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Midwest Tour

After Baby Brooklyn was born Sandy made two trips back to the midwest, one in early February and one in late February. She wanted to see the new baby and get a chance to play gramma for the first time. More seriously, she wanted to help out Shannon and Jimmy with the brand new baby. Each time she went back it was for about a week. She made plans for a longer stretch in April. Shannon's maternity leave was ending then and her and Jimmy would both be back at work. Sandy thought that if she spent a month there it would ease the transition for them having to take care of the baby while they had to do their jobs. I would stay home with Abby most of that time and hold the fort, but I would travel out to the midwest for a week in the middle of Sandy's time there. That would give me a chance to meet Brooklyn. Since I hadn't been back for a while, it would be a chance for me to see other family members too. The plan was for a mini tour through Illinois and Wisconsin. We would even catch a Brewer game in Milwaukee while I was there.

Our friend Deborah stayed at our house and watched Abby while I was gone. When Sandy has been gone for a while I always wait and clean house just before she comes home. She is usually pretty happy with the job that I do. I'm a pretty good house hubby. This time someone else would be coming to stay at our house and Sandy wanted it to look it's best. I got very explicit instructions via email on exactly what to do. I ended up spending pretty much the whole day before I left house cleaning.

Even though my flight out of Boise wasn't until a little after noon I was up early the next day. I had time to take Abby for a long walk. Deborah was over by 9:30 so I was able to go over a few last minute things with her.

My Uber was arranged to pick me up at 10:30 so I had plenty of time. Around 10 we were talking about how I would get to the airport and I showed her the Uber app, how cool it was that it shows how close the guy coming to pick me up was. It said he was outside! I looked out the window and sure enough, he was behind Deborah's car in the driveway (and therefore really hard to see from the house). I grabbed all my stuff and raced outside. So much for having plenty of time. I apologized but the guy said that he was early and it was no problem. It meant that I got to the airport plenty early though. I only had a carry on so no luggage to check. We have Clear memberships so I was through security in less than five minutes. I had an early lunch at SmashBurger and was still at the gate two hours early. We usually make fun of our friend Mary Beth because she gets to the airport so early. I guess I can't do that anymore.

I was a little nervous. I had not had good luck with air travel on my last two trips. In December when I was returning from Bonaire, I had not one but two flights cancelled, both after we had boarded and pulled out from the gate. In February on our trip to Baltimore for Mickey and Allie's wedding celebration, our flight to Denver left very late and we were lucky to make our connection. Even though I just had a single direct flight to Chicago I didn't relax until we had taken off on time and were well on our way. This time everything went smoothly. We even arrived in Chicago a half hour ahead of schedule.

No one was available to give me a ride from the airport but Sandy had arranged for a limo service to pick me up. Because I was early I had to wait but it was only fifteen minutes before the guy was there. I was glad I didn't have to get a rental car and drive myself. Leaving O'Hare at 5 pm to drive west on the interstate wouldn't be my idea of a fun drive. To make it worse, we drove through a line of thunderstorms with heavy rain. I was glad to leave the driving to a pro. I was a little nervous the whole way but the driver delivered me safe and sound to Shannon and Jimmy's house.

This was my first time to meet Brooklyn. She was awake and alert when I got there. She gave me a big smile when she saw me and even grabbed my finger and held it tightly. It looked like we were going to get along just fine. The grand dogs, Paisley and Layla, two German Shepherds, gave me a warm greeting too, probably because I smelled like labrador retriever.

That night we had Chicago-style pizza from Giordano's, a pizza place in nearby Oswego. It was really good but there was way too much, even for me. Deep dish is really filling. After dinner we watched the Brewers game. They won 5-3 to complete a sweep of the Mariners.

For the next two days, the normal routine was that Sandy would watch Brooklyn during the day while Shannon and Jimmy were working. After dinner they would take over.

On Friday afternoon we left to drive up to Wisconsin to visit other family. First we stopped in Stoughton to see Sandy's mom. I had not seen the senior living center where she has been for the past year and a half. It is quite new and was bright and airy. Her mom has a nice one bedroom apartment. All the people there seemed very friendly, both the residents and the staff. I told her I thought that she had found a really nice place to live.

Later that evening we met up with Lynn and Dan, Sandy's sister and brother-in-law, for dinner at the Elk's Club in Madison. It used to be her parent's favorite dinner place so Sandy thought it would be fun to go there again. Unfortunately when we entered they had a sign at the door saying that they were short staffed. It turned out that they really meant it. After taking our orders, we never saw anyone until our main courses came. Sandy pointed out we hadn't gotten our soup or salads yet, so they brought those out later. It wasn't too bad for me. I did as the French do and just ate my salad after my main course. Sandy had ordered soup so by the time she finished her main course the soup was cold. I even think I got the wrong menu item for my dinner. Sandy was pretty disappointed that what was supposed to be a very nostalgic dinner turned out to be a bad experience.

While we were in Madison we stayed at Lynn and Dan's. Next morning Sandy's niece Colleen brought her black lab Crinkle over so we could meet her. Abby is nine years old now and has slowed down quite a bit. Crinkle was still full of energy and would never hold still. Just watching her made me tired. Later we took Sandy's mom shopping and then had another dinner with her mom and aunt at Nonno's Ristorante Italiano. It was very good, but then I'm partial to Italian restaurants.

On Sunday, Sandy and I drove to Milwaukee to see the Brewers play the Red Sox at American Family Field, formerly Miller Park. For a while it was an exciting game and it was tied 2-2 after six innings. Then the Red Sox scored nine runs in the seventh. I have been a baseball fan for over fifty years and I have never seen nine runs scored in one inning. The Brewers ended up losing 11-5. It was no surprise the next day when one of the Brewers who pitched that inning went on the IR list and the other was DFA'ed (Designated For Assignment - in other words, released).

As we left the stadium and walked to our car, we passed a whole area set up for shuttles. Many of the local taverns encourage people to park nearby and then run shuttles to and from the ball park. There had to be at least a dozen shuttles lined up waiting to pick people up after the game. Only in Milwaukee.

My own preference after the game was to go to have dinner at Barbierie's Italian Inn for dinner. It's close to the ball park and was my old favorite hangout back when I was in college. I always try to get there when I come back to Milwaukee but unfortunately Sandy didn't want to go. We drove straight back to Illinois instead. After the Brewers lost that made it a double bummer.

I spent another day in Illinois and then it was time for me to head back. I had a morning flight which meant a 6 am pickup by the limo service. This time it really was a limo, one of those big, black stretch ones. I've never ridden in one of those before. I can see where it would have been fun riding around for a night on the town with a bunch of friends and lots of beer and wine. At six in the morning and all by myself, it was just another ride to the airport. I got there plenty early and there were no problems. I was home by early afternoon and Abby was really glad to see me. Sandy stayed in Illinois to help out for another two weeks before she will head home.