleeping in it tonight.
The one strange thing about our room is the our window over looked the lobby but that's ok.
It's kind of funny because later Jason opened the window because we like to have fresh air when we sleep but it only opened out to the lobby.
Ha ha.
After we dropped our luggage off in the room, we took a drive into Green Bay and looked for a good place for Jason to run.
We found this Fox River recreational trail which said it had 26 miles of trails along the river.
There's the river.
We were again just outside of Green Bay in De Pere but I think they are neighboring.
It was a nice area - you could see some nice homes and docks along the river.
There were some ripe berries along the path and of course, Jason noticed those right away.
And some more.
There are just always neat things to see.
There were lots of signs up saying that you had to pay to use the trail for biking and rollerblading and skateboarding etc, basically everything aside from hiking and walking.
I've never seen that before.
It did say that it was only $25 per year for a pass and $5 per day but we were just walking.
I'd pay it if I lived here if it helps with upkeep or whatever, it was a very nice paved trail.
Jason and I started out together for his warm up then he took off for his run - he's training for a marathon in October (although he's considering changing to a half) so he wanted to do a longer run.
The trail intersected with some streets and there were some very nice homes along them.
This place was getting ready for Halloween by the looks of things.
Random dangly things along the way.
Jason and his berries - he took this one.
This is the trail - nice and wide and smooth.
I wish we had something like this closer to home.
Jason saw this birdhouse along the way.
The sky was looking lovely again.
Jason went much further than I did so he saw some things that I did not.
He figured he'd be somewhere between 1:40 to 2 hours so I decided to walk for 40 minutes and head back.
He texted me when I was at the 55 min mark to tell me he was turning around (I had already turned around 15 minutes before - I thought he might catch up with me but he never did).
I did run into lots of people along the way but it wasn't crazy busy.
Jason went so far that he kind of ended up out in a farmland area before he turned back.
I did see a rabbit and a deer cross my path but I wasn't fast enough to catch a picture of either one.
It intersected with many roads but was always really well marked.
There was a charming wooden bridge.
Tractor crossing.
Mile markers - the trail went on for miles.
See - there were other people using the trail.
Little wetland area just off the trail.
I made it back to where we started and was just walking around looking at the houses.
There were some humongous homes.
I wonder if this is going to a single family home?
This one was right next door and it looks like a single family home so it is a possibility.
These folks had a fantastic view of the river from their deck.
There was a little park area.
The sun was getting ready to set - I always love when it sparkles on the water.
Some artwork Jason saw on the trail.
The view on the other side of the river.
There looked like there was a nice old church over there.
A swing to sit in and take in the view.
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More seating on a floating dock that looked out over the river.
It was the longest walk I've done in a very long time and while it was super muggy out, I still loved it.
I even did a little bit of running at the end.
Just in short spurts but it felt great to be running again.
I ended up walking for almost 2 hours before I met back up with Jason.
I finished my latest book, The Road to Tender Hearts, just 30 minutes into the walk.
It was a touching story and it made me laugh out loud which a book has not done in a long time.
I would highly recommend it.
Because I knew I still had a lot of walking to do, I used a credit on audible and bought this book that I've had in my wish list and started listening to it right away.
I think I'm really going to like it.
It's by the same author that wrote The Help and I loved that book.
I also love that I recently switched over to Telus for my cell service and calls, texts and data in Canada and the US are now all included with my monthly fee so I don't have to fiddle around with Airilo anymore which is wonderful.
After our walk/run - we were hungry so looked for a spot to get some supper.
A lot of places were closed due to it being Sunday but this one popped up and it looked appealing to both Jason and I so we headed over there to give it a try.
Taste of Istanbul.
I think the Ozempic is kicking in and I have been getting full really fast so we've been ordering less and sharing.
It's been working really well and it seems to be just enough food.
What we ordered came with their version of pita bread and it was hot, right out of the oven.
I ordered the salad - it was very basic and came with just olive oil and then I added some lemon juice and it was so yummy.
It hit the spot perfectly.
Jason got lentil soup.
It was kind of bland until he added a squirt of lemon juice and that jazzed it right up.
It was also really good.
He also ordered this dish called fish snacks.
It ended up being very lightly breaded fish with their version of a tartar sauce that was kind of on the spicy side but it was delicious.
The fish was cooked perfectly - so good.
They had an onion salad and I just had to try it.
It was basically just onions and tomatoes in olive oil, maybe balsamic vinegar too but it was also delicious.
I also got chicken shish (which was chicken shishkabobs) but by the time they arrive, I was pretty full so only tried one piece of the chicken.
It was ok, my least favorite part of the meal.
The rice was really good.
We did share a desert called Turkish Pistachio Kunefe.
It was the stringy coconut stuff that's in all the Dubai chocolate pistachio deserts.
It's mixed with honey and possible some cheese or something.
It was hot and had crushed pistachios on top and then a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
It was good - different.
Very rich though - I couldn't eat much.
All in all, we loved the meal and we'd eat there again for sure.
The service was great too.
When we left there, we found an atm to get some cash out so we could do a little gambling back at the casino.
There was a Culver's next to it so we popped in to have a custard.
We each got mini concretes.
I had mine with pecans, salted caramel sauce and chocolate sauce.
Jason had his with just the salted caramel sauce.
Very good treat.
Back at the casino, we decided to go down and each throw 20 bucks in.
Neither of us did very well.
I ended up seeing another machine I wanted to try so on the way out, I threw in another 20.
I was doing terribly, got down to around 5 bucks and told Jason to take it and pick a machine to try because clearly I wasn't having any luck.
He picked a random machine and was winning small amounts then hit the bonus and bumped our winnings up to about 36 bucks.
He said he'd play down to 30 and what do you know, he got the bonus again.
I thought he'd won another 36 bucks but it was actually 360.
So as soon as the bonus was done, we cashed out and headed back to the room almost 400 bucks richer.
That was a wonderful way to finish off the evening.
Back in the room, I got to work blogging.
I've been trying to keep up on the blog this trip and so far so good.
It feels good to know that I'm not falling behind.
It was late when I finished up but at least I got it done and then I sunk down into the heavenly bed looking forward to a good nights sleep.
Did marvelous with the steps today - went way over and above.
That's all for today, until next time, be happy!
