A Wink from the Universe/ Big Goals Achieved!

When I planned my trip to Wisconsin I knew I was also going to hit Indiana on the same trip – they were my last two states, and they were so close. So, it seemed to make the most sense to fly into either Milwaukee or Chicago and explore from there.

We opted to fly into Milwaukee and out of Chicago, and I had some great recommendations from friends who had lived or worked in the Milwaukee area. We found an awesome place we found on Airbnb called Heart Haus. They have aquaponics SPELLING? happening in the basement and a garden in the back yard and the house is decorated with fun, mainly antique items:

 

 

 

But one of the best parts was the “talking wall” – during renovations, they had put a hinge on one of the walls  and put pictures of the renovations between studs and a frame that had “If the walls could talk” inside. Such a cool idea!

At the last minute as I was getting ready to head to the airport, a colleague told me to go to Madison (where she had gone to school) and it came up from other people as well (yes, the guy at the yard sale we stopped at was the tipping point, along with finding out it was the Taste of Madison Festival that weekend). So, Melanie and I decided over breakfast in Milwaukee that we’d drive to Madison that morning and play things by ear.

After meeting out host, Ben, and the mastermind behind the hinged wall, Miguel, we started our journey over to Madison. We stopped at Kopp’s along the way and had some delicious food! Thanks for the recommendations from several people, definitely worth it!
 

 

One of the main attractions in Madison is the State Capital building (another reason we decided to go – I love State Capital buildings!). It is an incredible structure. In some ways it looks just like the capital building in Washington DC, but it is also 100% unique – with so many nooks and crannies I feel I could have wandered for days and still not a) see it all and b) feel oriented.

There were a number of fossils in the building

 

Despite being so full from lunch, we found a little room to eat the recommended cheese curds from Old Fashioned, who had a booth at the Taste of Madison. Delicious!

Even though we didn’t eat much, it sure was fun to walk around the festival and listen to music (and see one performer crowd surf)

 



 

As awesome as all that was, the best moment was still to come. I wanted to walk up State Street and explore the University’s campus. We stopped at an awesome bookstore and I got a great knitting book.

 

 

And saw some other fun things:

The street performer asked us to watch his instrument while he
fed his meter for his car, and let us play!





Then Melanie suggested we go sit on the pier and enjoy the lake for a bit. As we were walking myself and another woman did a double take – it was my friend Amanda! Let me just say, we haven’t seen each other since she graduated high school the year before I did. What are the odds?! We caught up a bit and exchanged contact info. So fun!!

 

 

When I told our host, Ben, that story the next morning, he told me “you know you are on your path when the Universe winks at you” – I like that idea. And I’m grateful to be back in touch!

Sunday was a packed day, that didn’t go quite as planned.

First, we went to the St. Francis Seminary with it's beautiful tree lined entrance and also walked over and stood in Lake Michigan.

 

 

Best sticker in the parking lot!



We also went to the Basilica – it came up as the #1 thing to do in Milwaukee, and it was gorgeous.

 

 

The building was built mostly from materials
reclaimed from a Post Office in Chicago so the door knobs
have the treasury scales that are also on all our bills

Then we wandered around the Historic 3^rd Ward and ran into an art festival, which was really cool.

 

 



We talked to a photographer with an exhibit of photos he took in Chicago (and we wished that we had time to explore that city too!).

We also stumbled across a tent with pictures from Ireland, and it was exciting to recognize so many of them from having been there earlier this year!

 

Our next stop was church. As we walked up to the building 5 minutes late, there were a number of people coming out of the building. Turns out we were at the chapel that had 10am Sacrament meeting, not the one with a 1pm start time. Oops! We got to chat with a nice woman and get a couple pictures of the really cool looking building at least.

 

There was nothing else to do but eat some lunch and head to Indiana – state #50!

As we drove from Milwaukee to Indiana, the border to Indiana came sooner than I expected – and when I saw it just as I was about to drive under it, I squealed like a girl, which I am, and Melanie was barely able to take a picture of the bottom of the “Welcome to Indiana” sign.

 

We drove straight to Notre Dame’s campus. The GPS took us some crazy way and we entered campus at the back by the practice soccer fields and under construction library. It was very disappointing – I was expecting a beautiful, traditional campus.

Then we parked, got out of the car, and walked onto a gorgeous campus, just like I had pictured in my mind:


 

 

After such a full day, we were looking forward to relaxing at the “quiet house in a quiet neighborhood” we had booked for our second Airbnb of the trip. We drove up to find a circle of women around a fire.

 

Of course we joined in! The group was a few drinks into their pre-Labor Day celebration and they had a fun time interrogating us and laughing at our stories of our packed trip.

The evening got even more exciting when our host, Naomi, pulled out a sky lantern and we watched as they lite the lantern and launched it (over their house):

After enjoying everyone’s company, Melanie and I headed to bed in preparation for our early morning trip to the Indiana Dunes State Park and a swim in Lake Michigan.

The weather was predicted to be rainy, and I’m happy to report the meteorologists were wrong! It turned into a brilliant beach day.

We were especially happy that the weather was nice, because Lake Michigan is COLD. But, my goal was to swim in a great lake, so “swim” we did. I say “swim” with quotation marks because the water is very shallow, and the life guards say you can’t go into the water deeper than chest high. Despite the restrictions, we did get all the way under, and I even tried practicing the breaststroke that my brother Craig taught me on our Alaskan cruise.

 

Our host had backpack beach chairs she lent to us (and a cooler and towels)

 

We also did a little dune hiking, first to a bird watching structure:



And then straight up a dune, which turns out to be challenging, especially since the sand was very hot and we were barefoot.

Once we made it to the top, we ran down part of the way, and rolled down part of the way, and then tried to wash off all the sand in the lake. Let’s just say some of that sand ended up on my bedroom floor when I unpacked from the trip :)

What an epic weekend – finishing visiting all 50 states, and swimming in Lake Michigan, and meeting a long lost friend. I’m grateful for my awesome, adventure filled life!