Great Lakes Tour, Day 7

After #1s science course and breakfast, we said "goodbye" to Green Bay (and its horrid jug handles!)

Would a traffic light be so bad?

and headed due south along Lake Michigan to our 4th and final Great Lake of the trip! Before we reached our Chicago nest, dear daughter had her first meeting of "Baltimore Catechism 3" (also online) so we had to make a stop.

If you're a Mr. Men fan, you may know this episode. Our kids have more than a passing attraction to the show (on their mother's side) so it became the running gag of the day...substituting the word "backgammon" with the word "Sheboygan". It is a fabulous word. It was repeated many, many times.

You see, the travel agent (moi) had decided the WiFi spots were too unpredictable and decided to choose a nice, solid library in which we would plead transience and need. The people of Sheboygan were warm and beyond welcoming. The Mead Public Library was a fantastic find!

They set up #1 and her laptop in a nice little study room where she could interact with her class and not bother anyone else.

We headed one floor up

to a really amazing children's section...lots of fun things to do and see

They even had the complete collection of the Berenstain Bears! (although this was before we found them)

When we had played for almost an hour, we headed down to the magazine section, just outside the private study area, to hang out and read while we waited for class to finish. #3 even found "Model Railroader" magazine :0)

Finished with class, we continued south until, finally we reached the "city of big shoulders," "city that works," or, as most people know it, "the windy city" (although maybe they don't really know why it has that name). It was a most exciting time because we were stopping first to see our home for the night (we had stayed with the monks prior but this was a new apartment) and then it was off to meet daddy. 

The Monastery of the Holy Cross in South Chicago is staffed by the Benedictines and, to our delight, they run a bed and breakfast. Fr. Edward greeted us warmly and took us on a wonderful tour of what would serve to be our lodging for the evening. He noted that this is the only US b&b that is in a monastery and, actually, it's the only b&b he knows of that is actually in a church!

Through the gate is the door up to our apartment which are the tiny windows in the middle. The big windows on the bottom are the sacristy and the big windows on top are part of the church dome.

Up one flight and you choose your door...ours was to the left.

Our hosts live on the right.

This greets you on the way up to the apartment :0)

The stairs from above

The hall that leads to the living room and bedrooms

Living room

Bathroom...you know my love of quotes on the wall ;0)

Three bedrooms in all...lots of space

Close-up of the hallway again with Our Beautiful Lady and bolts...they were there to secure the baldacchino above the altar! Is that the coolest thing? On the opposite side of that wall, that very one, is this

The dark wooden canopy over the altar is the baldacchino! That is our shared wall!

The cutest thing of all was when our two little altar servers went from the bedrooms to the bathroom, they bowed every time they got to Our Lady, knowing the altar was just on the other side.

It was a marvelous place and we couldn't wait to show it to DH but first we had to go find him! We headed out to the University of Illinois-Chicago, home of a dear friend who is a professor there. He attends the conference with DH and, since he doesn't make the trips to Pittsburgh any more, it's a blessing that we get to see him as we're passing through. As usual he made us feel so welcome and took us on our yearly tour of the President's level in his building. The day was beautiful - perfect to city-view.

I never get over the flatness of the Midwest

That would be as close as we got to #4 but Lake Michigan is in sight!

Back at the office, an impromptu lesson comparing money from different countries, including a 100,000,000 bill (or more, I forget...I also forget what country. Oops, I was enjoying being back in the same room with DH after a week!)

The nearly happy group. There's always one. Lol. Until next time, Dr. Gib.

We delightedly took DH back to our faith-filled apartment and we caught up over Chinese and just enjoyed being a whole family again. We went to bed a bit later than we should have...especially since my inner-Benedictine began calling around 4:30 the next morning. Oh well, there are worse things.

We are blessed.