Vacation - Part IV

August 7th -

I left Green Bay at 4:30 a.m. in order to get to Milwaukee, turn in my rental car and make it to the airport for my flight to Boston.

When I made my reservations for this trip, I reserved a rental car from Enterprise in downtown Milwaukee because it was about 2 1/2 times cheaper than renting at the airport. I didn't know how I was going to get downtown until I got to the Milwaukee airport. I asked at the information desk and the kind woman told me I could take the city bus (number 80) which stopped right outside the terminal I was in. It was a 1/2 hour bus ride into town and I got off only two short blocks from the rental office. I was quite proud and happy about how this turned out.

It was a good thing I left Green Bay at 4:30 a.m. because I got a little lost on the way back. Both cousins, Gordon and Sharon, had told me that there was an exit for Wisconsin Ave from I-43. That wasn't so.....therefore I went too far. After finally getting off, turning around and then taking the wrong fork in the road on the way back, I did manage to make it back to the rental office right at 7:30 a.m. Enterprise took me back to the bus stop even though it was only two blocks! I managed to get on the right bus and got back to the airport by 8:30 for my 10:10 flight to Boston.

Once in Boston I again took public transportation, in this case the subway, to get to the Amtrak station to board the train to Maine. It was so easy. Within an hour after getting off the plane I was at the train depot. I hadn't known when I booked the trip just how much time it would take to get there, so I gave myself plenty of time. Therefore I had a three hour wait at the train depot before my train left for Maine.

I was met at the station in Saco by my friend Liz who is working at a Unitarian camp near there. We went out to eat dinner and caught up on each others lives since we last saw each other two years ago at Holden. I am staying at the camp/conference center where she is working for the summer.

Vacation - Part III

August 4th -

I left Janesville for Green Bay shortly after another of Barb's wonderful breakfasts. I have two cousins living here, Sharon and Audrey. I am staying with Sharon in her beautiful condo. Tonight Audrey had us over to her apartment for dinner. It is getting really hard to stay on my diet on this trip, so I guess I'll just give up on it for the duration.

August 5th -

Sharon, Audrey and I drove to Marinette to visit another cousin, Karen. The four of us then drove to Menominee, Michigan, for lunch. We walked along the dock of the marina where there were gobs of huge sailboats. Can't figure out how so many people can afford this kind of living.

Here are the four cousins having lunch on the porch of a small restaurant in Menominee.

August 6th -
Today we drove around Marinette looking at the town. A short distance out of the city limits is this house that my father built back in 1940, shortly before I was born. It was a farmhouse then with more land around it. I understand we even had a cow at that time. I didn't live there very long as we moved into town and lived there for awhile before moving to Milwaukee.

The house that dad built!

I certainly don't remember living here, of course. But it was really fun to see the place. I have been collecting pictures of all the houses I have lived in in my lifetime. It's really fun to see them. I am thinking of making a collage or something of them in the future.

Tonight Sharon and I went to a concert on the lawn of the botanical garden in Green Bay. I see all the gorgeous flowers and wish I could have just a little piece of beauty like that in my yard at home. There was a big full moon tonight too and that added to the lovely surroundings and mood of the evening.

Vacation - Part II

After lunch on Sunday, I drove to Janesville to visit my cousin, Gordon, and his wife, Barb. I had not seen them for several years and had never been to their home.


Gordon has a really cool garden train set up. There are several trains that go around the different tracks. The tracks go all over the back yard (they live in a wooded area just outside of town). It is just an amazing thing to see, especially if you like trains (I do!) I took quite a few picture of it, of course.

Here one of the trains is going over a tressel he built in the yard. There are many interesting items in the yard, such as a box car with a couple of hobos playing "oh Susanna", a frustrated sounding elephant roaring in the circus train, a bear standing on top of one of the caves that the train goes through. At night the trains go into the round house. The trains are taken into the basement in winter, but the track stays out year around.

Rotary Gardens - Janesville, Wisconsin

On Monday, after a scrumptious breakfast, we went to the botanical gardens in Janesville. This was a really gorgeous place and so many flowers were blooming.


They had benches around the gardens with nature/environmental sayings carved into them. I was really enthralled and took picture of some of them. Here is one of them. At the gift store Gordon found a book with all the saying it in and he bought it for me. Now I don't need the pictures.

Vacation - Part I

The first "leg" of my trip was a visit with my high school friend, Jeanne. We attended our 50th high school reunion on August 1st.

I flew to Milwaukee on Thursday, rented a car and drove to West Bend where Jeanne lives with her husband, Jim. On Friday we went to Hartford (the old home town) and had lunch with another high school friend, Irene. I hadn't seen Irene in 45 years. We had a wonderful visit.

Jeanne and Jim volunteer at a retirement home residence on a beautiful lake setting. On Saturday, we went there and walked on some trails and then sat by the lake and talked for an hour. That night was the reunion. (It turned out to be more fun that I expected!) I wish I had a 50 year old picture to add to this, but I'm not too hip on scanning, etc. Being together with our class of 50 years ago was quite interesting.

Getting Ready

I'm going on vacation. I leave Thursday for 13 days. It seems getting ready to go on vacation is a huge job in and of itself. Why? Every time I go away from home, I spend several days straightening up the house. Why? I live in it the way it is when I am here. Why does it have to be cleaned up (so to speak) when I am getting ready to leave? Maybe I'm getting ready in case I don't come back? I don't know. I only know this is my M.O. whenever I am going away.

Now I am thinking......maybe I should go away more often. I just might have a spectacularly clean house all the time.

You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring

"Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television."

Quote from commencement address by Paul Hawken to the class of 2009 at the University of Portland. To read the whole address (I recommend it) click here.

You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring :: Paul Hawken's Commencement Address to the Class of 2009

The graduate

Congratulations, Tom
You rock!

Love, Grandma