The girl’s birthday was this weekend, and she said there were two things she needed to do to celebrate: go to Lake Michigan and eat fish and chips.

Lake Michigan is 227 miles away from where we live, so we had to drive five hours to get there. We had to cross two state lines, Iowa-Illinois and Illinois-Wisconsin. You might think that was a long and boring drive, but it actually wasn’t because something surprising happened right before we left.

The girl’s friend gave her a Fuggler, still in the box, as a birthday gift. His factory name is Sketchy Squirrel, but he said he prefers Sketcher because Sketchy has questionable connotations.

Anyway, while the girl talked to her friend in the front seat during our drive, I got to know Sketch, who was shipped from Canada, in the back seat. We hit it off right away because he loves fashion as much as me.

As soon as we got to the beach I couldn’t wait to run out and touch the water. It was huge! Lake Michigan went all the way to the horizon! The water was surprisingly cold too.

Sketch stayed in the car because he said he was overstimulated already. He had only been out of the box for a little over five hours, so he needed time to adjust.

After a long beach walk where we found a few pieces of beach glass and examined a lot of rocks, we ordered fish and chips from a shack right there on the waterfront. Both were so crunchy and good.

Then it got late and we were all tired, so we crashed at a hotel. It was the first time I’ve spent the night somewhere other than the girl’s house. I thought it was really fun, but Sketch was like, Do you live here, eh? And I had to explain that we did not.

The next morning we had breakfast at a place called Kwik Trip, which is the place everyone in Wisconsin eats breakfast. I got a sandwich that said it was ham, egg, and cheese, but there was no ham. Instead there was a slab of sausage. I’ve never had that before and it was kind of spicy, but I thought it was good.

I wondered if everyone in Wisconsin enjoys that kind of surprise.

Then we went to a marina where I was intrigued by the sailboats parked on the water.

Some fishermen offered to take me out sport fishing but there was no room for the girl and her friend, so I decided not to. It didn’t seem right to leave them behind. I felt bad enough that Sketch was hiding out in the car again and not adventuring with us.

We took another walk and saw a lot of the shoreline, which was really amazing. We could see the Milwaukee skyline in the distance and that made it so scenic.

Once our feet started to hurt because none of us remembered to wear socks, we stopped at the South Shore Terrace beer garden. I had fun looking at all the wall murals before it opened.

The girl took my picture in front of them and people started to notice me. I told them about my blog and handed out my card.

Once the beer garden opened some kids were climbing on this wall between the garden and the park, and park employees yelled at them to get off. I got away with it, though. The view from up there was stellar.

The girl ordered me a Dive Beer from Lakefront Brewery, which was on tap at the beer garden, and it was fantastic!

Her friend ordered us so much food we couldn’t eat it all even though we had walked almost six miles and had an appetite. The Sidewinder Fries were incredible with the garlic aioli dipping sauce, and the pretzel from Milwaukee Pretzel Company was so good.

After eating we decided to go back to the hotel for a break.

When we got to the car Sketch was like, Did you bring any food back for me, eh?

Oops! We forgot!