Let me see... Oh, yes it was the Admiral's birthday today. Sure, like I was going to forget that! It was kind of a lazy morning, and I even went up to the club house and used the whirlpool. They had two whirlpools so I had the choice of a cooler one that worked or a hot one with no water jets working. I chose the cooler one with working water jets mainly because it was empty, while the hot one was pretty full of people.
Lunch at a restaurant was a given, and the Admiral got to choose. I knew that it would be "several" miles to the restaurant so that she could try out her birthday gift... The picture of her at the right shows her already to take off. The bike has 8 speeds with electric assist and even has hydraulic brakes. It also folds with the swivel point just beneath the seat so that the rear wheels fold forward but underneath. The handle bars also fold so that it is pretty compact in the boat or a car trunk.
We headed out south along the waterfront and saw some beautiful homes. Then we headed west and went past part the S.C. Johnson company (the one that makes floor wax, etc.). Then we headed south again. You can probably tell where this is going... Yup, and then it turned out that we had gone too far.
When we finally got to the restaurant, we decided that it was way to seedy looking (even for us). Then we headed back north past the boat to downtown and road along the riverside walk/ride trail. We found a really nice waterfront restaurant where the Admiral celebrated with fish tacos. Now, you do not need to feel too sorry for me suffering through all of this bike riding. I did get the Admiral's first electric bike so I was easily able to keep up. It is similar to her new one, but one big difference is that it is only one speed. I like to pedal, but the electric assist is really great going up hill.
After my valiant effort at biking, I was granted a nap, and after that we planned to go see the new Sylvester Stallone movie "Expendables 3". The Admiral called a cab company and they wanted $20.00 each way. Fortunately, when she called the marina office to explore other options, they have a driver on call at least on the weekends. He only wanted $10.00 for the round trip. He is retired and bought this small bus to take small groups on tours and to dinner as the marina and a resort/conference center here provide lots of business for him.
On the way back to the marina after the movie, the driver asked if we would like to see a bit of the area around the marina. He then started into what was probably his regular monologue. We saw this 1857 brick building downtown. There had been two big fires downtown in the early twentieth century, and in one of the fires this was the only building in a total of 6 square blocks that did not burn to the ground. Since that fire, almost all of the downtown buildings were built of brick (or stone).
Frank Lloyd Wright designed three structures in Racine. We saw one house and a tower on the main grounds of the Johnson Company. Sorry, but we were going fairly quickly so I did not get pictures. We did stop at this old Catholic monastery. We got out and walked through the arch in the middle of the picture at the left. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous, as well as the old stone buildings.
The complex includes a gymnasium, pool, dormitories and other rooms. Much of the complex was used for a long time by Racine College.
The last picture shows the birthday girl on one of the many beautiful walkways. Toward the upper right in the picture, you can barely see our small bus waiting for us to finish our walk across the campus.
Then it was time to head back to the marina. What a treat our driver was! Needless to say, he got a large but well deserved tip. Once back in the marina, we headed off to the hot tub to finish off a very nice day!
Tomorrow we will be watching the weather radar and looking for a break that is long enough to travel 11.6 miles south to Kenosha, WI, which will be our last stop before Chicago.
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