memorial day weekend part 2

memorial day weekend, day 2:

a walk into town. always people fishing...

at the farmer's market...

morris: apparently a form of english folk dance (according to wikipedia.org)

a young morris dancer...

a flowery purchase: an outdoor carpet for our balcony... and for the cats sensitive little toes...

next: a bike-ride through the arboretum. after about a mile... what else... rain.

we stopped at the arboretum's visitor center. closed. but, we stayed dry under the building's cover for awhile. eventually though a wedding party stood with us. we were not properly dressed for the occasion and still wearing our bike helmets (mine, a purple turtle shell look-alike) so we headed down to explore...

the wedding party:

our findings in the arboretum:

azaleas...

white ones...

pink ones...

orange-yellow ones...

roses...

wild turkeys...

crossing the road...

a baby deer (hopefully quickly reunited with his mother)...

caterpillars...

and benches with familiar names...

once the rain passed over, the bike trip was back on, for three of us.

chatting about gears...

the final destination...

(the world's largest) brat fest is held twice a year here: memorial day weekend and labor day weekend. they are always trying to get into the guiness book of world records for most brats eaten at one brat fest (or something to that effect). this year there were debates about whether veggie brats should count towards the record, which raises the old, familiar question: what exactly is a brat... or more specifically, what really makes a brat?

inside the festival grounds:

madison... a bike happy town...
for those rich bikers...

looking for the car, we came upon the other event going on this weekend near the convention center: a horse show...
back to brat fest:

veggie brats... like playing make-believe.

these were boca brats and i must say, they were very convincing. of course, i have not had a 'real' brat in probably a couple of years, but i have had other brands of 'unreal' brats which have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

run in an orderly fashion...

of course, no brat can do without...

and yellow-shirted festival-goers and volunteers


if you're so inclined...

too full at the end of a long brat-filled evening? never fear...

there exist a steady stream of shuttles to usher you back out into the world...

the only sign not bordered with smiling brats...

for your listening enjoyment...

uh-oh, looks like someone got caught by the...

in case you over-brat:

look who just had to show up:

some non-brat goings-on at the fest:

chopper auctions...

art forms...

the dangerous world of a spray paint artist...

before heading back to the arboreteum to pick up the other car... eyeglasses and badges...

serious fun

to end the evening: in the spirit of nuclear chemistry and physics: chocolate radiation cake. quite unlike yellowcake uranium, in flavor.

close-up...