Wednesday - Chicago to Lakeside

 We had breakfast in the hotel.  Robbie was working in the morning and Martin had to get his cat to the place where Tiger would stay for the weekend. We decided to head on out to Lakeside.  We made a few stops along the way.

Indiana Dunes Riverwalk

Redwing Blackbird

Riverwalk

See the bee?

We drove on the Indiana Dunes Visitor's Center.  We got some information of things to do in the area.

Buffalo

Hand painted mural

Welcome to Michigan

By now I was getting pretty hungry. 

We stopped in New Buffalo at the Stray Dog restaurant. Nathan picked it.  It had good reviews.  It was obviously a popular place.  It was nearly 2 pm and there still was a long line of people waiting to get seated. We had to wait about 1/2 hour to be seated.  The food was very good.  Nathan bought some deep fried cheese curds.  I had a few of them.  I had a delicious veggie burger, Jeanne had fish tacos, George had a rice bowl and Nathan had a fake chicken sandwich.

It was a very good choice.  Not only did it have great food but it had a lot of fun dog photos and themed items.

From there we drove to our AirBnB.  

It is a very nice 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom house.  Jeanne got the basement.  It has been converted into a bedroom.  Robbie and Ice got here about an hour later.  They got the master bedroom, since they would be here the whole time.  Jeanne and I would be leaving on Thursday.

 

We hung around, played some games, and generally waited until the rest of the group arrived.  Once Dorothy and Ed arrived we walked over to their place.  They have a nice house, too.  Ours has a little larger dining area. We picked up the rice cooker, since Ice was fixing dinner.  

Ice

Ice went all out with a Thai meal of toasted tofu, tofu vegetable curry, vegetable stir-fry and steak. Something for everyone.  We were eating by 8 pm. Martin arrived in time for dinner.  George S, Valerie, Kallie and Amelia arrived while we were eating.  

Ice and Robbie

Ed, Dorothy and Nathan

George S with Amelia

Robbie and Martin

Ed, Ice, Robbie Martin, George, and Jeanne.

Valerie, George S, Amelia and Kallie in the playroom porch.  Kallie is 14 and is Valerie's daughter.  She is great with Amelia.

Dorothy brought over 2 blueberry pies.  Robbie had gone out to buy ice cream.  This is all that was left.

It was delicious

When everyone was done eating George S and his gang finally sat down to eat.  They had had lunch even later than we did. So they were not very hungry.

Amelia and George S 

Amelia, George S, Kallie and Valerie

Everyone watching Amelia.  ;-)  

They played Jenga for a while.  Dorothy, Ed and Martin were the first to leave.  Martin was staying at Dorothy and Ed's place.  George S and gang were staying at the Lakeside Inn.  Once they left Robbie and Nathan set up their computers to play some computer game.  The rest of us just relaxed.  We spent a lot of time talking about Thursday morning's plan. Everyone wanted to go to the lake.  The Lakeside Inn has its own beach access but there is no public parking.  George S can park there.  

We had come up with a convoluted plan of a way to get everyone to the beach but not have anyone (except George S) park there.  We will see how it works out. The weather prediction is thunderstorms and rain for early in the morning.