Verona, WI to Carlinville, IL

After breakfast we headed off to the Verona library so that the kids could check out their books for the week.

It was a cool library.  

Then we went to Epic, where Laura works.  They have been expanding and putting in more buildings.  It is cool because each building has a different theme and they have put a lot of thought into keeping the theme throughout the whole building.  Laura works in the Jungle themed building.  We did not go there because we have been there before.  We went to the Fantasy House, Alice in Wonderland and the Wizarad of Oz.  We ran out of time.  

Rapunzel's hair

don't climb the hair

Door to a small meeting room.

A lot of cool art work on the walls.

A ghostly picture.  This is what it looks like until you get at exactly the right angle and then you see the ghost.

There was a cool slide going down the rabbit hole.  I took a movie.  I will add it later. It was fun.

Alice in Wonderland

The emerald city

The yellow brick road.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!!

glass

Tristan found Pokemon Go much more fasinating.

The gingerbread house is still under construction.

We ran out of time and could not go to the Harry Potter building.

Epic is an amazing place to work.  It is growing all the time. 

We went home for lunch.

Then Jeanne and I left for our drive to Carlinville.  We wanted to have dinner at Taylor's Chili.  We used to eat there when we were in college.  Pretty amazing chili.  We checked on-line and found that it was open until 3 am.  So no problem.  My mouth was watering just thinking about it.

We got to the motel a little after 6 pm and found out where the closest grocery store was.  We needed to buy some liquid refreshments for the next few days in the hotels.  It was so cheap that we might have bought more than what we needed.  We shall see.  At least Jeanne can take whatever we don't use home. We walked down to the square.

In the downtown square a Lion's club festival was going on.

I took this because of the EPIC sign.  

We went to Taylor's Chili, right on the square.  Argh!! It was closed, and it was going to be closed on Sunday as well.  Just can't trust websites.  We went back to the grocery store and luckily they had it available so we bought some and we will have it for lunch tomorrow.  It is not available anywhere else.  Not quite the same but I hope it will be ok.

So we went to the Fairway right across the street from the motel and had a steak instead.  

Back to the motel.

House on the Rock and famly time

Today Jeanne and I drove to see the House on the Rock.  It was about an hour drive away.  www.thehouseontherock.com.  What a fun place.  Alex Jordon (a guy with more money than he know what to do with), built a house on a chimney rock.

A wide variety of sculptures, and unusual collections of every conceivable thing.  

A lot of Tiffany lamps, wood screens from India.  Huge fireplaces, places to sit. It is a maze.  Hard to explain.  So much to see.  

eggs

masks

ivory

carousels.  One section is a street scene of the past with stores, cars ...!  One room had a huge whale.  A lot of it was too dark to take very good pictures.  But we kept trying.

an infinity hall, quite an optical illusion. 

What the infinity hall looks like from the outside.  

The worlds largest working carousel.  It all ended at a Japanese garden.  

It took 3 hours, 6,694 steps and 295 pictures!!  It was an amazing place.  

Then we went to the Country Kitchen for lunch.

We split a chicken cordon bleu sandwich.  No pictures, we were hungry.

We got back in time to relax for a little while before the kids came home from school.  After snacks we headed off to a miniature golf place.  18 holes in half an hour.  We place a few rounds of Frozen Uno.  

Liam

Once Laura got home, Wilhelm made a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes, wax beans and pork steaks.  Yummy.  

s'mores

Friday night movie night.   

To Oregon, Wisconsin, Sept 7th, 2017

I thought I would put in a picture of the blood moon a few nights ago.  We are having so much smoke from the fires.  What a mess.  The ash is falling on our tomatoes.  

This morning at 6:30 am we left the house.  George dropped me off at the MAX station so that I could get to the airport for a 9 am flight.  Everything was on time. Though I found out later that my second flight, from Minneapolis to Madison, had changed both with the number and the time.  So, Jeanne, did not have the correct information.  Luckily she was at the airport early so it all worked out. I never did get an email from Delta with the change.  OH WELL.  

When we got to Laura's house, the kids were home from school.  Tristan is in 2nd grade and Emmet and Liam just started kindergarten.  I had a nice tour of the house.  I had not been here before.  Wilhelm was working in the yard.  What a nice house.  It feels like it is out in the woods.  This is a view of the side porch.

We had a chance to relax.  Laura got home from work in time for dinner.  Wilhelm made a delicious rice, chicken and vegetable dish with gravy.  Yummy.  Nice view of the sunset.  

After a rabble rousing game of Uno it was bath time, story time and bed time.  Then I think I am ready for bed!! ;-).  Laura had to go to a meeting.  

Then we all got to relax.