On the way back from Saugatuck we stopped for coffee in St. Joseph and ran across all of these little cars.
More at St. Joseph cars
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Saugatuck, Michigan
We headed for Saugatuck Saturday morning to meet Keir and Lori. They're spending a week up there; we just went up for a couple of days. Got up there by noon Michigan time and met them all for lunch at the Mermaid Bar and Grill on the water. We had a Bed and Breakfast that was very close to downtown so we parked our car there and walked to the water. We had a first floor room (behind the flag in the picture below).
It started raining around 4:00 and pretty much rained the whole time we were there. We went to Keir and Lori's place for a while and then all went to
dinner at Phil's in downtown Saugatuck. We went across the street to Kilwin's for some ice cream and then went back to their condo for a while.
Slept in the next morning and had breakfast at the B&B and then headed for the kids' place. Still raining so we went down to the gazebo by the water so Lindsey could feed the ducks and run around the gazebo for a while.
We decided to drive up to Holland to the Dutch Village. 
It was still raining the whole time but we went in a few places and had a nice lunch at the Hungry Dutchman. Lindsey got to feed some baby goats with a milk bottle and rode the carousel. After lunch we headed back to the condo and played Mexican Train while Lindsey and Scarlett took naps.
Jill and I had dinner at The Butler on the water and then went
back to babysit while Keir and Lori went to dinner at the Blue Moon in Douglas.
Monday morning we all met for breakfast and walked around the town a bit - still raining.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Kevin and Barb visit from Toronto
A week after meeting up with Flickr friends from Germany we met up with Kevin and Barb from Toronto. Had a great lunch at the Park Grill in Millennium Park - Chicago and then walked around Millennium Park a bit. Next we gave them a whirlwind auto tour of some of the Chicago highlights so they can plan their vacation week in Chicago.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The backyard is looking great this year.
Must be the right combination of rain and temperature.
Last year the two hibiscus trees kind of petered out. This year they are both doing great
The pond itself is clear and has lots of flowers and the plants around the edge are all thriving
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Lost a big tree branch
The storm a week or so ago broke a big branch on the tree right by the pond. The tree guys came out today and cut it down. They took a much bigger piece down than I would have thought.
Remembering my Dad
Wow, he died 23 years ago yesterday. How I wish he had lived another 10 or 15 years. Of course he'd still be gone today but we would have been able to share so much more with him.
It was the saddest time of my life. I had a much harder time getting through it than I thought I would. I still think of him often and how I would like to be able to talk to him. He was 73 when he died so my image of him is fixed at an age only 12 years older than I am now. The older I get the more I appreciate what a good Dad he was.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Too darn hot and humid
Humid, hot, rainy. No fun to even be outside. Looks like it may even be worse on the east coast. Lots of severe rain and wind but we haven't had many problems. Lost a big branch off a tree over the pond; I hate to see that.
Jill made a couple of centerpieces for a friend's daughter's shower. I thought they turn out spectacularly.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Busy, busy weekend
Friday night Rich (brother) and Debbie picked us up and drove out to Ron(brother) and Carol's for dinner. We've been alternating houses and I think next time is our turn. We sat out on their deck for a while and then moved inside for dinner. Had a nice visit and got home a little after midnight.
Saturday morning I was up early to go out and get some pictures of some houses that I'm supposed to shoot for a landscaping company. Finally got some clouds to dampen the harsh hot sun.
By 10:30 Keir and Lori had arrived at our house to drop of Lindsey and Scarlett for the weekend. They needed to move a bunch of stuff and do other things to get their house ready to show.
We had a great time with the kids. Lindsey didn't give us one bit of trouble, smiles and laughs all around. Scarlett was good too once we figured out that one of the bottles didn't work right. Sunday Lindsey and I went out to run some errands and we had a good time.
Sunday night we went up to Wildfire in Schaumburg to meet a couple that was vacationing from Germany. The wife, Christiane is one of my Flickr friends and had written to arrange to meet. We had a wonderful 3 hour dinner. They are a fascinating couple with 5 years experience in California behind them. We thoroughly enjoyed talking to them and hope to see them again either in Chicago or Germany.
Art, Jill, Christiane, Michael
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Annual picnic at the lakefront
Jill and I and our friends Bill and Alice went down to the lakefront for a picnic. We sat about halfway between Buckingham Fountain and the Yacht Club (Monroe Street). Beautiful summer evening in Chicago with a nice breeze.
Christening, Anniversary and Birthday
It was a pretty busy week to put it mildly. On Wednesday Jill and I celebrated our 37th anniversary. Lori dropped off Scarlett and Lindsey in the morning. We took them back around 5:30 and then went to Geja's Cafe for a wonderful fondue dinner. Keir and Lori had given us a gift certificate for Geja's as a Christmas present and we had been saving it for our anniversary.
Friday was Braden's first birthday. We all met at Yorktown and had lunch at Egg Harbor. Jill had some little cupcakes at home for the kids. Braden didn't seem to interested in the cupcakes. His birthday party is today at the Lincoln Park Zoo. We'll see how he does with the cake.
Braden's First Birthday Party
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Christening, Anniversary and Birthday
It was a pretty busy week to put it mildly. On Wednesday Jill and I celebrated our 37th anniversary. Lori dropped off Scarlett and Lindsey in the morning. We took them back around 5:30 and then went to Geja's Cafe for a wonderful fondue dinner. Keir and Lori had given us a gift certificate for Geja's as a Christmas present and we had been saving it for our anniversary.
Friday was Braden's first birthday. We all met at Yorktown and had lunch at Egg Harbor. Jill had some little cupcakes at home for the kids. Braden didn't seem too interested in the cupcakes. His birthday party is today at the Lincoln Park Zoo. We'll see how he does with the cake.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Scarlett's Christening
The whole weekend was just glorious. I mowed Friday night and we sat out on the deck half the evening. Worked on the yard Saturday - cleaned up the deck and chairs - stuff like that. We borrowed a picnic table from Jim Battle and put it out by the pond. We put some more chairs out in the lawn and put the kids' picnic table on the flagstone.
Sunday was beautiful; the church service was at 10:15 and Scarlett was just fine until the very end when they played the organ way too loud.
Everyone came back to our house. Amy and Dan and the boys, Steve and Dolly and both grandmas, Steve's brother Keith and his daughter Heather with her husband and baby. Everybody enjoyed sitting out in the yard and we had a nice brunch/lunch from Tommy R's.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Jill and Art at Buckingham Fountain
Sunday was such a nice day we stopped at Buckingham Fountain and walked around for a while on the way home from Keir and Lori's.
On to Milwaukee
After lunch we headed straight for Milwaukee and two nights at the landmark Pfister Hotel
It's a grand old hotel; we had a room in the tower on the 20th floor with a view of Lake Michigan 
We walked around the Riverwalk and stopped for a drink at Rock Bottom right on the river. Later we had dinner at the Safe House, a spy themed restaurant that has been there since 1966. We were probably last there in the late 60's or early 70's 
More Safe House pictures
Saturday we walked over by the lakefront and also visited the Milwaukee Art Museum
Saturday night we had a wonderful dinner up on the North side of the city at the Lake Park Bistro 
Little Norway
As we headed back to the freeway from Mt. Horeb we saw a sign advertising Little Norway a couple of miles down the road so we decided to investigate. Described as an "outdoor museum", it's a farm established in the 1800's which has been devoted to all things Norwegian.
Nestled in a beautiful valley hidden in the foothills of Blue Mounds, WI Little Norway has another more romantic name, the name chosen by its founder, Isak Dahle, which suggests more vividly the sense of magic that pervades this lovely valley: Nissedahle, or valley of the Elves. The buildings are authentic Norse architecture, simple and durable. One has a growing sod roof; another, the spring house, is peaked by three cupolas and most of them are trimmed with warm, fresh blue that is typically Norwegian.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Mustard Museum
Friday we left House on the Rock and headed for Milwaukee. Along the way we stopped in Mt. Horeb for gas and ran across the Mustard Museum. It's amazing how many different kinds of mustard there are.
Monday, July 09, 2007
The House on the Rock
We left Thursday morning (July 5th) for The House on the Rock in Spring Green Wisconsin. http://www.houseontherock.com/ It's 45 miles or so West of Madison. The place almost defies description. Originally it was a "house", an odd one with low ceilings and strangely shaped rooms but today is it a massive collection of buildings containing an astonishing variety of collections. Alex Jordan, the founder, seems to have collected everything. Old cameras, toys, circus miniatures, organs, carousel horses, elaborate musical instruments, Titanic memorabilia, war stuff, guns, doll houses, dolls, royal crowns and jewels. All of this stuff is housed in a series of "rooms" that you visit on three self guided tours. It's overwhelming - really too much to take in.
Lighting wasn't very good, most rooms are way too dark. For more pictures of the stuff I was able to shoot visit
http://arthill.smugmug.com/gallery/3106861#169949617 There's a tongue-in-cheek description of the place at http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/WISPRhouse.html
We stayed at House on the Rock Inn, a very nice, relatively new place about 7 miles from the House on the Rock in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
After we toured the House on the Rock we had a nice dinner at the River Terrace Cafe just up the road. It is in the "gatehouse" for the nearby Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin home.
View from the cafe
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Catching up
Celebrated my birthday with the kids and grandkids on July 1st, Sunday. We went down to Maxwell Street to a sushi place. Had a wonderful time. They brought an elaborately carved fruit creation instead of a birthday cake. When Amy asked Kyle if he wanted some fruit, his response was "I like cake". This boy obviously knows what's what for birthdays. I got a nice carry-on suitcase from Jill and a really nifty digital photo frame from the kids.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Drove up to Long Grove today
It was raining all morning so we could get out in the yard. Thought if we drove North maybe we'd get away from the rain. We were right. As we got there we discovered that the Strawberrry Festival was going on so you couldn't drive through town. We found a close parking space and headed in. Really busy with all kinds of outdoor booths, food, beer, bands. They had lots of live music and it was pretty good.
Grabbed a hamburger then went to a chocolate fondue booth and got a strawberry, marshmallow, rice crispy treat, pound cake thing on a stick dipped in dark chocolate. We looked at some old cars, went in some shops, listened to a band, got some coffee and headed back.
Stopped in Elmhurst and had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. We had never been there before. Food was good but MILD was too spicy for us :-)
Elmhurst is shwoing turtles around town this year; I just grabbed a few
Friday, June 22, 2007
Shedd Aquarium
Had lunch at the Soundings Restaurant there yesterday with Amy and Lori and the grandkids. Basic admission was free so the aquarium itself was badly overcrowded and we had to park over at Soldier Field. The restaurant wasn't crowded though so we had a nice lunch. Kyle and Lindsey had a real nice time. The views from there are great.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Father's Day
Had a great Father's Day. We went to Millennium Park so the kids could run around in the Crown fountain. It was a pretty hot day but not unbearable by the fountain. There was a nice shade tree for Scarlett.
Went across the street for lunch/brunch at a relatively new place we hadn't hear of before called The Gage. We thought the food was pretty good. It's sort of an Irish Pub kind of place. I got a nice pair of shorts and shirt from the kids. Jerry and Carol were there and Steve, Dollie and Chris too.
After we got home Jill and I went out to Oak Brook and I got a few shots of the old cars.
Cicadas in the news
Every 17 years we get an “invasion” of cicadas around Chicago. They came by the millions and millions last month and are still here.
I took a few pictures and put them on Flickr at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arthill/sets/72157600264887716/
A reporter from Yahoo emailed me asking to use some of my cicada pictures. She then interviewed me by phone. I thought she was going to run a web article but to my surprise they are running this slideshow with my voice as the narrator. Many of the pictures are mine - some are from others. You can watch the names up in the top left of this video. The voice over is all me.
Check it out
Monday, September 11, 2006
Five Years after 911
What an incredible day that was! Hard to grapple with the idea that it has been five years since that happened. Jill and I were scheduled to fly to New Orleans at the end of that week. Of course all flights were cancelled.
Seeing the second plane hit the second tower was an undescribeable moment. I called both of my kids and told them to get out of downtown Chicago. Lori worked only a few blocks from the Sears Tower in a 60 story bank building. Amy worked in the shadow of Lake Point Tower, the worlds tallest apartment building at 70 stories.
Jill and I first went to Ground Zero 6 months after that. It was a sobering experience to put it mildly.
ground zero ashes
Today on the anniversary of 911, I went through some pictures of the our visit to Ground Zero in March of 2002. This picture always hit home with me. It just shows what so much of the site turned into - dust.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Braden Christopher Tausk and his grandpa
July 27th was a wonderful day. Our third grandchild, Braden was born at 1:09 PM.
Anniversary dinner
Jill and I had a wonderful dinner at Roy's in Chicago to celebrate our 36th anniversary.
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