Midwest Trip

As I expected, I was awakened not at 5am on Monday the 5th, but at 9:30am which was earlier than Dad got up. He'd decided while packing the night before that we'd head straight to Chicago, then up to Wisconsin to see the House on the Rock again (which kirkusmaximus12 had never seen). Hence we didn't leave until 12pm, which really wasn't that bad in terms of Dad's usual lateness, so eh. I drove the first leg of the trip which included detours through rural Penn. and a lot of singing along to Life is a Highway. We aimed for Indiana before we stopped but ended up in Ohio, where we had internet but I had to mostly use it to research museum opening times and addresses for the next day's drive. Next day, we made it to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago by noon and had so much fun exploring the place that we didn't make it to the Field Museum in time for Kirk to see Sue. He did get to explore the aquarium while Dad and I cruised around since we were unwilling to pay $16 for parking for an hour. From there, we did a run up to Madison, WI, almost starving on the way since there is nothing along the highway there.

From our hotel in the morning, we made it to the House on the Rock around 10am. They'd added on more since Dad and I had last been there, including a display on the history of the House and its' founder. Quite interesting. From there we explored the gardens, the House, etc etc. Kirk loved it, which made the whole trip worthwhile, and I took the opportunity of carting a full tripod in there and getting good pics of things I'd gotten poor pics of due to the awful lighting in places. We finished exploring everything and climbing back up the hill (it's so easy going down...) around 4pm, and decided to make the run for my brother B.'s house near Louisville, which we hit at 2am, much to our shame. And now I must run. Ja ne!

Ze midwest trip part 2

So, once at my brother B.'s house, we spent the day after sleeping in, then in the afternoon we headed over to a cheap book store in Louisville along with my niece G. who holds the distinction of being the eldest of my nieces and nephews (she's 2 years older than Kirk and only 2 years younger than me). We had a good time and found lots of insanely cheap books (15+ books/manga for $23). The next day we woke up early enough to get to our Aunt B. in rural Indiana - so rural there wasn't even a cell phone tower! *gasp* Aunt B. puts out an awesome spread with tomatoes and sweet corn grown in her back yard that are to die for. We ate really well. My brother R. and his family were there as was a cousin of ours, so we had a good time chatting and playing. I played with C. and L., R.'s youngest since how often do I get to play with them? I also got to wander around outside and take lots of pics of all the flowers and growing things that cover the property there. I always get such awesome pics from that place (sorry, no pics being posted at this point. I'm too lazy... and on vacation, dammit!)

Once that was done with, we headed over to an old friend of Dad's, W. and Dad chatted with him and his girlfriend while Kirk and I read. Dinner was some very tasty BLTs and bratwurst as well. Once we'd pried Dad away from his conversation, we made it home late and caught up on more reading before going to bed. Today we backtracked a bit and headed to Cincinnati to visit D. our cousin, her family, and my brother R. and his family again. Lots of people and we pretty much ended up having a big barbecue, playing with all the kids, chatting with my cousins, eating good food and awesome deserts and just generally enjoying ourselves. We once again had to pry Dad away, but got back to B.'s early enough to get some take out food, buy UP! and bring it home to watch with B. and his youngest son, N. That movies always makes me cry *g* Ah well, we had a good bonding experience and now we're all hanging out.

It's off to St. Louis tomorrow. Ja ne!