June weddings and our Northwoods vacation, part 2: Wisconsin

Well, when Bragg Family South last left you, we had just finished up a wedding and some camping in Michigan.  The picture above shows Hope enjoying a beautiful evening in our second major stop--northern Wisconsin (actually, the red pine stand on my parents' property).  While we had a lot planned for this leg of our trip, the main focus was to be my niece Susan's wedding.  Below, Bragg Family South poses at the park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where Susan was to be married:

Here is a picture of my suddenly dapper nephew, Michael:

Michael is the son of my sister Lisa and her husband John (John is Susan's father).  Susan had a nice string quartet play at her wedding:

...and plenty of little impish girls darting back and forth, such as my niece Leila (my sister Lisa's youngest daughter):

Below, the groomsmen CAREFULLY assisted the bridesmaids down a rather steep and soft grass-covered hill:

The young lady in front is my sister Lisa's oldest daughter Emma.  Below, a very proud poppa (John) takes his oldest daughter (Susan) to his future son-in-law Jay:

Susan and Jay exchange vows:

and kissed:

As you can see from these pictures, Susan was a beautiful beaming bride the whole day--

Jay also looked quite dapper!  Below, my youngest sister Laurie grimaces at me for "scooping" her on a picture, while her patient husband Mark (blue shirt and goatee on left) looks on:

I probably spent a good ten minutes chasing around my daughter Beth and her cousin Leila, trying to get these lil' charmers to pose for a nice picture...you can see how Leila had no interest in posing, but Beth was willing:

Below, my brother John (right) and his partner, Jim:

John recently accepted a tenure-track university professorship to teach history at New Jersey City University, just outside of New York City.  Below, my sister Laurie in a more restrained pose at the very pretty reception hall overlooking the Chippewa River:

Below, my brother Bob and his girlfriend, Nancy:

My older sister Lisa and our dad:

Beth and her Aunty Lulu:

Jay, being a good sport, gladly took a face (and nose) full of cake for his new bride:

My parents, Rose and Don Bragg:

Like I said, Jay was a good sport about the wedding all night long, including a special dance he had to do before removing Susan's garter:

As you can see in the picture below, our ultra competitive Kenny far out-efforted the other single guys for the tossing of the garter--he now has his SECOND garter belt trophy:

One of the most charming parts of the evening was when the DJ played "Take Me Home, Country Roads", which is of course about West Virginia.  Jay and most of his family are lifelong residents of West Virginia, and are very proud of their heritage:

We are very proud that they are now kin...  As much fun as our kids had dancing and playing at Susan's wedding, by the end of the evening, they were pretty tired:

We had a nice visit in the Rhinelander area, seeing as many friends and family as we could.  I got to see both of my sisters and two of my brothers (only my brother Bill, who currently lives in Alabama, was unable to make Susan's wedding).  I got in a little fishing, and we took quite a few walks in the woods.  This trip seemed particularly short, and before we knew it, we had to hit the road to return to our home in Arkansas.  On the way south, though, we made a point of making a couple history-based stops.  One of these was Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois, from when he was a young lawyer until he was elected president in 1860:

This house and some of the surrounding blocks have been preserved as a national park.  We got here late in the afternoon, but still managed to get the last guided tour of the house that day.  Of all the neat artifacts and mementos they had, perhaps the neatest one for me was the simple, utilitarian desk and chair that Lincoln spent long hours at:

For a man who came from such humble roots, his home (though large for the time) retained much of his low-key lifestyle, even as he provided well for his family.  We made one more interesting stop on our return to Monticello--we stopped at the local museum and city hall in the small village of St. Charles, Arkansas.  St. Charles is a sleepy little town now, but during the Civil War it was the location of what has been called the single deadliest shot of the war.  On June 17, 1862, a Union gunboat, the USS Mound City, was steaming up the White River when it engaged in a battle with Confederate artillery stationed at St. Charles.  A single Confederate cannon shot hit the steam boiler on the Mound City, and over 100 Union sailors were killed by the steam (http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=532).  Below, Kenny reads the inscription written on a monument erected right in the middle of the main street in town:

We arrived later that day to find the home (and our cats) just fine after our two weeks away.  If we didn't catch you on our trip north, please forgive us--this was a particularly frantic visit.  I hope we can see y'all soon...