Road Trip Part 1

We decided to venture out of the house and see how the zoo was doing with social distancing and test out some of our new masks.  We had a good time and it was easy to keep our distance from others.  It was very hot though, so we only stayed for an hour or so before we were all ready to leave.

Later that night, Evie lost a tooth that's been wiggly for a couple of weeks now.

Thursday, we got together with my mom's side of the family outside at a small park.  It was great to see the family and Evie was able to play with some cousins and she had a great time.

Evie and cousin Lydia blowing bubbles

We left yesterday for a road trip with my parents.  I always get the travel bug this time of year, and Seth and I had been discussing doing a road trip where we visited national parks and stayed in remote areas.  Fortunately my parents were also up for a trip and so we have charted a course that his some of the same sites as a trip my parents, my brother, and I took 30 years ago, but that also has some new sites.  We've rented a minivan that is packed to the gills and left from my parents' house about 2 pm Friday.  We drove through St. Louis and stopped for a bite at Five Guys where we sat at their tables outside, away from any other customers.  Then we drove past the Cahokia Mounds and got out to look, but we couldn't go around the park because there were a lot of people going up the stairs, presumably to watch the sunset.  We finished up our drive to Springfield, IL, seeing tons of fireflies on the way which was really neat (well, some of us saw them - apparently Evie couldn't see them and Grannadady wasn't entirely convinced either), and checked into the hotel.  We brought our own pillows and wiped down the high-use surfaces and felt pretty satisfied that we were as safe as possible in the situation to avoid catching COVID.

This morning, we walked around Springfield and saw some of the race riot signs and some of the Lincoln sites - his home and tomb.

Posing as Abe, Mary Todd, and Willie Lincoln

Piggy back ride in the Lincoln historic district

Largest covered wagon in America

Then we headed on toward Milwaukee, stopping for a picnic at a rest area.  Evie found a little path in the woods and wanted each of us to go with her to explore it.  She said this was her favorite part of the day.

We crossed into Wisconsin and stopped for a photo with the state sign.  This was a new state for all of us, and I think Wisconsin is beautiful

In Milwaukee, we walked along the riverwalk and found the Bronze Fonz.  We drove along Lake Michigan, hoping we would find somewhere to park and get out, but the beach was crawling with people who did not seem to be aware that people should be keeping distance from each other, so we couldn't get out, which was a source of frustration for Evie.

We found some German food for dinner since that's a Milwaukee thing, and then we also found some frozen custard even though we had to drive all over town to get to one we felt comfortable with.  Then we headed on to Madison where our hotel was.  We caught the end of some fireworks and Evie got to see them from Daddy's shoulders.