Grand Tour Part1 - Yorkville & Madison
I meet Baby Warren
Grandbaby #2 was born in January. Sandy went to Illinois soon after to meet Warren and to help out. I would have to wait till later. We planned a trip for both of us for early April. We'd start in Yorkville so I could meet Warren and see Brooklyn again. Then we would go to Madison to see Sandy's mom and help her celebrate her 89th birthday. Finally, we would go to Baltimore to see Mickey and Allie. We timed the trip to be there when the Brewers would be in town to play the Orioles so we could catch a couple of ball games.
Sandy left the Saturday before I did. She wanted some extra time in Illinois so she could help Shannon and Jimmy adjust to having two babies in the house. Meanwhile I stayed home a couple more days so we weren't leaving Abby behind with the dogsitter for so long. As it was, we would be gone for almost two weeks.
Brooklyn and I read our favorite book
When I got to Yorkville, Warren was about ten weeks old. He was a big baby, quite a bit bigger than his sister at that age. I suspect he will catch up and pass her soon. He's an easy going baby. He has a motorized swing that he could lie in while it swings gently. Much of the time he would just sleep, but when he was awake he seemed happy and content. He was usually quiet and didn't complain much.
Brooklyn had changed a lot since she visited us last Thanksgiving in Boise. Then she was just on the verge of walking. She had a push toy that she would hold on to and was able to take three or four steps. Now she was running all over the house. We quickly got to be good buddies. She had a whole stack of books and she liked to bring one to me and then sit on my lap while we read it together. Of course my favorite book was the one on quantum physics that I got her for Christmas. She had plenty of other toys to play with when she wasn't reading one of her books. One of her favorites was an electronic music box. It was quite a bit fancier than the old fashioned, turn-the-crank type from when I was a kid.
We didn't stay in Yorkville long. The day after I arrived we left for Wisconsin. Late morning we picked up our rental car and drove up to Stoughton, where Sandy's mom lives. That evening we took her to Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in Sun Prairie for her 89th birthday. Lynn and Dan, Colleen and Drew, and Devin all met us there to help celebrate the occasion. It had been a while since I had seen them so it was good to catch up. Dinner was very good. It was a tough choice for me between italian food and steak, but I really couldn't go wrong. Sandy's mom enjoyed everyone getting together to celebrate her birthday. Next year we plan to have a bigger event for her 90th birthday.
I like the tshirt
The next day we spent around Madison. We went shopping in the morning. First we took Sandy's mom to the grocery store in Oregon. Then I persuaded the ladies to go to Noble Knight Games, one of the best game stores in the country. They carry a lot of imports and I had my eye on el Gran Capitan. It's a game by a European company on campaigns of the Italian wars of the early sixteenth century and it's pretty rare in the US. I figured that I could fit one game in my luggage to carry home.
After the game store, we drove up to Lynn's for the afternoon. From there we made a couple of excursions. We went to Sassy Cow Creamery Store where we got some awesome ice cream. We followed that with a visit to the Lewis Station Winery tasting room in Lake Mills. After all that we were content with snacks at Lynn's instead of a big dinner. That night we watched the Brewers game on MLB TV in our hotel room. Unfortunately they lost 5-3 to the Mariners.
Where's the physics book, Gramma?
Next morning we drove back to Yorkville where we spent the next couple of days. We didn't do anything special. We just hung around and spent time with the family. We did have one special event on April 8. That was the day of the 2024 solar eclipse. The skies were clear and Shannon had some eclipse glasses so we got to see it, although in Yorkville it was only about 80% of totality. Not as impressive as the total eclipse that I saw in 2017, but it was still pretty cool.
That was about it for the midwest portion of our trip. On Wednesday we caught a flight to Baltimore. When we fly home we always have to get up super early for the hour long ride to O'Hare airport since the Boise flight is very early. This time our flight wasn't until early afternoon so we had a more reasonable morning. There were no problems and we were off to Baltimore to visit Mickey and Allie on the next stage of our trip.
