What a Great Birthday; Episode Two

My birthday was last Tuesday. It was a beautiful sunny day so I chose to spend it on the golf course. My gift was a Talylor Made Burner 5 Wood and I just had to try it out. Well my other birthday present to myself was the best game of golf, not only for this year, but forever. We followed it up by a great dinner and, of course the real best part of the day was the phone calls from the children, and all of the wonderful wishes posted on my facebook wall.

We postponed the annual Chicago Lakefront bike ride until the next day to give us a day to rest up after our Door County trip. As is our custom we were joined by our friends Nancy and Phil. Last year we noted that people were riding on Northerly Island as we viewed it from the back of McCormick Place, so our priority this year was to explore the island which none of us has been to since it was known as Mieg's Field. We were not disappointed. What a beautiful place former Mayor Daley has engineered. Another amazing space making Chicago one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

After we left the island we proceeded around the Planitarium to join up with the Lakefront Trail only to be impeded by a security guard who would not allow us to pass as a crew was filming and I guess they didn't want the world to know that people actually ride bikes in the city. It turns out they were filming American Idol tryouts. We volunteered to sing but he was h
aving none of it so we took a bizarre detour and headed north. We stopped at Navy Pier for our annual birthday lunch at Harry Caray's and proceeded a ways north until we decided it was time to turn around to beat the rush hour traffic home.

The wild flowers on the island were just amazing

What a Great Birthmonth or the Prebirthdays

As I always tell my granddaughters, Girls don't have birthdays they have birth months. And mine began this year promptly on Sept. 1st with a long week-end in Minnestoa with our Minnesota Twins and their parents. The first day there, Don assembled their newly purchased burley with the help of the boys and we promptly went for a short ride on the McGuire Sisters bike trail. It was a warm week-end for September so we spent a few hours at the beach and, of course, our annual boat ride to Lord Fletcher's for lunch. In between there was lots of time to just play silly games with two 2 year old and have great conversation with Bob and Gretchen. We also ate our way through Minnesota State Fair wher the boys were only interested in seeing the animals.

 

 

 

The real celebrations began the week of my actual birthday. We had planned our annual trek to Door County with the best friends in the world for the week-end before. Of course we had to take the opportunity to visit the Green Bay Chilsons on the way up. Now, if you live in Chicago and have ever had pizza in any of the places our children live you would easily understand why the first thing they all want to do when they come home is dine on Papa's Pizza. I never understand why good Italian sausage and seasoning cannot be understood outside Chicago.

So the opportunity presented itself for us to treat them to a few pizzas for dinner. When we walked into their kitchen, our son Don was standing alone in the kitchen with a dumb look on his face. I suddenly noticed balloons and streamers hanging at the same time the children popped out of hiding shouting Happy Birthday. After our favorite dinner we had a beautiful double chocolate birthday cake complete with candles,singing, and presents. I was also presented with a lovely crown.

We have been enjoying yearly trips to Door County more years than we can remember. We always manage to find something different there. This year, we stopped at Pottawatomie State Park on the way up to the north end of the Peninsula for a short hike. The trail was lovely and the autumn colors were just beginning to pop out.

We arrived in Rawley's Bay on time to play a few games of pinochle and have a relaxing dinner in the Lodge Restaurant. This year we chose to economize on gas and stay at the lodge rather than drive Bertha up. It was strange figuring out how to pack for a motel stay and also eating all our meals in restaurants. I thought that the one thing I would miss the most would be the campfires, however as the evenings were cold and windy, this was the perfect trip to defer camping for the luxuries of inside living. Thus we managed to eat our way through Door County which happens to have very fine food at every turn.

We spent Saturday exploring the peninsula literally from top to bottom, Starting at the Cana Lighthouse and Caves Point and ending at a winery. That evening we had our annual fine dining experience at the English Inn compliments of our monthly Pinochle dues. The meal was gourmet from the unique clam chowder to the wonderful chocolate covered Grasshopper for dessert. (That's a drink, not a bug).

Sunday was reserved for our bike ride through Peninsula State Park. Our plan was to find a picnic table to play a few hands of cards on Nicolet Bay, but it was so cold and blustery, that we couldn't find a decent place to play so we thought to find a bar to sit and play in until dinner time. Well we decided to take the road back this time instead of the trail and lo and behold someone had built an indoor shelter right on the edge of the water just for us.

Then came birthday celebration no. 2. We were treated to a wonderful dinner by our friends Ed and Judy complete with Cherry bread pudding, more candles and more singing. After dinner we went on a Door County Ghost Trolley Tour, which as ghost tours go was one of the best.

Before heading home on Monday, we golfed at the Peninsula State Park. None of us did very well as it was again gold and blustery and besides having to work around multiple layers of clothing, the bods were a little stiff from the weather. OMG! I sound just like my mother.