We couldn't make it back to Aus for xmas so we went to hang out with my rellies in Milwaukee/Chicago!
After a marathon marking effort (my wonderful TAs and I received the 66 exams at 4:30 pm on the 20th and finished marking by 3 am the 21st), we flew from Toronto to Milwaukee. We spent a very relaxing few days staying with Maggie & Charles (my step-cousin and her husband).
Maya (my step-aunt) & Ed (her husband) were also there. They had three of their dogs, so with Maggie & Charles's two that made FIVE (3 golden retrievers, 1 chesapeake retriever - a breed designed to retrieve birds from semi-frozen water - and a manic miniature poodle). Maya and me are shown here with four of the dogs (the poodle is not allowed to roam because he runs away) walking round Maggie & Charles's garden. Notice the complete lack of snow. No white Christmas for us.
We also had a lovely dinner with some more of the rellies: Gary, Jilaine, and their son (I think is was Joey...). Maggie made a lovely meal! Unfortunately Charles was on call all over the holiday period (they are both Drs) and so he had to keep getting up from the table.
Maggie took us to the small town of
Cedarburg, which is very pretty. There we accidentally got a tour of their volunteer fire-department. How? We were peering in the window at some of the old engines and a man asked if we wanted a tour so we said sure! He even gave us calendars.
It was very impressive, particularly because it was all volunteer run (I think the chief got an honorarium of $200/yr). They even had a special truck for when they had to go and rescue people who had fallen into icy water! Instead of showing you that I've put in a picture of Maggie and me looking at the engines.
What do you do with all your wet fire hoses? Wash them in a big machine and then hang them up to dry of course! I love this picture, it looks like aliens!
On Christmas day we jumped in the car and went to Maggie's sister Karen's house in Chicago! (Maya and one dog had gone down the evening before, we took only the little poodle, so with Karen's big poodle that made only three dogs for xmas).
We had a lovely Christmas dinner. There were 13 people in total: us, Maggie & Charles, Maya & Ed, Karen, Joanie & Sarah (more aunts), Michelle (a friend of Karen & Maggie's) a friend of Sarah's and some friends of Karen's from the UK. They were very funny and Ken and I spent some time complaining about the local (USA/Canada) uni education. : p
No pictures of Christmas - Sorry!
We then spent a few days hanging out with Karen (& Gus! I like big poodles : ). Boxing day doesn't exist in the USA, so Karen went to work and we went exploring! We went on a walking tour of
Chicago's historical skyscrapers (in case you didn't know, the skyscraper was born in Chicago).
This is an example of the "Chicago style", which has a big base, long narrow mid section and then a fancy section at the top (it was designed to look solid so that people would be convinced it wasn't going to fall down!).
It was a lovely day, so after some lunch we walked round Millennium park. Notice the giant silver jelly bean. We're still not sure what it's for...
This however, is a amphitheater. The strange silver curling things are sound baffles (or possibly a space-ship)! After our walk I made Ben come shopping with me for cashmere jumpers...
We met up with Karen and went to have a drink at the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock building (not to be confused with the ANU library, which doesn't serve drinks). This picture is actually from Karen's work building because we had to wait so long in the queue to get into the Hancock building that it was almost dark and we weren't quite at the window so no pictures. Still, the view was amazing, particularly, for some reason, from the ladies loos... There was a rail to stop you from feeling that you were about to fall out, but otherwise the wall facing the cubical doors was floor to ceiling glass!
The following day we went to the
planetarium which had some cool moon stuff (including the Gemini 12 spacecraft), lots of fun stuff for kids and an amazing collection of pocket sundials!! We also saw a movie type thing (projected onto a big dome) about the ancient Egyptians use of stars (and what stars were important to them). It was narrated by
John Rhys-Davies!
The planetarium also has the most amazing views of the Chicago skyline. This one is my favourite...
We walked back past Buckingham Memorial fountain (which you can't see in this picture because our heads are in the way... : )
In the evening we went out for Vietnamese (very good) and then to the
Green Mill which is a cool jazz lounge which my grandmother apparently used to frequent. Even more cool, it used to be a speakeasy! Karen told us that when they were renovating in the area they found tunnels between several of the buildings, which they think were used to transport liquor. We heard a gypsy jazz group who were very good and we managed to score a table squashed up against the stage for the second set thanks to Karen's friend.
All in all, a very fine trip!
