meinen Reisen MY TRAVELS mijn reizen mes voyages meus cursos mis viajes minhas viagens mo taisteal mine rejser mina resor i miei viaggi

Andrea and I left Iowa City yesterday around Noon. We ate at Blaze before leaving. We didn’t run into any storms. We made it to Kearney, NE last night. We ate an original Runza sandwich. It was like a sloppy joe with onions and spices in a encasement of pastry.

Today, we drove around 3 hours to Sidney, Nebraska to meet the farmer who farms our great-grandfather’s land. It was nice meeting him. He showed us the wheat that has been planted and also, where the millet will be planted. He told us the history of the area. We drove to Peetz, Colorado to eat lunch. It is interesting as some paperwork comes from Peetz, so it was neat seeing the Peetz Cooperative. It was also neat to see the grain elevator where the wheat is sold.

We saw many wind turbines which really showed the state line as Colorado really subsidizes wind energy and Nebraska does not (something like that). About one mile south of our land is Colorado. The land is near a minuteman silo area too….like 1 mile away.

It was sad to learn that due to Bass Pro Shops taking over Cabela’s, the Cabela’s headquarters in Sidney closed. At one time, over 2,000 people in the area worked there. I think Sidney once had a population of 9,000 and now it is around 6,000. It is rural.

Later, we drove to Laramie and drove around the University of Wyoming. We also ate at a vegetarian cafe, Sweet Melissa. I liked the menu, but it was rather slow and the food wasn’t that great. I can make as good of a bean burger as them. I did like the cashew queso.

We are about 125 miles from Grand Teton National Park.

Some pictures are not uploading. I will upload more later. Here are a few:

Andrea and I drove to Bloomington on Wednesday night where we spent the night. Our flight left early in the morning and landed around Noon on Thursday. We immediately went to Disney Springs where we shared a clambake at The Boathouse. We walked around Disney Springs afterward. It was really nice as it wasn’t too busy and the sun was shining. We walked down to Pepe, the counter-service to the larger restaurant, Jaleo. Both are new and are Spanish. Andrea knew to get a lemon, cinnamon ice cream. Here is something like it: https://www.thespruceeats.com/easy-leche-merengada-recipe-3082981

We then went to check into our hotel. For dinner, we went to Sweet Tomatoes. It is the best restaurant ever for less than $10 each. Afterwards, we went shopping at the outlets and walked around the Boardwalk where we saw IllumiNations.

On Friday, we had breakfast at Starbucks in Disney Springs and met Bev around 10 a.m. We went to Epcot and rode Spaceship Earth, Soarin’, Test Track, and Nemo & Friends. We also walked around the world twice. Andrea knew what food to eat at the Flower and Garden kiosks. We had roasted cauliflower, beets, turnips, Impossible meatballs, a cool terrarium pudding where all the flowers were edible, salmon, etc.

For dinner, we went to Grand Floridan Cafe. The waitress said the best thing on the menu was the shrimp and grits, so I had that while Andrea and Bev had a steak. Bev had 40% off the entire meal, so it wasn’t too bad. During dinner, Bev mentioned her tickets were park hoppers, so we went over to Magic Kingdom after dinner. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean and went to the Hall of Presidents. Andrea and I checked for Big Thunder FastPasses and there was one for 11:15 p.m. Andrea had the idea to refresh the times multiple times and we were able to get the FastPass for 9:45 p.m. Big Thunder is always the best. We went to get a dole whip and they had this dole whip designed liked Hei Hei from Moana. It is the picture of the ice cream with the eyes. It is creative. We got back to our hotel around Midnight after seeing the fireworks and the castle light projection show. It was a really fun day at Disney with friends.

Today, as we do not have passes anymore, we discovered agri-tourism. We went to a Farmer’s Market in Winter Garden, rode bikes on the West Orange Trail, and went to two agri-tourism farms. We bought mangoes, peaches, and tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market. We picked white peaches and blueberries from the blueberry farm. We also went to Showcase of Citrus and purchased an orange slushy. We ate at a new Sweet Tomatoes before taking a short nap at our hotel. For dinner, we went to Disney Springs and ate at Wolfgang Puck Express just sharing a pizza.

We ate a lot of food, but we did walk over 20 miles in less than 3 days. We are headed home tomorrow.

Just a few highlights and pictures from April 2019:

I just continue to fix a few things here and there with the homes.

I continue to eat food…. see pictures.

I had nice Easter celebrations with the family.

We found an old chest that might have come from Sweden (or at least the owner was Swedish). We located “Matilda” in the same region as my saliva test results came from.

The CFITO celebrated 5 years in operation last week and they sent me an award.

I am just trying to clean both homes. I am making progress.

I was sick for the first two weeks of March.

I chased two political candidates and got some good pictures. Beto shook my hand. Bernie was just at Aldo Leopold.

We went to St. Louis with the Murphy’s. We went shopping, to a hockey match, and to TopGolf. The hockey match was really fun to hear the Canadian National Anthem. Golfing was the best though. We went on a Tuesday, so it wasn’t that expensive. We also went to the zoo. We stayed in St. Charles where a Kilwin’s wasn’t too far from the hotel! Definitely my favorite ice cream!

After returning, we went to the Anne Frank Pen Pal museum and the Mississippi Pearl Button Museum. Both are educational museums and well done.

The Mississippi is flooding. It is nice and neat to see Burlington’s flood walls holding back the water.

We celebrated Uncle Michael’s birthday with a train-themed party.

I made it down to Orlando last Monday night and went to Mireya’s house. She doesn’t live too far from the airport. It was nice to see her again. I don’t think I have seen her since June or July.

On Tuesday, I met Ken at 8 a.m. at Panera at the same location as I used to work. I met another Ken at 10 a.m. and I met other former colleagues at Noon at Sweet Tomatoes. I could spend hours at Sweet Tomatoes. I like the food in Orlando almost as much as the parks.

I went to the outlets and then, I met Bev at Epcot. We decided to eat dinner at Rose & Crown in Britain which was really nice. I chose the Shepard’s Pie which had a lot of beef in it (I wonder why they don’t call it cottage pie). It was alright, but the cheese platter we had as an appetizer was the best.

I stayed at my friend Carol’s home the rest of the week.

On Wednesday, I walked around Epcot and walked over to Hollywood Studios after going to the outlets. I actually thought I had a rock in my shoe and I kept walking to Hollywood Studios. It turned out to be a nail. It only slightly punctured my foot.

Around 4 p.m., I drove to meet Maryann for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant downtown. It was really nice seeing her, but 1) the traffic has become somewhat worse 2) I am not used to driving anymore 3) my rental was so close to the ground a small bush would block my vision.

On Thursday, I went to the outlets again and then, I went to Sweet Tomatoes again. I then went on a mission at Disney Springs to find “Fear” from the movie, “InsideOut.” I can’t reveal if I found him or not. I had multiple Cherry Coke Zero ice cream floats at Coke World this week. Afterwards, I went to Hollywood Studios and rode Star Tours and Toy Story Mania.

On Friday, I met Robert at Disney Springs and we went to out on the dock at The Boathouse. I had a “Gibsons” Award Winning Burger. The combination of jalapenos, sauce, and other toppings made it really good. After eating, we went to Epcot and walked around looking for Figment’s paintings in each pavilion. We also drew at the Animation Academy which they bring back just for certain festivals. We saw the Pixar’s short films and rode Soarin’.

I left to meet Yanbin and Mireya at Yanbin’s house. It was great to see a lot of friends again. I am in Sanford headed back to Iowa right now. (My Google Photos is not loading, so I will upload pictures later tonight.)

I made Robert stand by the Test Track sign again as it has been 10 years since the original!

Andrea and I left Monday morning around 6:15 a.m. and headed to Galesburg to catch a train into downtown Chicago. The trained arrived shortly after 7:30 a.m.

The train was quite nice as it had free wifi and food for purchase. It was an easy way to get into downtown Chicago for sure.

Upon arrival, we took a Lyft to some thrift stores. I bought one shirt. Then, we went to check into our hotel. I hadn’t used Lyft in a while, so all my rides were 50% off which was helpful. We arrived to our hotel around Noon and they had our room ready! We were on the 25th floor and could see Michigan Ave. from it. Michael Jordan has a restaurant in it, so that was somewhat cool.

Later, we walked around Michigan Ave. going to Water Tower Place and other stores on the Magnificent Mile. We ate lunch at Potbelly’s.

It was raining the entire day and the rain became pretty heavy around 5 p.m. We bought some items from Whole Foods and went back to the hotel. We decided to use UberEats to get some Japanese BBQ for dinner as we were tired and soaked from the rain.

At Midnight, we went to the river two blocks away to see Chicago’s new fireworks show. Navy Pier was about .5 miles away, but we thought it would be too crowded. The river wasn’t busy at all. We were between two firework launch points. Celebrations in Las Vegas and Orlando are better, but it was still nice and we were out for less than an hour. It was nice enough.

On Tuesday, we woke up and got to Theory which hosts the Chicago Iowa Club. Theory was about 3 blocks from our hotel. A few friends from college met us there for the Outback Game. The game was really fun as the score kept going back and forth and… Iowa won .. which always makes it better. Theory has some good food. I had two amazing poached eggs on top of my avocado toast.

After the game, we went to Macy’s (formerly Marshall Fields) and we walked to the bean. It was fun to see the people ice skating. We stopped in a Walgreens that had live screens on their doors, so you could see what was inside without having to open them. You have to see the pictures to see what I mean. The company is called “Coolerscreens” out of Chicago.

We took Lyft back to Union Station and departed back to Galesburg at 5:58 p.m. on the Illinois Zephyr. We arrived back to Burlington around 10 p.m.

(I might backdate some blog posts from last year in the next few days.)

As many of you might have realized, this website had some trouble with the host.

Jonathan was able to restore the blog back to 2014, because he was using a RSS reader. I am looking for the other 7 years dating back to 2007.

If you have used a RSS reader in the past in reading this blog, please let me know!! Thanks!

Google Reader is no longer a viable option. Other options might be: Feedly, NewsBlur, Inoreader, The Old Reader, G2Reader, Feeder, etc……

Thank you

 

Yesterday we went up to Door County. We went up the inland route. We stopped at many Goodwills including “the bins.” I think we hit most of the Good wills in Eastern Wisconsin this weekend and the full spectrum from a “Reqtiue” to an “Outlet.” We ate at a Rocky Rococo’s and a Culver’s. I wanted to eat at Culver’s as they had a bonfire s’mores flavor. Culver’s definitely places third in custard here and is nothing compared to the s’mores blizzard at Dairy Queen.

We made to Door County around 2 p.m. and went through some of the sample stores. We drove through Peninsula State Park.

For dinner, we ate in Sister Bay at Al Johnson’s. The goats were not out on the roof as the temperature was higher than 85 degrees. It was fun though. The dining room was nice and the food was pretty good. We had some tomato and dill soup and I had a meat and potato combination.

Afterwards, we drove back to Sturgeon Bay to check-in at our hotel. The hotel was not a cookie cutter hotel. It was pretty cool. It was a renovated 1953 hotel. It had modern touches, but it really looked retro. It was fun. You have to see the pictures to get a good idea. It was two blocks from the bay, so we went down there to see the sunset.

Today, we drove back to Milwaukee. We stopped at Bearcats for some salmon and Ritz crackers. I didn’t take a picture of the salmon as we were eating before I remembered to take a picture AND we ran into a Memorial Day parade. We got out of the car in Algoma for the parade. The parade had Veterans, fire fighters, two bands, and two poppy princesses. The parade lasted 4 minutes. You can play a movie of the band in the parade in the pictures below.

We stopped at a Goodwill in Sheboygan and then, ate lunch at the new Milwaukee IKEA. It was an interesting IKEA. It was all on one floor with the showroom first, then the cafeteria, and then, the marketplace.

Andrea took me to the airport around 2:45 p.m. for a 5 p.m. flight which was early enough, but now my flight has been delayed until 7:40 p.m. I now hope to make it home before Midnight, so I do not get dinged for another night in the parking lot. (I also bought some cheese which is only good for 12 hours without a refrigerator. They do not sell a single item from Door County after security.)

I couldn’t get a reasonable flight back to Iowa, so Andrea and I decided to meet in Milwaukee for the weekend. It is nice not have to think about what needs to be done and just relax.

Yesterday on the flight, I played cards with my neighbors which was a first. It was quite fun actually. When I arrived, I got on a city bus. It took about 1.5 hours to get to Brookfield, but when I arrived, Andrea was waiting for me.

We went to our hotel only to realize that a new, upscale shopping area has been built right next door. We walked over there and ate at a taco place. Then, we drove to Andrea’s friend’s place and he left presents for us on his doorstep as he also went out of town for the weekend. We ended the night at Kopp’s ice cream where the flavor of the day was Peach Melba. The custard is really good. I could eat it every day (and I might).

Today, we woke up and went to a Goodwill near our hotel. Then, we went downtown to the lakefront where we had coffee and an almond paste-filled croissant. We walked around the lakefront and to the art museum. Then, we went to the Milwaukee Public Market. We shared a lobster sandwich and a green juice drink. Then, we went to Retique which was awesome. It is connect to Goodwill – an upscale Goodwill. It was amazing. Anthropologie is located across the street, but we found a lot of Anthropologie clothes at Retique for 10% of the price. I asked the manager how many Retique’s there are in the nation and she thought maybe only 4 or 5. I told her that Andrea would shop there to find deals even if she were a quadrupleaire. Ha.

After visiting the lakefront, we went to another Goodwill, Woodman’s grocery store, and another Goodwill. Afterwards, we went to Waukesha and saw where Andrea used to live. It was kinda sad. We visited Fox River and other familiar places.

On the way back to the hotel, we found out that Oscar’s (another custard place) had “drumstick” as their flavor of the day, so I did a few u-turns and got another cone. For dinner, we went to Cafe Hollander near our place. It probably was one of the neatest restaurants I have been to, but my squash noodles were not the best. Andrea chose the bean burger which was really good. I guess it had to do with the spices (or lack of) in each.

Tomorrow we are going up to Door County.

Yesterday, I went to the DEC Summit. Secretary Ross came to speak to us. He had a lot of security with him. It was kinda cool.

It was neat to be in the international trade center. After the meeting, we went to the Nationals baseball game. They won 10 to 2 against the Padres. It was neat to see a few home runs, but it was really neat to see the Presidential racers. I worked hard to find them. I must have been fast, because Abe was missing. It was funny to see him walking by himself up the ramp. See pictures.

I don’t eat hot dogs, but I had a banh mi dog with jalapenos, cole slaw, cilantro, and sriracha mayo. It was really good, but almost too spicy for me.