Illinois

Shannon's new house

After spending a week in Wisconsin visiting family in Madison and up in Door County, we made the short drive down to Illinois to visit Sandy's daughter Shannon. She had built a new house, her first ever, over the summer and she and her boyfriend Jimmy had just moved in.

They live in Yorkville, which is a suburb of Chicago. It's definitely the far western suburbs though. It's over fifty miles from downtown Chicago to their house. It's hard for me to think of that as being in the suburbs of Chicago. I grew up on the south side of Milwaukee and my parents house was only ninety miles from Chicago, not all that much farther than Shannon's. But I guess the city just keeps growing and growing. At some point in the future Chicago and Milwaukee will probably both be part of a single megacity. Maybe it will be called Milwaugo. Or Chiwaukee. Whatever they call it I will still hate the Cubs.

Paisley doesn't want to share her bone with Layla

Shannon and Jimmy had both taken the day off and met us for lunch at Manciano's, a pizza place near their house. The pizza was good. In my book, one of the most important criteria when evaluating a town is whether or not they have good pizza or not so Yorkville passed.

After lunch we went to their house. It is in a new subdivision - the lot next to them is still empty. Behind their house is a common area with a pond. It's very pretty but it wouldn't work for us. Abby would be in the mud all the time since it's impossible to keep a lab out of the water.

Their house is very nice. Jimmy has done a lot of work since they moved in to finish off stuff and the house is looking good. Shannon also did a good job of decorating. Sandy brought a large quilt along and the project for the evening was to hang it on the wall by the staircase. I have to admit that I didn't participate. I watched the Brewers beat the Rockies 4-0 in Game 2 of the NLDS.

Tasting the wines at Prairie on State Wine Cellars

I also got to meet their dogs. Paisley is a German Shepherd that Jimmy has had for several years. She's a really nice dog. Very friendly. Gentle. Minds well. About a month ago Shannon decided that she wanted a dog too and got a puppy, a German Shepherd named Layla. I love dogs but I think she is very brave getting a new puppy just as she moved into a new house. Layla was cute of course but full of mischief. I could tell from her paws that she is going to be a big girl too.

On Saturday we went to Sycamore, a quaint little town nearby. We visited Prairie On State Wine Cellars, so named because the main street in Sycamore is State Street. We were able to taste some good wines and check out their gift shop. Then we walked a few doors down to PJ's Courthouse Tavern, a vintage midwestern style tavern where we had lunch. After eating we made a final stop at BJ's Decorating Center, a small shop where Shannon had purchased a lot of the stuff she used to decorate her house.

Lunch at PJ's Courthouse Tavern

The next day we flew back to Boise. We got to O'Hare early just to be safe. That had the added benefit of allowing us to watch at least the beginning of Game 3 of the NLDS, although we would miss the end while we were in flight. I was very disappointed when we couldn't find the game on tv anywhere in O'Hare airport. Even the sports pub only had football and hockey. No playoff baseball! I had to be content with watching it on my phone at the gate until we took off. The Brewers won easily, 6-0. When we were home I was able to watch the end of the game on the web.

It had been a good trip and we got to see a lot of family. I didn't have much time to rest though. I only had two days when I got home before leaving for my next trip. October was going to be a very busy travel month for me.