Chicago & Green Bay

 Hello again!

We had a lovely time in Chicago - we stayed with our friends Blaine and Chris.  They live North of downtown Chicago - 15 minutes by train.  So nice to see them!

We have been to Chicago several times but it is such a great city!  There is always more to see.  The first thing we did on Monday was the Architecture Tour (Wendella).  This is a 1.5 hour boat tour on the Chicago River.  Of course they give you information about the architecture along the river, but also a nice history lesson about the city.

Some fun facts that we learned:

-  the moniker "windy city" is not a reference to the wind that blows across Lake Michigan, rather it is a reference to a politician that went to DC to lobby for Chicago to host the World's Fair - apparently, he would not shut up!

-  the Chicago River once flowed into Lake Michigan ... but they reversed it!  It was not the cleanest river, I'm not sure that St. Louis ever forgave them for sending their "mess" in their direction (it flows into the Mississippi river system)

-  in 1941 submarines ready for war in the Pacific sailed right through Chicago on their way to the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico, through the Panama Canal and ultimately to the Pacific.

- On his death bed the reporter who had placed the blame for the Fire on Mrs. O'Leary's cow confessed that he had made that story up.  The big fire, which left 1/3 of the population homeless and destroyed 17,000 buildings, did start at the O'Leary farm but the cause is still unknown.

Here are some pictures from our day walking around the city (+20,000 steps):

Along the Riverwalk - floating gardens:

Marina City and the other one - made famous by Steve McQueen in "Hunter"

The outside of the Chicago Tribune building has rocks/pieces of famous places such as the Berlin Wall, Luthers Wartburg Eisenach, The Alamo and Trondheim Cathedral in Norway.  It was super cool!

Vista Tower by Jeanne Gang - this is the coolest building, the colors mimic the river and the shape is that of waves. my favorite!

the "Bean" - with no people around it ... a rare sight!

This was a great find! A lovely rose garden - the flowers were fragrant and beautiful!

Buckingham Fountain.

Willis Tower f/k/a Sears Tower.  Tallest building in the world for many years.

Chicago was lovely but we must keep moving!  On to Green Bay.

On the way to GB we stopped off in Mequon, WI so that Carsten could show me where they lived when they first moved to the US.  It was in a lovely neighborhood.  I can see that it would have been idyllic to grow up there ... but I sure am glad they moved to Texas!

the house:

Next stop was at the home of an old friend.  In about 1974 Heike and Ulf (Carsten's folks) travelled to Green Bay as part of a People-to-People trip.  They stayed with a host family - Jerry and Vicky Piron and their two sons.  When the Alsguths moved to Wisconsin (1977) they went to visit the Pirons with the whole family ... and they have stayed in touch all these years.  Carsten and I stopped by Vicky's house and were lucky to find her home!  We had such a nice visit with Vicky and her son Jeff!  It was really incredible to find old friends so welcoming!  So wonderful!

This morning we went to tour Lambeau Field!  This was really interesting - we saw the "public" space, a suite and entered the field through the tunnel where the GB Packers enter.  Here are some pics:

We took a nice walk along Fox River and had a lovely lunch including Cheese Curds.  Took a chance and ordered Pulled Pork Tacos - they were actually quite spicy and nice!

After lunch we headed to the GB Botanical Gardens.  We were a little early for the riot of blooms that must come later but it was very beautiful!

There was a special art installation where all the pieces were made of plastics and other trash floating around in the ocean.  It was a powerful reminder of the impact humans have on our environment.

Finally, after 13,902 steps we celebrated 32 years of marriage at Chefusion.  We had a lovely time and are thankful for the blessing of a wonderful relationship that gets better every year!

Happy Anniversary to my mom and dad too - on June 4th they celebrate 61 years of marriage!

Tomorrow we are off to Boscobel, WI.

Take care,

Sheri & Carsten