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Thanks for the wonderful Day Kate! It was very special...
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Day 218
Chicago, Illinois
Kate rang after our bagel and cream cheese breakfast and said she was coming in a bit later. Traffic was horrible!!! Gosh, i thought traffic driving in Perth was bad, well..that's nothing compared to Chicago traffic!
What a feat for poor Kate to come and get us in the first place. Today, she came and got us in her gas guggling V8 van..and then drove us back out to where she came from!!
There were 317 miles on her clock once we were 'done for the day'!
But we saw a lot! And we loved it! Thanks so much to our wonderful Kate..for making our stay here in Chicago so personal.
We got to see a little bit of Illinois, Michigan and Indianna that we wouldn't have otherwise seen.
And to see Kate's hometown was just wonderful. Little Portage. SO cute. 40,000 people there..and it felt a lot like Dongara. Small and personal, yet had everything there so you wouldn't really need to venture out unless you had to.
To get there we drove along Highway 12 14 and that was an experience. There were 3 lanes of traffic, one outside breakdown lane and one inside breakdown lane so just GOING THERE there were 6 lanes of traffic!!! And another coming back! A 10 lane highway! Amazing. New York had 12! We had to pass a toll bridge on the highway, which seems part and parcel of driving on highways. Apparently an Aussie company owns one of the toll roads...seemed strange.
We passed the US Steel mill where Kate worked and once we were in Portage, we ate at the DAIRY QUEEN!!!! (Burger King's sister!!?) Now that was a sinful date! I ate the special of the day, a Reece's blizzard with peanut butter chips with added pecan nuts and Kate had a Strawberry blizzard....Greg had oreo brownie earthquake!!!
Ohlala..does that sound decadent!
Here are the 'real' chocoholics! ha~
What a day of decadence tho...ended up having coke and chips for lunch as well...crikey.....not good.!
Apparently Oprah owns a lot of land around the Indianna area and develops it for low cost housing. She's certainly a champion for the underdog and does such great works. We tried to get into seeing her show but it was booked out till Nov 1st. Drats.
Indianna doesn't have front number plates on their cars..it looked so weird!!!
Kate also pointed out the corn fields in Indianna as well. A lot of these have been cleared. She told us that corn syrup is used in everything..which is why the bread and other things are so sweet!!! We love it. She said she had a student once, from Germany in Europe, and he wanted to take the American bread home (and did!) because he couldn't get it back there!
I do have to say...there is no way i'd substitute the German bread for ANYTHING!!! I love the heavy, grainy rye bread..and German bread! I love the bagels here..but not the fluffy bread. TO me, it has no subtance. But that is personal preference. Those with a sweet tooth would most likely be in heaven. For instance. One sweet tooth here that i know............not that i'm going to dob him in!!!!
We kept driving onwards to Michigan after looking around Portage..and ended up at the Great Michigan Lake (One of the five great lakes) which is incredible. It really does look like a vast ocean. So massive. These lakes, between them, hold 20% of the world's FRESH water!!
There were a lot of FIPS there! hahaha (known also as F......g Illinois people!) Had to mention that Kate! haha
New Buffalo Beach!
Butts up!
And caught!We dipped our feet..at New Buffalo City Beach...which is a freshwater lake and we wished we had our bathers..the temp was 87 F! (30C) What's weird, is, people call it a beach, when it's really a lake! But it looks like a beach!
Lincoln Park was was beautiful place..the houses were so cute! There were some already decorated with the Halloween decorations as well...
We finally ended up at Applebys, another popular casual restaurant, for dinner and got healthy with a steak and potatos for dinner. The tv was telecasting the Chigaco Cubs playing Arizona in the final of the World Series Baseball..and Arizona won. Sad faced abounded!!! And happy ones did too..apparently if you're a whicago white sox fan..there's no becoming a chicago cubs fan if they get in the final instead. A long historical rivalry going on that's for sure!
Americans...eat funny. That is when they are using their 'silverware'! (utensils) We eat with our knife and fork. Left hand on fork and right hand on knife at all times. And carry our food to our mouth using our fork in our left hand.
Americans, at least the ones we've seen, eat with their fork in their right hand like a shovel. They cut with their left hand on the fork on the underside and then put their knife down and take up the fork with their right hand and eat like that.
We've seen Americans do it in Europe as well..and here, they ALL do it!
It seems like a round a bout way to do it. To change hands.
We all have our quirky country habits.
Did this evolve from eating tv dinners?
After dinner we drove back around the coast, through Chicago City to our hotel.
Poor Kate must have been really tired. What a mammoth effort. Driving all that way. She said she loved it..and we could repay her when she comes to Australia! (She's only seen Tassie in Aus!)
I was thinking..if we drove her through three states (as we did today in US - Illinois, Michigan and Indianna) in Australia..it'd take days!!! (On the nullabor!) hahaha!
It is incredible to think we can drive and pass through another state within hours.
America is a big place though..so much bigger than Australia...50 states. We were thinking of driving to Seattle..but we realised how far it is. So we'll fly!
As we were driving 'home' through Chicago City...i was thinking it looked very much ike the Riverside Drive skyline..with the Swan River, the buildings, the lights, the pretty city...
Chicago is so beautiful at night.
Oh yeah, when we arrived at our hotel, Kate said she didn't want to drop us off at the back as it looked like something unsavoury was going on. There did seem to be a lot of activity there..people hanging around etc..so she dropped us off at the front..and when we went in..we found there was a Latino wedding going on..and on..and on...so it wasn't anything scary, just noisy!
Was a great day..Kate's knowledge of her city is so comprehensive...she is the best tour guide we've ever had!!!! Tour Guide Kate! haha...gosh...we were so spoiled. What a wonderful, wonderful lady.
I know i've missed out a lot of what we saw...but our highlight was definately seeing Kate's hometown..and the burbs..and just spending that time with her...it felt so good.
Of course...the Great Lake of Michigan was amazing too!
US at NEW BUFFALO BEACH, MICHIGAN
xx
