Stonington

Friday in the UP is behind us.  It's 6:45 in the morning on Saturday as I start to write this, and I'm trying not to listen to the noise of the lobby and coffee shop right around the corner from our suite.  It hasn't woken me up during our stay here, but it's a lot to have to hear early in the morning.  If only this hotel had a doorway to close between the lobby and this wing of rooms.  Oh wait, they do.  Sigh.  I've already written a bad review on TripAdvisor and will argue with Conrad if he considers staying here again.  And yes, I did talk to them about this two days ago when it first happened.  So much for customer feedback, right?

Enough of that, though, Peter (and no, I'm not naming the hotel, but if you ever come up to Conrad's hometown, ask me where NOT to stay, and I will tell you). Let's get back to yesterday.

Two days ago we had grand ambitions of a drive over to St. Ignace and the ferry to Mackinac Island.  By yesterday morning, that had downgraded significantly.  We had breakfast with Karen at a new place in town (generous portions for the most part, but my breakfast burrito was mostly potato instead of egg) (I swear, this post is not just a litany of complaints), then spent time in the room doing some paperwork things that needed to be done.  It was after 1:00 when Conrad and I finally got ourselves going for a drive.  Mackinac Island?  Nope.  The Stonington Peninsula.

Yeah, not very ambitious.  A drive to a lighthouse at Peninsula Point. 

A nice drive, mind you, and the lighthouse was a lovely little setting. 

Everything so green there.  We were able to climb up the stairs inside the lighthouse

and take in the views from there. 

Lovely.  Back in the car, we headed through the tunnel of trees to the paved road, then past fields and occasional houses.  There was something about the green space that invited, and it would have been fantastic to stroll or run through those places.  Alas, aside from most of it being private land, I can only imagine what sort of ticks a person could pick up among those tall grasses and such!

We left the Stonington Peninsula behind us and meandered through the nearby communities, admiring some of the homes and gardens that we rolled past.  We headed on into Escanaba and picked up a few things needed for a night-in in the hotel room.  Once back at the hotel, we headed to the bar for a happy hour drink.  We've been enjoying the Mammoth Gin, a Michigan brand, and for all that we have had issues with the hotel, the bar has had good service and good drinks.  Credit to them for the terrific martinis. 

It's clear from the crowds at the bar when it opens at 4:30 that flood on in that they're keeping folks happy.

We came back to the room and began our grazing for the evening.  Veggies and dip, then a nice assortment of meats and cheeses with almonds and biscuits.  A good wine to go with it. 

Re-watching season one of The Crown on Netflix.  Eventually reading with music.  Little fuss, just us having that easy time together to end our last night in the UP for this trip.  A nice day for a drive, a nice evening, and the promise of being that much closer to being home.

Little Bay de Noc

Not much to report.  Still digestively a little off, and that's all you need to know.  Here's hoping for smooth travel tomorrow.  I will be good to get home.

Conrad and I braved the lakefront mayflies today to take a bit of a walk near our hotel.  More steps than the previous two days combined!  I have nothing else to report, just a couple of views of Little Bay de Noc and the Stonington Peninsula.  Enjoy!

Little Bay de Noc

It's a gloomy Friday before Christmas in this little nook of the UP.  Damp out, above freezing.  There is a fog on Little Bay de Noc, and when I look out from the hotel room, I can't see the Stonington Peninsula across from us (and not all that far) clearly.  If I joked in an early entry about the bleak midwinter, well, this feels even moreso.  Broken ice on the lake near shore.  A bare tree.  A good afternoon to stay inside, cozy.

so...

... the worst Christmas in my recollection got even worse yesterday with Conrad's decision that he wanted to stay in Escanaba for Christmas.  This came on the heels of a bunch of texts from his sister, and cost us far too much additional money for me not to be angry about this.  Home on the 26th.  Now counting down.

Sorry.  I'm jet lagged and cranky.  I have never really been fond of Conrad's hometown (there's not much going on here, we know no one outside of the very small family), and it's even worse at the holidays when so much shuts down and we're trapped in a hotel instead of our own home.  So forgive any attitude that creeps through in days ahead.

We left Chicago after sunset yesterday,

later than scheduled but still in time for dinner.  A short flight, and then we made it to the hotel.  A nice hotel,

right next to Lambeau Field (for any Cheeseheads reading this).  We headed up to dinner after dropping our bags, and that was very enjoyable:  Last Words to start with, some deep fried deviled eggs,

a wedge lettuce salad to share, a steak each,

a bottle of a 2010 Rioja, a huge chunk of carrot cake to share. 

It was so good.  Up until Conrad dropped his bomb.  The evening unraveled at that point, and you can be sure I had stern words for him.  And then it was bedtime, more or less, and another truncated night (three hours again) for me.

Ugh.

We got on the road late this morning, having stopped in a couple of places.  By the time we got to Escanaba, it was lunch time, so we popped into Gram's for pasties

before we did anything else.  I left Conrad after lunch to take care of things with his sister, and I headed to buy food and Christmas decor.  I mean, if we're not going to be home with our tree or Van's, if we're going to be in a hotel room for a week, we may as well have a little touch of Christmas.  So I shopped, and then checked into the hotel.  A nice enough room with a lake view,

 

and with some Christmas touches, it feels better still.

I got Conrad back to the hotel to unpack, then sent him off for dinner with his sister.  Me, I had a cocktail (The Meredith - grapefruity, but a bit sweet)

and the bison meatloaf at the hotel bar. 

I'm now back in the room, finishing off a boulevardier.  Conrad is back from dinner.

Tomorrow is the funeral, and then it will be a couple of days of getting things done.  I've told Conrad to put some of the burden back on the rest of his family.  He heard me, but he won't do it.  Ah well.  As long as I can pin him down on Sunday for a Christmas Eve together.

Counting down here, counting down.

Hey, guess where I am!

Yep, on the road again.  And to where?  My favourite US city:  Chicago! 

I made it here yesterday about mid-afternoon.  I spent much of the rest of the afternoon unpacking and ironing.  Fun times.  This morning, though, I had no conference activities, and I had a nice little walk around near my hotel.

And oh, what views from my hotel room!

The days ahead may be quiet while I am deep in conference stuff, but have no fear, more content will land on this blog!  For all two or three of you out there who read it, that is!

I love this city

The multi-year gap in this blog left out a lot, I know.  One of the biggies was the move west.

Nothing bad precipitated the move west, happily.  Conrad's company transferred him.  I found my position shortly after we agreed to the transfer.  It's been ten years now.

I have been back to Chicago a lot.  I'm on my second term on the executive board of my professional association, which is based in Chicago.  I have had some conferences there.  We have gone to visit friends and hold a few major celebrations.  We pass through on our way to and from Conrad's family.  Lots of opportunities to be in the city, I am very happy to say.

I miss Chicago.  I love Chicago.  I will not live there again.  It doesn't make sense to go back professionally, so far as I can tell.  And while it could mean buying a condo there that is pretty darn good and at a gentler price than what we have in Pasadena (and Vancouver!), it wouldn't be the same Chicago (socially speaking, at least) that we left.  Van is not interested in living there either, so there is that important consideration.

So I visit when I can.  I remember things fondly.  I feel confusion over what has changed since we left.

And I appreciate the beauty of the place.  Like Friday morning when I got myself out the door

and heading to the lake shortly after sunrise,

a nice walk before a long day of meetings on what proved to be a gorgeous day for spring weather.  And again yesterday morning, a little later than sunrise, but quieter on a Sunday and in weather that was turning toward cool and damp.

I have trips to Chicago in May, June, October, and November still to come.  And I will welcome them all.

Lake Michigan

We spent some time on the recent long weekend driving to nearby parts of the UP I'd not seen before. A holiday Sunday, and fine weather. Out on the Garden Peninsula near Conrad's hometown we stopped to have a simple picnic-ish lunch we'd packed, admire the little cove where a few families had gathered to lunch and even to swim, and then drove on to a beach near Manistique. That was as far as we got, but gosh, was it lovely. A long narrow sandy beach and a mighty wind that the seagulls coasted on and struggled against.











Sometimes, amid the flat urban landscape of Chicago, it's very easy to forget just how remarkable it is to have such a huge lake within eyesight.