Day 2

Day 2.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. After our morning coffee and walk, we drove into the city. I had seen on the Internet, there was a street festival called Bash on Wabash. Looked like a fun time and in an area of the city we haven't seen. The south loop area. This area used to have numerous old high rise tenement type buildings, but were torn down years ago. It is now experiencing a revival being so close to Grant Park and the Loop. So we parked our car in our usual place, between Michigan Ave.and Navy Pier. It was such a nice day, we decided to walk, though that meant going all the way from the river past Millennium Park, the entire length of Grant Park plus some. But we figured, burn more calories, eat more food! Well, we arrived at the festival, and I must say, it was the lamest festival I've ever seen!

See the pic? this was it! it covered all of one block!

Yes, there was a big stage with bands, but no seating anywhere! A total of 3 food vendors with no place to sit and eat, and a handful of crappy crafts. This was a total joke! The saving grace of it all was a Mexican restaurant with an outdoor patio we passed 2 blocks before the festival. We went back there to have lunch, and it was wonderful! What a find! Skirt Steak sandwiches with tasty Sweet Potato fries. I think Craig was trying to be good by getting salad, but I went with the Chicken Tortilla soup. mmmmmm good! After eating way more than we should, we decide to walk all the way back to the magnificent mile and the Crate and Barrel store. Wabash ran parallel to Michigan only 2 blocks over, so it was a straight shot back. Then to finish off the afternoon, it was a short 10 block walk out to Navy Pier, for beer, music, and people watching. Then a few blocks back to the car, and on the road back to the campground. At our exit off the highway, there was an RV dealer. We decided to stop and see if they had a convex mirror we could try and make work till we got ours repaired, but of course, they did not. They had an entire mirror replacement assembly, but that was $165. Hope we don't have to go that route. They were also having an open house for all their units, so we wandered thru some of the mo-ho's. Fortunately for Craig, I didn't see one I liked better than ours.

And this is the kind of pic you get when someone is looking down and you sneak the camera and say CRAIG! He hates when I do that. hehehe

And more pics tomorrow!

It's a beach thing

Okay, continuing our camping trip. On Sunday Tom and Dean fixed breakfast and we discussed plans for the day. We decided to go to the casino. There's one in Michigan City, just 10 miles from the campground. Like I always said, that's never a good thing. But after a couple of hours playing, Craig and I were ahead $65.00! Yay! But Tom and Dean were down about $70.00. So back to the campground. Then it was down to the beach. It's a bit of a hike, so Craig was to drive us down, drop us off, and find a parking place. Well, as we got back to the park, there were so many day users there, they had closed the road to the beach. So we had to take the trail from the campground. A bit of a hike, but not bad. The beach was full, but not packed because it's a huge beach.

They have this displayed at the beach. It's the Chicago skyline. On clear days, you can see Chicago across the lake.
Click on the above pic and look closely.

There's this very cool old Pavilion between the parking lot and the beach That's still used today.
The reason you see no people is I took a walk to the beach in the early morning while everyone was still asleep.

Now here's a couple of pics of the beach while we were there.
And after baking in the sun awhile and watching the sights, we hiked back to the campground where Tom and Dean fixed Shish Kabobs on the grill with Corn on the cob, and we brought Baked Beans. Then another camp fire in the evening.

We packed up Monday morning, said our goodbyes, and made it safely home. Another good trip!

Halsted Market Days

Good morning!
After arriving home from Indiana Dunes, we did laundry, got all the clothes and food out of the mo-ho, and relaxed. It was a safe and non incident trip!
Here we are set up in our site with our friends Tom and Dean and their 5th wheel behind us. It's a fairly spacious campground. But of course, we're not in Michigan!
We arrived Friday afternoon, and since we had worked that morning before we left, Tom and Dean fixed us a delicious meal of Brats and Corn on the Cob.
We had a little visitor who wandered around each day. Isn't he cute!

On Saturday we took Tom and Dean into Chicago and up to the Lakeview area to Halsted Market Days. Billed as the largest street festival in the Midwest!

And it got very crowded too! But we wandered up and down the street. They block of Halsted between Belmont and Addison. It covered something like 6 blocks of Halsted.
Dean complained we didn't take any pics of them, but he was wrong! Here they are in the above pic! Lower left corner. That's Deans Bald head with Tom's thick dark hair right behind him! :-P

But we had a good time. Enjoyed the sights. And Mike, a Chicago friend of Tom and Dean's met us there, and took us to a nice restaurant for lunch. Then back to the campground, and a nice warm campfire.

Tomorrow, Sundays pics and the rest of our trip.

And the rest of the story

Good morning from a cool Lansing, MI. I'm getting real tired of this colder than normal weather. Today is going to reach all the way to 65. About 10 degrees cooler than normal. That seems to be the weather here this spring. A couple of nice days, than a week of cold.
But anyway, back to our trip. Sunday was by far the nicest day of the weekend. Which was good since that was the day we went into Chicago. Now Chicago has something going on nearly every weekend, and this was no different. There was a street festival called 'Do Division". It was on the west side of the city. An area we had never been to, so I thought it would be an adventure.
Well, Craig doesn't like 'adventures', but reluctantly went along.
So we drove into the city and got off the Dan Ryan Expressway onto Ohio St. drove a couple blocks past Lasalle St. and found a parking garage. We knew a subway station was only a block away which we'd take to the festival. We hopped on the red line to the loop, about 3 stations away, and transferred to the blue line which goes to Ohare Airport, and of course about 5 stations from the loop to Division and Ashland where the festival was. Well, the 'adventure' begun! The train stopped 2 stations out, and we had to depart the train for shuttle buses. Apparently there is summer work on the blue line and they are running
shuttle buses on the line instead. So everyone climbed the stairs, walked to the end of the block, and boarded a line of buses. Craig was not amused. He hates surprises. But off we went, snaking through an unknown part of the city. We finally reached Division St. and departed. The street festival was just down the street. I told Craig, "see, it worked out fine!" As we wandered down the street, we came upon this restaurant in the first pic and decide we'd have lunch. Craig had a Sirloin Wrap, and I had grilled Tilapia Tacos. Yummuy! And you can see Craig with a smile now that he's
got something in his tummy, and a drink in his hand.
This was an interesting area. Very wide sidewalks which were put in use by the many restaurants that lined the street. And a lot of new buildings mixed with the old ones. What was most interesting was everyone we saw, and I mean everyone, looked to be in the mid twenty's to mid thirty's. I swear, we were the oldest people we saw! We first noticed that at lunch. All the tables were filled with younger folks. And that made us aware of that fact as we explored the rest of the festival. It was really odd! But anyway, after an afternoon of wandering, we walked past this building. Click on the pic to see the name. They even had a sign on the door listing the days and hours of operation. So as old as the building was, it was still being used as a Turkish baths. Interesting! So, upon leaving the festival, we decided against taking the shuttle bus back, and grabbed a cab instead. Cabs are very available
everywhere in the city, and very cheap too! And as we spent so much here, instead of Michigan Ave. shopping, we went straight to Navy Pier. The cab ride cost a total of 10 bucks!

Now any of my regular readers know we enjoy Navy Pier to end our afternoon. They have a beer garden at the end, with great views of the city, free live music, and a great place to relax and people watch! Which is exactly what we did. Found a nice table with an umbrella and enjoyed a Latin School dance and music entertainment.
Then it was about an 8 block walk back to the parking garage, just enough to work off our beer buzz, and back to the campground where we fixed grilled sausage wraps. We've decided wraps work so much better than buns. Buns get so messy with the topping spilling out. But in a wrap, they stay all nice and tucked together. Wraps are the way yo go!

And of course, we awoke on Monday with rain, so what do you do on a day like that? We go to the casino! I know, you ask why, cause we always lose, but I guess we'll never learn.
We did spend a couple of hours there with spending very little.
And back to the campground, we hit a White Castle for lunch. Love those little burgers! And the weather had cleared, so we hiked down to the beach for a bit, and ended the day with Pork Chops, Parsley Garlic Potatoes, and Marinated Grilled Zucchini on the grill.
Got up at the crack of dawn to head home. Drove the mo-ho to the dump station, where we emptied the tanks, and loaded the car on the Kar Kaddy. Checked the lights, and no lights, just brake and turn signals. God, I just hate trailer wiring! So after screwing around with that, we still can't get the lights to work, but with brake and turn signals working, it'll have to wait till we get home. Just outside the park, we stopped to re tighten the straps, and I noticed the front car wheels were turned, I had to loosen the straps so Craig could straighten the wheels. Drove a little further, and realized the Kaddy was tracking about a foot to the left. Stopped and decide we need to unload the car, straighten out the kaddy, and reload. Glad we started out early!

But we arrived home safe, so a good trip!

We're back!

We've just returned from another weekend trip! A long weekend to Indiana Dunes State Park. With of course, a day trip to Chicago! So as soon as we get unpacked and settled in, I'll post some pics and the details.

more trip pics

A few more pics of our trip.

This is a glass block fountain tower in Milliniuem Park.

There are 2 on oppisite sides of the very shallow pool.

Notice how the kids love playing in it!

a ship coming in at Navy Pier.

This is their giant outdoor amphitheater.

This is where Oprah is having her season premiere

with 150 Olympians.

And back at Indiana Dunes, the beach

from the dune between it and the campground.

Isn't this a beautiful beach?

And of course, yours truely!

Click on this pic and

look very close, and

you'll see the Chicago

skyline in the background.

Just shows how close we were to the city!

As I downloaded pics from the camera, I find this one of my feet....
I'm beginning to wonder if Craig has a foot fetish.......hmmmmm

guess...

We're in the middle of our weekend, and here's a couple of pics to let you guess where we are! tee hee. Any one who's been here will know instantly. And anyone who reads my blog regularly will also know what my favorite city is.






More pics and comentary when we return!

trip #4

Yep! We just returned from our 4th trip of the season.
We stayed at Indiana Dunes State Park.
Besides being a very nice campground,
with spacious sites,
it's only an hours drive into downtown Chicago!
So we always take a day trip into town.
Always soo much to see and do.
And while there, we ate at the
Park grill in Millennium Park.

The top pic is the 'Bean' that's
on the hill above the restaurant.

We like it because they have
outdoor seating in the summer,
good food, and a great place to people watch.
I had the Soft Shell Duck Tacos,
with Mango Salsa, Yummy!
And Craig tried their new Mini Burgers,
with Caramelized Onions and Swiss Cheese.
He said they were very tasty.

And then it was a short walk over
to Navy Pier, for refreshments,
free live music, boat watching,
and more people watching.
We love Chicago.
We have 2 more trips planned
for here this year.
On Sunday, we tried our luck at the
Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City.
If you remember my post from St Louis,
I don't know why we go, because we always lose.
But sometimes we never learn.
Well, this time would be different.
After about 3 hours of play, we left
with $23 more than when we arrived! Yay!
Not much, but better than usual.
Which is good since our TV in the mo-ho
quit working this weekend.

Good thing we also have one in the bedroom.
But now we'll need to replace it.
When we got home, we saw the
results of the storms that blew
thru over the weekend.
Branches down everywhere,
but fortunately, none on the house or cars.

We had 3 inches of rain over the weekend,
according to our rain gauge. Beat the crap out of the flowers,
but I'll prune up the damage. And that's what's nice about perennials,
there will be more things blooming soon.

Now today, it's major house cleaning that I've neglected because of our big plant sale and trips.
We have visitors arriving this weekend!

Happy 4th!

First, Happy 4th, to everyone!
Also Happy birthday to my Sis, Linda, who was born on the 4th!
We had a great weekend! Beautiful weather, and no major mishaps!


We stayed at Indiana Dunes State Park.
It's about 10 miles south of Michigan City Indiana,
right on lake Michigan!
One of the reasons we like this campground,
is it's only an hours drive from my favorite city, Chicago!


So, we drove into the city to partake of Chicago's biggest festival.
The "Taste" as they call it. The "Taste" is a massive food fest.
This year, they had 70 restaurants participating. They also have 3 stages with music, and assorted other entertainment.
The "Taste" is held in Grant Park. Chicago's largest park that sits
right on Lake Michigan. This pic shows the skyline. Can you see Craig? Who's looking rather bored with me taking so many pics!



And here he is again, showing off for the camera!
Lot's of good food and people watching.
Some of the items we sampled were,
Coconut rice with sauteed goat,
mustard fried catfish, steak tacos,
BBQ buffalo burgers, sesame beef on a stick,
and of course some Eli's cheescake! YUM!

According to the news the next day, they had 315,000 people there that day.
It got very crowded.

So, to get away from the crowds and relax, we, of course, headed over to Navy Pier, and the Beer Garden.
See how relaxed and happy we are to be away from the masses?
And of course, it's a great place to people watch and listen to free live music!



And the pier which juts out into Lake Michigan offers great views of the city and lots of boats coming and going. A great way to wind down from shopping and the crowds.
There's always so much to see and do in Chicago! I would list Chicago in my top 5 great cities, with the other 4 being Washington D.C., San Francisco, Portland, and New Orleans.




At the entrance to Navy Pier, they had an exhibit of artfully decorated Globes. Here's me with one.
See, always something new here.





Of course we had to finally leave Chicago and return to the campground. The next day we went to the beach.
They have a massive beach, which is very popular. Since it's the only beach in Indiana!




After enjoying the sand and surf we headed
up a dune to go back to the campground.
Click on the pic and ignore Craig's tired, winded look, (he hates climbing) and you'll see Chicago across the lake! Actually it's more like around the corner of the Lake. Since Indiana Dunes is on the lower right corner of Lake Michigan, and Chicago is on the lower left side.
Hated to come home, but we'll go back again later this summer.
Can never have too much Chicago!
Oh, and for the rest of the pics,
click this Album

Navy pier extras

Apparently, Blogger limits the amount of megabits per post, so I can only post four to five pics per post. That's why Chicago has gone on for sooooo Long!
So, I can either make my pics smaller pixel wise or do more posts!
I think it's nice to click on a pic and see more detail, so I'll do more posts!
These are more
things we saw at
Navy Pier.
First up,
a tall ship that takes
people on tours
of the lake front!
Next,
Jet skiers entertaining
the crowds.
We actually saw one
run over another!
No one was hurt.








There is this super
large Ferris Wheel
here also.
Which offers
great views of the city!

And of course,
the Beer Garden!

Where an enjoyable
afternoon can be had!
The free music,
the people watching,
the boaters,
all make for a
relaxing afternoon!
And did I mention
the beer!

Anyway,
that was pretty much it!
on the way out of town,
we saw the museum
advertising the
tut exhibit!

I need to see that!

Navy Pier pt 3

Out at the very end of the pier is this large round room. They use it for wedding receptions and such. It has windows all around it , giving you a fantastic view of the lake and city.
And then it's lined
with all these very
large flags!

Very impressive!

And the views of the city

is equally impressive!

Here's a shot from both

sides of the pier!

The low building in front

of the second pic

is their waste water treatment plant.

It also sticks out in the lake ,

but on the backside of the pier.

It doesn't really look to bad.

The really tall building is the

John Hancock Tower.

The Sears Tower is farther back in the city in the first pic.

Did I say I love Chicago!

Well it was time to head

back to our motor home in

Indiana Dunes State Park.

On our way out of town

we went by the Field Museum.

http://www.fieldmuseum.org/

They are showing

Tutankhamun and the Golden age of the Pharaohs!

See! Just never enough time!

But we'll be back!