Coming down the Home Stretch

Our accommodating hosts, Norm and Pennie, sent us on our way with a lovely paleo breakfast - egg and ham souffle and coffee. Our next stop is Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I love Wisconsin and I don't know why. I loved it on my drive out west in February and I loved it again in August.
Wisconsin seems friendlier, lovely, green rolling hills, cows and cheese and the mighty Mississippi River.
Our destination is Milwaukee, a city I've never visited but AGAIN, I just fell for this place.
We stayed in the historic Lakefront District at the County Clare Pub and Inn. We arrived in the early afternoon (for the first time on our trip) which gave us time to wander downtown and take lots of photos.

Miller Field

The County Clare Pub and Inn

The Milwaukee Art Museum

In front of the Miller Pavilion

PBR bus!

All that photography in the wind and hot sun made us thirsty so we trotted back to our inn and enjoyed a couple of margueritas on the front patio. Kevin struck up a conversation with the couple beside us who had come for dinner. She's from Ottawa. He is an American who, after serving in Vietnam, moved to Ottawa to care for someone's Charolais cattle. He met her, married and they now live in Milwaukee. He has farming acreage/interests over a few states and understood Kevin's business. They talked corn, prices and hedging for a few minutes. Kevin's face lights up when he meets someone who understands what he does for a living (I admit it still confuses me)
Then a quick change and into the dining room for dinner - a tasty chicken pot pie for me and I believe Kevin had a porkchop. This was accompanied by a bottle of champagne that was included in the package price of our room. A very nice room..large, clean and quiet, two entrees, bottle of champagne and breakfast for two for $149.50. You can't beat that.
We chose to ride the Lake Express Ferry from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan instead of driving through Chicago and south around Lake Michigan. Unlike the B.C. ferries, this one was smaller and a catamaran style. The wind was up and so were the waves and a few people lost their cookies on deck. Kevin was outside for the duration of the 2 1/2 hour trip while I enjoyed working on my needlepoint in the 'business class cabin' and chatting with the other passengers.
Having landed in Muskegon, we drove another 5 hours, arriving home in Kitchener around 11 p.m.
So many lovely sights, so many nice people, a few exquisite meals and a few crappy ones, too. An R.V. and another month would have been the best way to do this trip....but there's always tomorrow.