Tom and I took a Sunday drive up to Illinois State Beach to check out the campground. We walked the trails (great) and explored the conference center (also nice). Folks were showing up for Mother’s Day brunch, but we were looking too scraggly for the crowd. So, we decided to take the long way home down Sheridan Road where we stopped in Winnetka to grab food for a picnic lunch at Convito Market which I just saw on Check Please. $30 dollars later and after asking a couple in line for a park recommendation, we ate at Gillson Park … a great find right on the water in Winnetka. A perfect spring outing!
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Posted in Chicago, Travel
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We traveled up to chedarland last night … Tom for business, me to be his shadow. I’m writing this post on my iPhone as I sit and eat my andy and ed’s burger and fries at a park on Lake Winnebago. I don’t recall ever being in these parts and it feels something like the Wisconsin I know. I am right under the flight path of the regional airport where they have the fly-in every year. Very pretty on the water with lots of wind farms on the horizon. I find them a complete fasination (look Tom! there are MORE!) but I wonder if that holds true when you live in their shadow?
Posted in Travel
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Tagged WI
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We are attempting to create a container garden on our deck. We get full southern exposure sun and the wind is blocked by a brick wall. One would hope we have optimal container garden conditions, but we won’t know until we try. So, like most of our adventures, I needed to spend money to kick start the hobby. So far, I am in for $230 for containers and a seed starting kit. If this is anything like our gardening adventures in the Poconos, I’m sure that number will grow whether or not the vegetation in the containers grows.
Here are a couple snaps of our Burpee self-watering seed starting kit and the cute little soil pellet that expands when you add water. This morning, I started a mixture of basil, beans, chives, green onions, cilantro, summer squash, cucumbers, and lettuce. We’ll see …
Last night, we (Tom, Kate, and I) headed off to the Whole Foods in Lakeview for a cheese making class; a most excellent deal at $10 admission with a $10 gift card for the store (yes, that makes it “free”). One of the teachers has a food related blog and has a few upcoming classes that look like fun. We watched the instructors demonstrate how to make mozzarella cheese as we noshed on the Chevre the teachers made before class. They also served up an awesome yogurt parfait with granola and fruit, as well as skewers of fresh mozzarella, cantaloupe and prosciutto. Overall, I don’t think my homemade mozzarella will win awards, but it would be fun to try on a homemade pizza. As added excitement, Kate won the same cheese making kit that I bought for Sarah this Christmas and the recipes used in the class came from the same cheese making book I gave Sarah from cheesemaking.com .
Tom and I have set out a long term goal of driving to each of the 48 contiguous United States within a total time frame of 48 weeks. Why not all 50 states? What about D.C.? What about territories? Those are all likely fine places to visit, as well, and we may get to those places, too. However, like any goal, we needed a defined boundary which we started with 48 in 48 … plus it is kind of catchy to say … try it … 48 in 48 … see.
