Sister Bay

    We are on our annual pilgrimage to Door County. Lately we have been arriving in time for the Sister Bay Fall Festival. We have a lot of fun there. It's good people watching and also good dog watching as well. There are craft booths, good music and booyah.
  This year I made  a bet with C. Before we left on vacation, he went to a store at the Big Mall (aka The Mall of America) and got an NDSU Bison pullover jacket and cap. I thought it a little funny that he would go all out for a school that he didn't attend. I wasn't going to complain though. The Herd could always use another member. He decided to wear his NDSU gear to the festival. I made a bet with him that no one at the festival would know what he was wearing. If someone said something that gave the impression that they were familiar with the Bison, I would pay for dinner at one of the more expensive restaurants. If no one said anything, C would pay.
   We went to the craft booths first. There were a number of nice items. I looked carefully at the two booths selling hats. I need a new hat like I need a hole in the head, but I couldn't help looking. I found a booth with felted knit hats that were decorated with felted flowers and pins. I had to have one. I searched all the hats until I found a lavender/blue hat with a lovely pearl pin on it. I bought it and put it on. It matches the scarf that I had knit a few months ago and fit perfectly. I'm pretty sure it was made for me.
  While we were walking towards the food booths, a gentleman came up to C. He wanted to ask about C's jacket. He knew it was NDSU, but wanted to know if the logo was a buffalo. C told him it was a Bison and talked about the string of wins that the team had racked up. The guy thanked C and walked away. C wanted to know if that was enough. I told him it was kind of iffy. He did guess the name of the school right, but didn't really know much about it.
  I felt very smug. I was going to win this bet. People were looking at his jacket mainly because it was in Green Bay Packer colours, but with a different logo. We were walking along when a voice called out from the side of the road.
   "NDSU Go Bison!"
   Obviously I was about to lose the bet. Off to the side of the road we saw two guys. They were excited to see C's jacket and knew all about the Bison. One of them lived near one of the players on the current Bison roster. They knew about the Bison, their record, their opponent and the Fargodome where the team plays. One of them engaged C in conversation about the team. It was pretty obvious that he and the other guy had been enjoying several drinks at the festival and were seriously messed up. I didn't understand most of what they were saying, but it was fun to hang out with them for a bit.
   We wound up our conversation with them and continued on out way. We wanted to look at the food booths. C was looking for some booyah and maybe an ear of corn. We found  the booyah at an American Legion booth. Since we both believe in patronizing anything that helps veterans we got some there. The was a couple sitting inside a wooden gazebo nearby. We asked them if they minded us sharing the space. There was plenty of room and they were happy to share. After they were done eating they left, wishing us a good afternoon. A young boy was playing nearby. He would run up to the gazebo, yell out "Here I am!" and then run away. We played along for a few minutes until his parents came to collect him. Right before we left another couple came. They sat down to eat. We wished them a good afternoon and left.
   There were a lot of good bands playing. One of them was a group of older men. All of them were really good, the saxophone player tearing it up. I thought the drummer looked like Wilford Brimley.
   We decided to head out. We were going to eat dinner in Fish Creek and we needed to get going. We were stopped by a crowd watching another band. This one was a bit unusual. The lead guitar player was a girl playing a jazz guitar that was nearly as big as she was. The other unusual thing was that one of the band members was playing an accordion. I'm not used to seeing accordions in anything but polka bands. We had to watch.  How many chances does one have to see a rock band with an accordion in it? Only in Wisconsin would you find such a thing.
   The band played some kind of Irish tune in rock style. The audience loved it and the band played it again and again playing it as fast as they could. I was surprised at how fast they could play. I could have listened to them for a while longer, but we had to get going.
   Not a bad start to a trip, even if I do have to pay for dinner later in the week.