Festivals, Chicago sights, and daily life

This is our yard during a recent thunder storm. It's been raining often here, so everything is growing well but the ground is saturated. Enough for a while!

Cody's Farm, and the Marengo Strawberry Festival was held recently just a few miles from the campground. It rained before we finished picking strawberries and we got soaked! We're kind of thinking that it was worth it anyway.

Lots of nice, red berries. They are jam now.

A Sunday trip to Iowa was in order a week ago to attend the International Woodcarvers Congress.

Lots of good and interesting wood carvings on display.

This is the Best of Show carving. Our friends in Minnesota should appreciate this.

Detail of a wood spirit carving in cedar.

This week, we took the Metra into Chicago for a day trip.

Pat, Barb & Mike Clark, fellow workers at KOA, and their granddaughter, Olivia.

We rode the Chicago Water Taxi from the train station to Michigan Avenue.

Lots of activity on the river. It's a major tourist attraction.

Walking along Michigan Avenue.

A "little lunch", Chicago-style pizza.

We could only eat two slices, each.

Dave and Pat at the Cloud Gate, more commonly known as "the Bean".

The Bean.

Reflections on the underside of the bean.

Dave and Pat at Buckingham Fountain.

Mike, Barb, and Olivia.

At entrance to Taste of Chicago.

 

Very unique interactive fountain in Millenium Park. Images are projected inside the fountain and change every few minutes.

OK. That should catch us up for a couple of weeks. Check back often for more additions.

Harvard (Illinois) Milk Days

We do what we can do in the time available to us, and as weather permits. It's been a rainy spring in northern Illinois. The Harvard Milk Days festival has been going on, as an annual event, for many, many, years. It would seem the small town of Harvard is doing everything right to make for an attractive, and well-attended festival. Like the most successful of festivals, it is a three-day event and this year that proved to be a really good thing because of the many rainy days we have had.

It's all about the cows, of course. You can't have the type of milk we are accustomed to without cows. It was great to see these 4-Hers with their well-groomed cows.

These cows don't look good all by themselves. It takes a lot of TLC and hand grooming by their owners to make them look show-ready.

Here's Pat with an older John Deere tractor. It's a 1937 model, which is even older than I am.

And here she is with a new John Deere. This one is much larger, and much, much more expensive.

And here's Dave with a new, state-of-the-art John Deere combine. For what this machine costs you can buy a pretty nice house, a new car, a pickup truck and an RV.

Daughter Angel and her girls, Erika and Sabrina, came with us to Milk Days.

Here's Erika on the Giant Slide.

Angel and Sabrina riding the Tornado.

By the way, it rained before the afternoon was over, but not before we had some fun.

Memorial Day

While many of you enjoyed a three-day holiday we were working most of the weekend. The campground was busy and there was a lot to be done. We did, however, get Monday off and since one day was not enough to go very far or do very much we went back to the Illinois Railway Museum for the Memorial Day, World War II re-enactment event. It was a good show. Above is the wagon ride with some w/e campers.

All the displays and props were from the WWII era. This is a 1941 Chevy, beautifully restored - probably better than it was originally. Cookies were served in the depot - they were oatmeal sweetened with molasses, typical of recipes during the war years when sugar was not available.

Me in a 1945 Jeep along with two Allied (American) soldier/actors.

A German soldier (actor) displaying a Schmeisser MP-40 machine pistol.

Pat riding "coach" in a restored c.1930's railroad car.

Battle re-enactment in the railway yard. Allies won.

Annie with her new "do" and Memorial Day scarf.

That's all for today.