Thunder Storms and The Summer Solstice

Waking up in the night is not usually something unheard of with me, I've never been one to sleep through. But tonight was a whole different ball game, not only was the humidity a huge factor but the rain gently splashing in through the open window had drawn my attention, followed by a five second period of blinding white light which lit up the room drawing Martin and I back to conciousness. The walls and windows shook which eventually worked its way down to the floor which followed suit. We both shot up from the floor which we call a bed and both uttered the same words.
"What the fudge was that?!"
For the younger audiences I changed the explosive swearing to a more family friendly word, who doesn't love fudge?

The light faded away but the sound remained and grew, my first thoughts were that seeing as we are living by an airport that a plane could've crashed. The following sounds confirmed to me that, thank God, it was not that. The thunder that continued to follow was like nothing I've heard before. That air could make such a solid sound was unbelievable, like the sky was made of rock crashing together coming down like a landslide of sound.

The light show and the thunder continued throughout the night, I watched the fork lightening coming down in jagged purple forms. The scary thing came the next morning, on the morning news apparently a house was struck and set alight. Luckily no one was hurt, but imagine being in your bed when suddenly you roof caves in on fire. Pretty scary.

There's a saying in Wisconsin that "If you don't like the weather, wait a day" and I can't express how true this is. It receives state-wide, an unbelievable three hundred thousand strikes a year! Most of those during this trip I think. Anyway, lets not get sidetracked with figures and numbers, the point I was making about the changing weather was that today, it was beautiful. To be honest we were very grateful it had picked up because today we were heading out to the Summer Solstice! What is Summer Solstice I hear you shout, well let me enlighten your minds. Actually hold your minds right there because before I get to the Summer Solstice we ended up having to take a journey of epic citywide proportions. We must have walked about five miles that day, even ended up in a ghetto-ey (yes that's a real word) part of town, where a large man with no legs sat in a wheel chair and gave us the stink eye from a hundred yards and proceeded to hold that fire filled glare for the entire of our approach. His legs are going to have guns in. Don't know why I thought that. Too many video games I guess.

Ok, open them minds up. The Summer Solstice is when the Earth's tilt is towards the sun for us, marking the longest day of sunlight of the year and from here they get shorter until Winter. The city of Milwaukee hold a little day festival on an intersection of road with three stages, packed with places for food, drink and shopping stalls! The beer here wasn't too expensive which is a nice relief from UK festivals, however it wasnt a great selection on the beer stalls, the pubs and bars on the other hand were still open so you could just as easily walk into there to have a different kind.

After meeting John a friend of ours from Milwaukee we went and settled on a curb with a beer next to one of the stages. The band that were on were pretty exceptional! Their name was just as awesome, the one, the only, Extra Crispy Brass Band! A full brass band including a Tuba, Trumpets, Trombones and Drums. And, I've got to add that it was some of the best Trumpet playing I've ever heard! Not to mention a cover of the original Thrift Shop by Macklemore, by original I mean the track that Macklemore used as his backing track which was actually written in 1890!

Extra Crispy Brass Band!

Eventually Amy joined us and as the night wore on, so did the beer. The dark ales around here sure are strong all pushing between six to ten percent! One you should definitely look out for is Luna Stout, dark as the night sky but with the mass of the moon! Delicious. As it got dark more and more lively music came on, including the local Boy Blue who are friends of John and were well worth seeing! Their music was mix of synths, deep thunderous bass, tight drum beats and on some songs guitar played by their front man. Their EP is out right now so get on YouTube and check it out!

Here you can see just one of the streets, Subway and the Super Moon

The night once again came to an end and Martin as usual fell asleep in the back of the car under the light of the Super Moon, which we missed the rising of sadly. We stopped for Jimmy John's which serve sub sandwiches pretty much twenty four hours a day, not to mention they're pretty good! Over the next few days the thunder storms carried on, some days raining all day other days off and on with breaks of incredible heat and sunshine! Lets just say thank God for Netflix and Breaking Bad!

Our Drunken Mugs

Sorry Martin

Martin's Creepy Drunk Face

A Better Week, Our First Baseball Game and a Giant Pizza

So, it's safe to say that this week has been a whole lot better. After the events of last week lets face it that it would be pretty hard to get worse! We've arrived safely to Chicago O'hare Airport and had no troubles coming through immigrations this side, perhaps Dublin had called ahead and mentioned what had happened over there, but maybe not. Anyway, we met my cousin Amy as planned and made our way to her brand new flat. Being located in the Bayview area of Milwaukee it was a very nice area filled with lovely people who walked through the park on a daily basis, kids who played in the streets and a few local bars who's land ladies where just as nice as ever.

Before we reached Amy's we stopped of for a crate of Landshark (the beer so popular to us thanks to Jenna Marbles, which if you have not seen make sure you look her up) and headed straight home. After the events of today, we needed to chill and sleep.

Now with Amy knowing as little about the area as us, Martin and I took it upon ourselves to become acquainted with it. We took ourselves down the main road until we found the park, then detoured through the trees and grass taking in the unusual sounds of the birds we don't have back home, of the most distinct was a bright red Cardinal, chirping it's way through the air. We carried on through the park until the suburbs dripped away and we were faced with high ways and more cars than are particularly necessary. Thus stood the wondrous place of American stores such as Walmart, Pigglywiggly and other oddly named stores housing a plethora of unusual people.

That night we decided to go for a drink, as difficult as it was I might add. We faced a problem, that Martin, the baby faced babbling wonder is only twenty years old. And, once again a prize for the first person to guess the drinking age in the US, that's right. The ripe old age of twenty one. So Amy, Myself, Martin and tonight accompanied by the lovely Melinda, decided to try anyway, with a particularly cunning plan being a back door. And, how very James Bond I felt walking in and signalling through a window once the Doorman had changed post, even if Martin didn't see. The drinks here where very good, even if I had to teach the Barman a few layered shots! Downstairs in the smaller room they had a live band playing and upstairs they had a DJ who was not only gurning his head off but also playing some pretty awesome songs. After a while a few more of Amy and Melinda's friends arrived, the moustacheo'd Dan, Eric, Stacie and Evan who come as a package deal, and later on the tiny Rozy. All of which, as a group are some of the nicest people Martin and I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Before we knew it last orders rolled around and it was time to leave, we walked with Eric, Stacie and Evan towards their cars as Eric was going to give us a ride home. We then received a call from Amy saying she was going to pick us up so we went to Evan's car to wait there. However, on the way there a man and women stepped out of a Video Game Lounge (which I'd quite like to check out) with what I can only describe as a monster truck tire of a pizza. So big, that I needed to let him know quite how big it was. In case, y'know, he hadn't noticed. And then came the most heavenly sentence I've ever heard.
"Take it if you like"
Holy Crap. And yes he was serious. He let us have it, for free! God bless you, giant pizza giving nerd barman. Now a quarter was already gone, I'm not complaining as we all still got about five slices each until we were full and there was a piece left over! Not sure what it is but I always seem to be in the right place at perfect timings. Quite nice really! I felt sorry for Amy though, on the drive home it turned out she wanted to get pizza, she wasn't pleased when I told her what had happened.

You can measure said pizza, with Stacie's head. Four wide you'll find.

The following day came around and it marked something special for Martin and I, we were going to our first ever Baseball game! Amy however was working and wouldn't be able to make it, although I didn't think it would be awkward going with her friends it was nice to have met them the night before. Eric came early on to pick us up, and for the life of me I don't know why, but I called him Dan. Sorry about that, I was drunk when I met you both and some strange brain wires must've gotten crossed. We made our way to the Liquor store first as we were going to "Tail Gate". I had no idea what this was until Amy explained it, it simply means sitting in the car park of the stadium and getting drunk! I actually managed to find some Hobgoblin English Dark Ale in the store which I was shocked and particularly happy to find!

When we arrived we set up a Barbecue, threw on some food and let the drink flow. Cheddarwurst sausages by the way, are amazing. Sausages with with cheese inside. Heavenly is the only word to describe them once covered in stadium sauce, a delightful blend of ketchup, BBQ and other unknown sauces from unknown sources. Stupidly proud of that sentence. After playing a game of throwing beanbag American Footballs into holes on a board painted like Football fields we were ushered by Police on bicycles toward the stadium as it was game time!

The whole arena had such a lively atmosphere, filled with excitement, laughter and beer. As we watched I eventually got what was going on, even while choking on peanuts. Eric offered me some of his Pepsi which was now actually about ten percent Pepsi and ninety percent Rum and Vodka. Swapping the choking for a slight burning that straight Vodka comes free with. Also worth noting, if you're ever in Milwaukee Stadium make sure to try their own beer! It's like an English Ale but served like a Lager, it's made here, you can't get it anywhere else and it's very, very nice. The day continued, being filled with Mexican waves and eventually a home run. Not to mention a sausage race, which sounds as amazing as it was. The game came to an end with the explosion of fireworks as the last run we needed was completed. The crowd went wild and really sealed the deal that Baseball is great fun to watch, even if you don't really understand it! Once I received my Atomic High Five from Evan we had to make our way out, we were going to party. Awww yeah. Speeding our way through Milwaukee we arrived at Oak, thanks to knowing the photographer got the velvet rope lifted and made our way inside feeling pretty VIP. Thanks for the game guys, it was SIACK

Talk About Good Starts...

Following two hours sleep the day could have gone so much better, worst thing is it's only just midday. It can get a whole lot worse. We start with an early rise, leaving my house with Martin at six AM, things were looking exciting and promising until fifteen minutes before we were due to board. The man behind the desk informed us that we're not aloud to fly to the USA without a return ticket. I flew with one last time. So with that we now had about ten minutes to run to a flight desk, and buy one back with a made up date that fitted with the parameters of our Visa and money.

The man behind the desk had found us a ticket to be forced on us, and all with the lovely price tag of £600... each. Are you freaking kidding me? So with five minutes left Martin and I were now rinsed of £1200, ever so gently. Our flight to Dublin went rather quickly and smoothly, not a spot of turbulence which was nice. We landed and made out way through the airport and into USA Pre-Clearance, where we waited for an hour in a huge queue in a stupidly hot room. Our turns finally came and Martin and I were separated, I could tell as soon as the immigrations officer looked into my bearded face and saw the Arabic writing of the Jordanian stamp from my last trip there was going to be a problem. After the assault of questions he said firmly,
 "Follow me into the back room please".

I was sat down in front of a large counter and watched the hands on my watch tick by, down to my departure time. Had Martin boarded alone? Does he know where I am? I sat firmly with the fear that I may never get released from here or receive the rubber glove, both of which would seriously ruin my day. After sitting twiddling my thumbs and watching the clock tick by closer and closer to my flight time I was called up to the desk, I was questioned again about who I was, where I was from, what I did for a job and about my parents. Then the phone rang to let me know my flight would not wait for me and it was now leaving. Nice right? Not only that they couldn't tell me if Martin had got on or not, oh and also to let me know they were going to charge me for delaying the plane.

Eventually after talking with the woman at the desk I managed to persuade her that I in fact was not a terrorist and that I needed to call my friend to see if he had boarded. To my surprise she let me. Ring, ring. Please pick up! The phone was about to ring out when he answered, with a worried "Hello?".
I told him what had happened and how he was now going to be escorted back through immigrations to the detention centre where I was being held.

Eventually they let me go, as you can tell from the blogging, and we had to make our way out into the airport lobbies to collect our luggage. Where we were told to return to the flight desk to change onto another later flight. But first, Martin needed a cigarette so we needed to find somewhere to get outside!

We sat in the Dublin air outside of a bus stop while Martin smoked, looking like two hobos settling in the sun getting ready for the cold night ahead. We were getting to the point where we were thinking of turning back and going home, but we had to persevere. So we stood triumphantly in the sun, feeling like a scene from a movie and walked up to the flight desk and asked for our flight change, only to be met with "Ok that's fine but you will be facing a charge of the new flight and a change of flight charge, which equals £450".
"Are you joking? It wasn't even our fault!"
After making our argument I managed to reduce our charge buy £300 so we only had to pay £150, which we were still not happy about as I said before, it wasn't our fault. It was immigrations who held us back.

We boarded our flight after our total bill of £1350, feeling a little worse in the wallet region. Hopefully our money will last until August tenth, otherwise we may have to cut this trip short. But right now, all we could think about was sleep.