Cross Country, Day 10 and 11

Sunday, July 7-8

We said goodbye to Chicago and headed toward Wisconsin!  I've never been there before so I was really excited.  I only think of cheese when I think of Wisconsin.  Didn't get any cheese.

There were two things that brought us to the state of Wisconsin, family and Happy Hippo.  My Uncle in-law lives in Whitewater and we thought we'd swing by since we were so close.

But first, we had to visit Happy Hippo.  What seems to be a long time ago, but really isn't, we took our kids to the National Zoo in DC and went by the Elephant House where Happy the Hippo lived.  My kids were so taken by Happy.  He was very playful that day and walked around, splashed everywhere and played with his ball.  He was so huge!  My kids started their love for hippos that day.  You won't find Happy's home in the Elephant House anymore - they've built a brand new elephant habitat.  Because of that new habitat, they had to get rid of Happy and ship him off to Milwaukee Zoo.  We thought we'd never see Happy again.  We received some news clippings from our family in Wisconsin about Happy and his new home.  He seemed sad and wasn't getting along with his hippo friends.

It was a meaningful trip to Milwaukee Zoo.  As soon as we arrived there, they had a zip-lining ride that Anne wanted to try out.  No one has ever done that in our family.  We let her be the first.

Sort of scary to see your daughter hanging from a string several feet in the air.  She loved it!  All of our other kids were too short to zip-line.

After that adventure, we headed straight to Happy.  When we found his home we were a bit disappointed because he was in the water just floating around and there were these bars that were in the way and it made it tough to watch him especially when you're so short like our kids.

We stayed for a while and watched him as he swam back and forth and the occasional coming up for air which wasn't too exciting.  It was nice to see him.

The Milwaukee Zoo was really nice.  It had a relaxed and casual feel with beautiful trees and lakes.  At one point, we took a break because some of us were a little tired.

Bernie was very cranky.  I love those purple sandals.  Purple seems to be her favorite color, next to pink that is.  By the way, those shoes didn't make the whole trip, unfortunately.  We had to find a Walmart and get her some new shoes.

Daddy had to cheer her up before we moved on.

Daddy is working his charm - usually works.

Daddy is still trying as Bernadette is trying to keep her bad mood.  It was so cute.

Then Bernadette couldn't help but crack a smile.  Daddy is so good and he knows it.

We sat around as we passed out some snacks and got some drinks.

We enjoyed the zoo and even went back to visit Happy one last time.

We were off to Whitewater to visit Joe's Uncle Johnny and his wife Marie.  It's just the two of them now since their two kids are all grown up.  We arrived at their beautiful home and they made us feel so relaxed and comfortable.  They took really great care of us.  They fed us, let us do laundry, showed us around town, took us out for an incredible breakfast and then sent us off with a bunch of goodies for the rest of our trip.  So incredibly thoughtful!  Thanks for a wonderful visit.  I wish I had taken more pictures!  Joe took a great shot with his phone - I just don't have it.

After dinner, they brought out a fun dessert made just for us.

How sweet was that?  No pun intended!  It was both =-)

After we left Johnny and Marie's house we headed towards Minnesota to hit Mall of America!  I was having such a great trip so far with my family.  I never liked rode trips when I was younger - um, also as an adult, but this trip was surprisingly awesome!

This was the last zoo we were to visit on our trip and we were going to begin to see a bunch of National Parks.  This was going to be the first time for my kids and for myself to see other side of America.  Excited!

  

Chicago Part Two, Day 9

July 6

Keeping up this blog has been a challenge.  It's really busy around here!  However, after accumulating a bunch of pictures and memories, I thought I should try better to get stuff onto my blog.  I hate to not document things.

Back to our cross country trip...  I shouldn't be too worried, Joe has made a beautiful video of our trip and we have that!

I believe this would be day 9 in Chicago.  After a full day at Millennium Park and Downtown we added another full day in Chicago.  We wanted to go to Lincoln Park Zoo (free!) and then hit the beach which was right near the zoo.  I have to admit it sounds a bit weird to mention the beach in Chicago.

We went to a lot zoos on this trip.  I really enjoyed this one.  The zoo being situated so beautifully in the middle of the city made it so enjoyable.  Not to mention - free, made it great too.  The weather was perfect!

Another great shot of Chicago's skyline.  I took a lot of pictures with my iPhone.  In fact, I've ignored my camera lately.  My phone is so much easier to take pictures of moments as they occur.  I miss my big clunky camera.  I shall dust it off and use it more often.

After the zoo, we had walked into the city and had lunch at McDonalds.  We also had to make a stop at a local Walgreens to pick up some beach towels!  In the McDonalds, I spotted one of these.

I just stared at it and thought how unused those payphones must be!  It almost seemed to be a thing of the past and it registered useless in my head.  However, there it was!  I didn't even check if it still took a quarter to make a call.  Funny, I just saw a payphone the other day and we had a similar conversation upon finding it and then we noticed that the phone handle had been ripped off.  It was no longer a working payphone.  Off to the beach.

We packed our bags that morning to spend a few hours at the beach after the zoo.  I didn't know what to expect, but once we got there it looked just like an ocean view except it was Lake Michigan.  The beach was crowded.  We placed our stroller and towels way in the back and set up.  I didn't even bring my swimsuit.  I just laid back with Max and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  Everything felt like any other beach but I would say the an ocean breeze might have been the one thing I noticed different.

Eventually, Max fell asleep and I put him in his stroller under the shade.  I laid back and tried to relax while I watched my kids go back and forth between the very crowded beach hoping they would find their way back and forth and not get lost.  I didn't even visit the water till the very end just so that I could say I stuck my foot into Lake Michigan.  Done.

After the beach, it was time to head back to our hotel and unwind, have dinner and go to bed!  Goodbye, Chicago!  Next stop, Wisconsin!