13 September

We had planned to go today via boat to Racine WI. The weather forecast was for 1-3 foot waves and strong winds from the South. It would make it a rough ride. Weather for Sunday the 14th was for no waves. Our decision was to bypass Racine and go right to Waukegan, IL on Sunday. A longer boat ride on calm water beats a short ride on rough water.

We had the rental car, so could still go to Racine, we’ll just go by car! Our first stop was for a huge breakfast at the Simple Cafe. Susan had eggs Benedict with cajun hollandaise over spinach and artichokes, I went with the Corned Beef Hash. It was very pretty since they had put fine diced red, yellow and green peppers in it. It came with homemade whole wheat bread, a nice start to the day.

We then tried to drive to Racine, but spent 30 minutes trying to drive out of Milwaukee. There was a huge Run/Walk and they had most of the downtown and waterfront areas blocked off. They even had an entrance ramp to the Interstate blocked so we were down to plan C before we made it.  Fortunately Susan had replaced our defunct GPS the day before.

We are surprised how much we walk between the boat and sightseeing. I had packed new shoes that I recently switched over to and Susan decided that hers were shot and needed to get replaced. On the way to Racine we stopped at DSW so Susan could get new walking shoes.

We then went to one of the Johnson family homes (of SC Johnson company). Wingspread is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home that was built in 1939. I have always been a fan of his work, I love the built in furniture that he builds in each house. Fallingwater is the famous house in Pennsylvania, about a 3.5 hour drive from Exton.

Wingspread is now used as a conference center, so parts of it have been renovated. Most of the bathrooms have been removed and we were not able to see the kitchen or staff quarters, but the rest of the house with it’s hundreds of windows and multiple fireplaces was very cool.

Wingspread has a spiral pinwheel layout with the central part being a family living area. One of the features you can see in the main room is the“The Crow’s Nest”. It was built at the request of the sons. From the second story along the chimney is a tight, spiral staircase that climbs into a glass enclosed room at the central peak of the building. It has a great view of the entire property.

We both liked the building, but were a little unhappy that we couldn’t see how the house worked with people (bathrooms, kitchen, etc.) For example the dining table rolled into the kitchen so it could be set with dinner and then pushed out to the dinning area so that the servants didn’t need to come out.  We could see the dining area, but not the kitchen area that it could be pulled in to.

From Wingspread we headed into downtown to meet up with the crew of Reunion, Carol and Dennis. They had offered to take us around Racine. We ended up on a shortened schedule since the car needed to be back before 5PM. We got to see the downtown area, the brand new marina, and the other Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in town. We also stopped at a hardware store to pick up new space heaters for the boat. (The low last night was 45).

Then it was Kringle time!!! Kringle is a Danish Pastry that is multiple layers of dough interspersed with butter and is baked with an almond or a fruit filling. The most famous Kringle bakery is O & H Bakery in Racine. We picked up two of them. (Later we had some and it is much better than the store factory ones. We bid farewell to Carol and Dennis at their marina and headed back to Milwaukee.

After swinging by the boat to drop off all of our purchases, we got the car back to the rental place at 4:59 PM! Yay! From the rental place we walked down the “Riverfront” Milwaukee. It’s a boardwalk that runs the length of the river. There are a ton of places to eat and there were lots of boats tied up along both sides. There are drawbridges, so we could have gotten the Quo Vadimus up there, but most of the boats we saw were much smaller 20-30 foot boats that could scoot under the bridges.

Our dinner was at a waterfront restaurant called Water Buffalo. It’s a reconditioned factory with a great view of the water from their decks. We ate inside since it was still a little chilly out and appreciated their beautiful decor. We did our appetizer for dinner orders: we had crab cakes, ceviche tuna with avocado, and mussels in a cream sauce with sides of roasted brussel sprouts and roasted cauliflower. It was delicious – a nice way to end our day “in” Racine.

Well actually we left dinner and ended up two doors down at the Milwaukee Brewing Company. I had one of their beer flights of 7 beers before heading home. My two favorites were the “Booyah” and “Sheepshead” beers.

So our five days in Milwaukee and “Racine” come to a close. Our time on Lake Michigan is winding down, we will be in Waukegan on Sunday and Chicago on Monday. There are a stack (about 30) of Loopers about a week ahead of us. We are planning to spend 4 days in Chicago and 2 in St Louis to let them get spread out and ahead of us. The heavy rains that came on our first day in Milwaukee have caused flooding on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Some of the Loopers have been in Grafton, IL for 12 days, they will be there another 5 days.