Wisconsin Trip
On Tuesday, July 22, we left Helen's place to stay at the Adams's lake house on Lauderdale Lakes in souther Wisconsin, with Jeff. On the way, we stopped by his home in North Barrington and had nice conversations with Kelly and Burke, who also gave Bob his YouTube address, and that of his video group's serial, Finding Jefferson. We then followed Jeff to the lake house, where Jeff gave us a tour of all three Lauderdale Lakes in his new boat. Then he barbecued some steaks for the night's meal, which included Ementhaler cheese from Switzerland, and finished with root beer floats. Demetra retired early, and Bob and Jeff talked for a few hours after that.
Wednesday morning started with Jeff and Demetra taking a walk around the neighborhood, and talking with neighbors. Then we drove around the local area a bit before going to "Old Wisconsin," an extenisve outdoor museum featuring actual historical homes and buildings gathered from around the State. Wisconsin's primary ethnic communties were represented by pioneer livestock and gardens, and employees dressed in authentic clothing, using tools and preparing foods that were historically accurate for the times and places represented by the buildings. Modern pine plantations and native wildflowers, deer, and sandhill cranes added interesting variety to the experience. We then drove to the 3500-acre Scuppernong River prairie restoration project. We parked next to the historical Gotten log cabin and took a couple of beautiful hikes through the prairie wildflowers and adjacent oak woodlands, where we were attacked by hordes of Wisconsin mosquitoes, that were only monentarily distracted by bug sprays. That evening Jeff made brauts and kraut for dinner and he and Demetra took Bob to school in a Srabble game, won handily by Demetra. We then took a nice sauna in the basement's sauna room and passed out after our long day's adventures.
On Thursday, July 24, Jeff left early to head back home and we had a leisurely morning enjoying the comfort and scenery of the lake house before headiing the rental into a 2-hour Chicago traffic jam on our way to the evening's Cubs' game.
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This panorama can be viewed as a QTVR video file with the proper software. If needed, get software and/or operating instructions here.
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| Lauderdale Lakes. | Jeffrey Lauderdale Adams. | Bob on boat tour of Lauderdale Lakes. | Old Wisconsin wildflowers. | Old Wisconsin cabin. |
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| Red berry bush and Bob. | Wagons with spare tire. | Sandhill crane. | Bob and Jeff in pine plantation. | Jeff approaches cabin. |
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| Old breed sheep and horses. | Conversation with employee. | Old Wisconsin schoolhouse. | Gotten Log Cabin along Scuppernong River. | Demetra at prairie rrestoration site. |
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| Bros. | Cone flowers. | Wild orange lily. | Big yellow flowers and old oak tree, with Demetra. | Might be rare prairie milkweed, or maybe something else. |
