I arrived in Chicago early Friday morning on September 24th. Wayne & I picked up the kids from school (click here to see pic of Uncle Wayne with Lukas) early so they could spend an afternoon with their favorite Uncle. We met Audrey and little Leah for lunch at a trendy BoBo restaurant in their trendy BoBo neighborhood of Wicker Park. Then home to a tour of the ever-evolving house at 1521 North Elk Grove Ave. Shoulda taken pictures of the amazing back porch. Very, very impressive! I don’t know which will ever get finished first – my farm or Wayne & Audrey’s house.
Then out to Riverside for dinner and visiting with Uncle Eric & Aunt Beth. We had a great time touring their new house – a terrific late victorian with more rooms than I could count. I could be happy just living in the carriage house apartment! We spent the rest of the evening eating and drinking. I guess all the excitement of travel and seeing everyone did me in – I fell asleep on the couch while the rest of them talked the night away.
Next morning I had to leave to drive to Wisconsin. Nieces and nephews piled in the car with me to “run away from home with Uncle Alan.” Nothing would have pleased me more (and maybe even pleased a few harried parents??), but the great escape lasted for about 1 block before Riley decided perhaps her parents might miss her too much – so I had to turn around.
I drove to Galena, IL under clear blue skies. Galena very touristy – filled with Midwestern grandmothers saying things like “oh my, how quaint!” Nice town, but really kinda tragic when you realized that ALL small towns used to be like that, and just because this one had the foresight not to tear down every building on main street it still retains some charm – of course much of that charm is dissipated by the non-stop “gifte shoppes” lining Main Street, but I guess you can’t have everything.
After a quick lunch in Galena I drove up over the Wisconsin border to the “driftless area.” You’d think they’d come up with a better name for the unglaciated landscape. Still, really pretty scenery. Nice tidy farms, rolling hills, and small towns. German, Swiss, and Norwegian farmers. Lutheran churches everywhere. Wonderfully solid, stolid, and Midwestern to its core. I loved touring around there. It looks like how America used to look before it got suburbanized and turned into one gigantic Walmart/McDonalds/Subdivision. Fields of corn alternating with alfalfa and dairy cows and great barns with silos.
The sheep meeting was fun and it was good to see my fellow shepherds again. We ate lots of lamb and talked all afternoon and night. I stayed in Monroe, WI where I was told how lucky I was to get a room because the annual “Cheese Days” festival had just ended (I’m not making this up!). Unfortunately I did not get to see the Cheese Queen and her court…. Next morning I went back to Pat’s farm for the official annual meeting. We finished about 1 pm. I drove to New Glarus to see the Swiss village – they did a pretty good imitation of a real swiss village – except for the insistence on “Ye Olde Swisse Gifte Shoppes” everywhere.
From New Glarus, I rushed back down to Chicago (90 miles) and parked the car for 15 minutes ($12 in the Grant Park parking garage) and looked at the new Millennium Park. Pretty amazing. Can’t say that I liked everything, but I certainly like the idea. I can’t think of any other American city (or any city besides Paris for that matter) that still maintains that level of civic pride in the cityscape and truly celebrates architecture. It was great just being there and watching the people enjoy it. Odd too, looking at the Prudential building. I remember when my Aunt Leah and Uncle Willi visited from Scotland in the mid 60s when we went to the top of the Prudential building – at that time the tallest building in the city – and looking over the cityscape. Now it’s dwarfed by everything around it. Anyway, it was a great 15 minutes and I’m glad I did it. Then back to O’Hare and back home to good ol’ Virginny.
