off to Michigan!

Saturday morning in Chicago we got a good walk in, then showered, dressed, packed, checked out, and headed to O'Hare. 

Next stop, Green Bay.

A short hop from Chicago to Green Bay. 

Take off, and it's almost time to land.  I was on the lake side of the plane,

and I was able to see Milwaukee

as well as enjoy the southeast WI landscape passing by.  Oh, hello there, Milwaukee airport!

Just passing through that fine Wisconsin city.  We stopped near Marinette in a favourite store. 

I was tempted to buy gin and by the time this is posted, I will have returned that way and may have gin in hand. 

But we did buy some 100% cherry wine.  And chilled it.  And had it after dinner.  And friends...

🤮

I exaggerate, but it wasn't any where near as good as hoped.  Darn it.  Ah well.  Lesson learned!

10 states

A short post to congratulate Allison who, yesterday, reached double digits in the number of US states she has visited. Despite miserable weather on the drive to and from, we made it up to Milwaukee for a quick visit that included a stop at a coffee shop in the Third Ward
(Conrad and I have liked the soups there in the past, but the decaf latte was truly awful), a bit of a drive along the lake and past some fine old homes, and a stop to browse and buy at the Spice House.








I love the Spice House. On my first visit to Milwaukee - waaaaay back in 1995, before there was any hint of an idea that I would live in the US - I was taken there and went to town on bringing things back for fun at home and at the restaurant. Allison picked up a couple of things, and I somehow restrained myself, buying only some vanilla and saffron and true cinnamon sticks and a few other things. But ah, to smell that truffle salt or see a big jar of mace blades. Fun stuff.

Anyway, it was about Allison, taking her to the outlets at Pleasant Prairie (not a successful jaunt for the most part), and adding that tenth state to her list. Congratulations to my best woman, and may her future additions have better weather in store for her!

Kopp's

Wisconsinians (Wisconsinites?) agree: Kopp's rocks.

Take one warm summer day. Add flavour of the day: cherry amaretto cheesecake frozen custard. Feed to Peter.

Happy!

Milwaukee/Kohler

Reaching all the way back to last Sunday for this posting, just to add some photos from Milwaukee and Kohler to the blog.

We dawdled a bit on the drive up north last weekend even after a later-than-expected start to our drive. It was 1:00 and still kind of sunny when we drove in to Milwaukee.





Nice city - I rather like the place. Lunch was at a coffee shop we like in the loft district, the Third Ward,
and we poked briefly in the nearby Market after that.

(The Market is a nice little place with some little treasures like the St. Paul Fish Company and the Spice House. We stopped in at the Fish company's oyster bar for some lunch on our return trip to Chicago and picked up a few things to replenish the seasonings and flavourings in my kitchen cupboard.)

Our stop in Kohler was much shorter: some fuel and a bit of fruit and water from the grocery store at Woodlake.




The weather, as you can see, was not as good by that point, and though we usually take our time in the little town, this time we got back on the road again quickly.

the wettest month

I read in the newspaper not all that long ago that August is usually the wettest month of the year in Chicago. This year is proving not to be an exception, and if we haven't hit our monthly average yet, last night, today, and tonight will help a good bit. It's odd that things wake me in the night, so soundly do I sleep, but the rain against the windows last night roused me. And at various times today I've been glad to be in the car or in a building looking out.

I won't call these stellar pieces of photographic artistry by any means, but they do convey the downpour around lunchtime when we set out to take Conrad's mother to the airport in Milwaukee.






Milwaukee was not so wet. It looked as though it had rained a little but by the time we'd seen Conrad's mother off and then headed into the city to shop at the Spice House, things were dry. Gloomy, grey, cool. But dry.

I like Milwaukee. When I was set to move to Chicago, friends in Montreal asked me why I was moving to the Midwest. As I told Conrad today, I think that Milwaukee (and other Midwest cities - Minneapolis comes to mind) is underappreciated. We spent only a little time there today, down in the Third Ward district, but I always enjoy visiting. The shots, alas, are more of the taken-from-the-car-while-passing-through genre, so they don't flatter the city, but at least, for those who don't know it beyond Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, they put a face on the place.