As I said yesterday, we have planned this break so that the Admiral could return to Texas for her nephew's wedding, Grandson Will's graduation from kindergarten, visit with per parent and several other things. We chose Racine based on our experiences in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha during the last Loop. So far on the Loop, no one city has perfectly fit our needs and life style, but Reef Point Marina and Racine come close. We had rent cars for the first 5 and last 4 days so I/we could extend our range as well as take the Admiral to/from Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee about 30 miles away. The renovated hot tub and pool opened the day after we arrived as promised. The pool was about 85F so I actually swam a "few' strokes before joining the admiral in the hot tub.
We have been a little bit ahead of Summer for the past 6 weeks so having a functioning hot tub will be great for me. A further indication of the late Spring this far north is the cherry blossoms abound in the park that wraps around the marina. Several of the locals thought that I was crazy for thinking that early June was "late" for cherry blossoms. One of them did comment that this area is "way north" of Washington, DC... As for Lucky, she could have cared less since she had had abundant areas of lush green grass.
In contrast to late blooming cherries is this photo (at right) of two families worth of goslings. They seem quite large given the later Spring weather up here. As the two weeks here progressed, the gosling were gaining tail and wing feather in particular and losing their soft fluffy down. The parents were pretty protective, and at one point Lucky and I got chased by an irate parent with wings flapping and very loud calls. There were so many geese in this area that there were goose "droppings" everywhere, but fortunately the marina staff swept the docks every morning, which definitely helped with part of the problem.
For lunch the first day we walked about a mile to a wonderful Thai food restaurant. I really like Thai food, but most of my experiences at Thai restaurants is that the food is often way too hot for my taste. This restaurant started with all of their food rated as mild and they would add "heat" to suit your tastes, and my choice for heat was none... Another feature of this restaurant was the Indian Motorcycle showroom right across the street. There must have been 40 bikes in the showroom. In all honesty I have only ever had one short ride on a motorcycle, but I guess that I have also had this hidden desire to go cruising on one. Hence the poor quality of a photo taken from outside since going inside might have been dangerous...
The night before that Admiral left for Texas, we went to see "Fiddler on the Roof" put on by the Racine Theater Guild. This was absolutely the best local theater production that either of us has ever attended! The cast, sets, costumes, etc. were truly magnificent. Sorry for the bad picture, but they kept the stage blacked out except during the performance so I could not take my usual picture of an empty set.
We also went to see "Alice through the looking glass" and "Captain America: Civil War" at the movie theater. Also, with some encouragement from the Admiral I went alone to see "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising "while she was off on her trip. I guess that she has better taste in movies than I do.
Lucky and I averaged over 6.5 miles of walking daily while the Admiral was gone. Along the way we saw many interesting sights around downtown Racine. One of the sadder sights (to a boater) was the former US Coast Guard Station (photo at left), where the waterfront portion is now used for dockage by the adjacent marina. At least it still seems to be well maintained with the classic white wood siding and red roofs.
The city has two marvelous long and wide sand beaches both north and south of the marina (and Root River along side the marina). The beach to the south also has a concert area as well as a concession area with live music during the afternoons on the weekends. This is the north beach, which looks deserted, but the beach is about 100yards wide here so with even a few hundred people it looked pretty deserted.
Racine is the home of the S. C. Johnson Company
aka "The Family Company" (think floor cleaners and wax, insect spray, etc.). This office building downtown (photo at left) contains some of the other family businesses. The main corporate offices and plants are about a mile further west. That campus has a tower designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as well as several other architecturally interesting buildings.
Other local businesses of note include Case-International Harvester and Twin Disc.
Monument Square seems to be the center of the downtown area, and you guessed it, it contains some monuments. The most prominent is this tall Civil War monument. The square has lot of benches (and people) and has numerous restaurants and businesses around it. So, it is a busy place, especially at lunch hour.
Going east from the square down to the lakefront is this lovely stepped walkway with very nice plantings (photo at left). The downtown is a mix of 100+ year old buildings and some newer ones, but the city has done a great job of acquiring land and beautifying downtown and the waterfront.
I am going to end the "tour" from my walks with Lucky with a pretty sunset over Racine (photo at right). This view is from the park at the eastern edge of the marina looing west toward downtown Racine. The marina is on the left with the Root River along the right side.
As most of you know, my professional expertise is in structural geology or "broken or bent rocks". In particular, most of my research was on thrust faults where older rocks had often been transported 40 km or more up and over younger rocks. Thus, I found this sign to be particularly amusing... Obviously, the city does not want people destroying the armoring along the seawall, but....
Next will be a couple of photos from the Admirals trip back home to Texas. The first show Grandson Will Spang after his kindergarten graduation ceremony. That could be one of the biggest smiles in any photo that I have seen of him. Anyway, it was a big day for the family, especially with the cake, cookies and punch afterward. Will and his sisters (Sarah and Katie) along with their parents have already created a long list of things to do over the Summer. Nothing like a challenge!
The next photo (at left) is of the bride and groom, Katy and Travis, along with their parents. Katy is a Methodist minister and Travis just graduated from the Lutheran Seminary. Interesting times ahead! It was a wonderful ceremony that included the couple being married barefooted followed by their first act as a married couple being a foot washing ceremony. Travis sung a love song he wrote to Katy during the reception. We are looking forward to getting to know Katy in the future!
The last photo (at the right) sort of sums up my time alone with Lucky. It seems that I would seemingly just get started on a project, and I would look up to see Lucky with that look that says "hey, I want to go for a walk". At least that is my admittedly weak excuse for not getting a large number of projects done while the Admiral was away. It reminds me of an old saying that says something like "While the cat's away the mice will take lots of naps" or something like that...
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