Monday, September 19, 2011

Day 14 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour

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Monday, 19 September was Day 14 of the Seaver Family History Mystery Tour, and it was the first non-genealogy day of the trip.  Days 15 and 16 will probably be non-genealogy oriented too!

We packed up and left Delavan, Wisconsin at 9:30 a.m. and headed for Chicago via US 12.  We got to Palatine by 11 a.m. and found the home where Linda's friend, Marcia, now lives with her son.  Marcia moved from San Diego a year ago, and just celebrated her 91st birthday.  We took her to lunch at the Fox and Hound in Arlington Heights.  It was pretty good.  Back to Marcia's home, and we met her daughter-in-law, who showed us around their property.  They had quite a few family pictures on the wall, and a real nice historical book collection.  We sat in the living room talking (well, I dozed while Linda talked...) until almost 4 p.m. when we decided that they had things to do and we needed to get to our hotel in Schaumburg.

We are in the Quality Inn in Schaumburg for the next two nights, and it seems a good choice.  There are lots of restaurants around, the hotel offers three free well drinks each night per person, and a free hot breakfast in the morning.  We have no clue what we'll do on Tuesday sightseeing in Chicago - the Chicago River boat cruise is a possibility.  Linda cannot walk very far, so a tour of some sort is in order.  I'm sure that we will drive along Lakeshore Drive too!

There were some comments on the Day 12 post about eating at chain restaurants in Madison, rather than the State Street cuisine.  Linda has severe allergy problems, and cannot eat anything but plain food with no seasonings or dressings.  I don't like a lot of ethnic foods, and prefer plain fresh food.  We saw the State Street places, but didn't sample them.  Another comment was that the Wisconsin State Historical Society building in Madison has 11 floors, not four.  All I know is that the Library folks, on the second floor, said that they had records on four floors, all accessed from the second floor via stairs.  The Archives are on the fourth floor and I have no idea how many floors their collection takes up.  Lastly, Anonymous noted that the correct terminology is "Town of Deerfield" rather than "Deerfield town."  I didn't know that, and appreciate the help!

During our trip, we have been guided by Maggie, our GPS unit voice.  She has been nearly infallible, and doesn't even comment negatively when I make a wrong turn or miss a turnoff.  She just recalculates and tells me where to go next.  The only places that Maggie can't direct us is to places without addresses - like the cemeteries and homesteads that we visited in Deerfield and Cottage Grove on Saturday.  We've also been using it to find nearby restaurants and other features wherever we are.  I know, a GPS is obsolete now that many smart phones have an app (we don't have smart phones), but we've had Maggie for three years now and trust her.  Linda is amazed by this technology.

1 comment:

Susan Clark said...

Cannot recommend the city architecture tour on the river enough. No other city in this country looks so good from such a narrow river. Perfect for those who can't walk distances. We've taken our 80 somethings, toddlers and oh so bored teens and tweens. All have loved it.