Cincinatti and Chicago — Farther with the Farmers

The first seven days of our trip involves a lot of travel as we try and see as much as we can on our way to our camping trip in Grand Teton and Yellowstone that begins June 23rd. We’re not stopping and spending as much time in some places as we would have liked, but instead doing our best to get as much as we can out of 24-48 hours in cities that you could easily explore for a week.

Late afternoon on Friday we arrived in Cincinnati. We were lucky to have dinner with Mr. Keefe, the father of our college friend Dan Keefe, at Montgomery Ribs and then get to take in a great view of downtown Cincinnati and the Ohio River from the rooftop deck at his beautiful home on Mount Adams. Cameron and I really appreciated that Mr. Keefe took the time to take us to dinner and invite us back to his home. We learned more about Cincinnati in our time with him than if we had done our own sightseeing. When we left his home and headed back to the hotel I told Cameron that I love it when I meet a friend’s parent and the connection between parent and child is so clear. The things we love about Dan- his lively spirit, ability to tell a story, and desire to lift up others- radiated from his dad as well.

Enjoying their Montgomery Ribs in Cincinnati

On Saturday morning we took a family run along the banks of the Ohio River and then packed up and headed for Chicago. It started raining hard not long after we left and continued until we crossed from Indiana into the Chicago city limits. The most memorable part of our drive up I-65 through Indiana was Meadow Lake Wind Farm. For almost twenty minutes of our drive we could see gigantic wind turbines fading into the horizon to the east and west. The kids were both intrigued by it while Cameron and I both found it a bit surreal. Jackson hopped online to do some research and we learned that the farm currently has 414 turbines over two counties and produces enough electricity to power around 220,000 homes a year.

We got to our hotel in Evanston, north of Chicago, in the late afternoon and then headed to Wilmette to enjoy deep dish pizza at the home of Dan Harris, another friend from college, his lovely wife Molly, and their three boys. Our kids fell right in with theirs, riding hoverboards, playing wiffle ball, and racing in and out of the house for hide and seek. It was so nice to catch up with them and get to have dinner at their home rather than in a restaurant. When we left we were already cooking up plans for a ski trip and the kids were asking when they’d get to see each other again.

Cameron started his Father’s Day with a run through Northwestern University with Ada. We then hopped on the train and headed into Chicago for the day. We started with the Museum of Science and Industry and then walked over to the lake so the kids could check the water temperature. We then took the train back into downtown, had Devil Dawgs hot dogs for lunch, and then took an Architecture Boat Cruise on the Chicago river. It was a long day with lots of walking, but the kids really enjoyed the museum and boat cruise. The only complaint was from Jackson, who was very annoyed that it was mid-June and yet it was a brisk 50 degrees the entire day. We finished the night with dinner in Evanston, which Cameron especially enjoyed because they were giving out free Old Fashioned to all the dads.

Jackson and I took our turn running through Northwestern this morning and got to see about half of the Chicago skyline from our spot along the lake. We then loaded up and are headed for a night in Minneapolis with a brief stop off in Madison,WI to eat cheese curds and see the University of Wisconsin.

I’m going to try and update the blog every few days, mainly as we are driving from one spot to another. We have enjoyed hearing from lots of you that read the first post and hope you continue to follow along.