Chapter 10

Most of our motels on this trip have been Day's Inn, but there is a lot of variability between them. So far, Red Wing was by far the worst, and several have been good or fine (except breakfast). Tonight we are in Best Western Plus, and so far, it looks good. Mainly: lots of plugs. I won't even have to start unplugging stuff to charge my phone! What I care about the most these days is fast WiFi, and so far, Mankato was the best for that.

We woke up this morning in Racine, Wisconsin, and our first stop was O and H Danish Bakery. Racine had lots of Danish settlers, and in

the mid 1800s, 10% of all Danes in the U.S. lived in Racine. Many started Danish bakeries, and they are famous (at least in Racine) for their kringle, which is a filled pastry. We bought one to try (but haven't actually eaten it yet); it's layers of dough that sit for several days with new rolling each day, filled with blueberries.

Then it was on the road to Chicago,, which was about an hour away.

We drove right into downtown, and the streets, and especially the beaches and roads along the lake were packed. Turns out, today was the Chicago Air and Water Festival, complete with Blue Angels. We wanted to see a few things downtown, and we started with the Museum of Contemporary Art. Nora is a big fan of contemporary art, which explains why we have been to 4 art museums in 4 days. We were able to look through the entire museum, which was interesting in the variety of pieces it had. The special exhibit was an exhibit by Murakami, who does very flat Japanese art.

We also looked around the base of the Chicago water tower. The tower was constructed to house a large water pump, intended to draw water from Lake Michigan. It is the second-oldest water tower in the United States. The tower gained prominence after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The tower was the only public building in the burned zone to survive, and is one of just a few of the surviving structures still standing.

Then we drove to downtown and Grant Park. The streets were so busy because of the air show! We parked in a garage, but with 'event pricing", it was $28 for the first hour! We looked at "The Bean" an interactive sculpture that's very popular because of its reflective surface. People love to take pictures near and of it.

I also posed Nora with a backdrop of buildings, in the same spot Stefan and Owen posed in 2012. And if we hadn't had a couple hard drive crashes since then, I could have the matching photos to prove it!

We also looked around the Lurie Gardens nearby, which are in a prairie style, as a reminder of what used to be there, as well as in several layers, as a reminder that the area also used to be a dump!

We had some time for a little walk around downtown, looking up at the tall buildings.

We had to get our car out of the garage (and because we were there 1 hour + 2 minutes, it actually cost $32), so we drove along busy street up north. Nora wanted to visit a pin shop and we spent a while talking to the proprietress, who was from San Francisco. We walked through a neat neighborhood with trees all along the street. Tom went to the very famous (and huge) Chicago Music Exchange to guitars, and Nora and I walked to a small neighborhood yarn store. We all met up again at a coffee shop for iced matcha lattes.

We discussed what we wanted to do next. There are over 100 museums in Chicago, and we were hoping to see more, but because it was Sunday, and Chicago is huge so they're all far apart, it just didn't work out. Instead, we left the car in its free parking space, and took the el back downtown. It was fun to look into people's backyards, and sometimes the train came so close to walls I thought it might hit the corner. It didn't though. Using the el is like being transported back to 1917, with lots of wrought iron, and narrow walkways, and a rattling train. If you remember the train from the children's book, The Little House, that's what it looked like.

We walked around downtown, looking at big buildings and walking along the river. There are many interesting buildings, and they're huge, but not as elaborate as Milwaukee. We noticed off in the distance a huge glittering building with enormous letters on the side that spelled out T R U M P. Just across from it was a sign though, and we actually had to wait in a line to take a photo! And some real patriots turned their backs to it.

We took the el back to our car, and drove a few miles to a neat, tree lined neighborhood, and parked a few blocks away from the St. Demetrios Greek Festival. Wow! It had lots of neon, and lots of people and a band playing on a stage with fancy lighting. Nora could not get enough of this band, called the Boy Band Tribute, that played One Direction and Justin Beiber from 10 years ago, with lots of choreography and coordinated dance moves. They were great entertainment while we ate our Greek salad and spanokapita.

We then drove a long way through neighborhood after neighborhood, to this Best Western in Oakmont, same motel we stayed in in 2012.