October 20-22, 2009: A Trip to San Antonio
	September 19, 2009: OctoberFest in Addison, TX
	Return to Index for 2009

For quite a long time, Fred and I have been talking about taking a trip to the Upper Midwest- specifically, Chicago and Green Bay, Wisconsin, where our friend, Guy Blair, lives. We thought that we might combine a few days in Chicago, where I used to live, with a couple of days in Green Bay. On the way up or back, Fred also wanted to stop at Starved Rock State Park in Illinois; there was supposed to be some nice hikes there and a few waterfalls.

As our planning proceeded, we added St. Louis, and trips to the St. Louis Botanical Garden and the Arch into the mix. By September, our plans had gelled. We'd coordinated with my friend Gerry in Chicago and with Guy in Green Bay, and both would be free for the times when we were in their cities.

So, our plans called for us to leave Dallas on Thursday, October 1st and drive to St. Louis. On Friday, we'd visit the Gardens in the morning and the Arch in the afternoon, and then drive to Chicago that night. On Saturday, Gerry wasn't going to be free until the afternoon and the weather wasn't going to be very good either, so we planned to do a museum or two in the morning, check into our hotel in the afternoon, and then meet Gerry in the evening. On Sunday, when the weather was supposed to be nice, I wanted to take Fred around Chicago to the places I was familiar with, and perhaps work in a trip to the top of either the Hancock Building or the Sears (now Willis) Tower. We hoped to see more of Gerry that day as well.

On Monday, October 5th, we would leave Chicago and drive to Green Bay. There we would stay in the same hotel that I stayed in when I came to visit Guy a few years ago. We hoped to do a trip up to Door County; I had thought when Guy and I made that trip a few years ago that it would be something Fred would like as well. As it turned out, the weather was terrible in Green Bay, and we had to eliminate the trip to Door County altogether. Instead, we just hung out with Guy when he was free. In fact, the weather was so bad, that we cut our visit to Green Bay to just Monday and Tuesday. We had checked the weather, and it looked as if the only nice day to visit Starved Rock State Park, which we had to do on the way home, would be Wednesday, so we reluctantly left Guy on Tuesday afternoon so we could stay near the park on Tuesday night down in central Illinois.

As it turned out, that was an excellent decision, for Wednesday was a beautiful day for visiting and hiking around Starved Rock and another state park nearby. We spent the entire day there, and only began our drive back to Dallas late in the afternoon. The wisdom of our decision was confirmed when, not a couple of hours out on our drive home the weather fell apart and it started to rain, heavily, from Illinois through St. Louis. We stayed the night west of St. Louis, and then completed our drive home on Thursday.

While the weather could have been better, the trip was very enjoyable, with the only real disappointment not being able to take our trip to Door County, one of the most scenic areas of Wisconsin.

While this certainly wasn't one of the longest trips we took, I am going to once again organize the pictures that Fred and I took in the same way I have organized other major vacation trips in this album- by giving you an index into the various segments (days) of the trip. That index is below.

If you want to see our entire trip, just click the link to head to October 1st, and then follow the page links from there. You can also start at a different page if you wish. When you are done looking at the album pages from our Midwest Trip, use one of the "RETURN" links on each page to come back to the top of this page where you can follow the links to other pages in the photo album.

Thursday, October 1	Driving to St. Louis
Friday, October 2	St. Louis Botanical Garden      St. Louis Gateway Arch
Saturday, October 3	Arrival in Chicago      Chicago's Field Museum      Settling in At Our Hotel      Evening in Chicago
Sunday, October 4	Walking to 1660 North LaSalle      At the Parkview and Old Town      Meeting Gerry at His Condo      The John Hancock Building      An Afternoon Walk in Chicago      Lake Shore Drive and the North Side      An Evening Walk
Monday, October 5	Driving to Green Bay      St. John's Church      Walking Along the Fox River
Tuesday, October 6	Visiting With Guy      Driving to Peru, Illinois
Wednesday, October 7	Matthiessen State Park      Starved Rock State Park      Driving to St. Louis
Thursday, October 8	Driving Home to Dallas