Day 13 - And on the 13th Day, They Rested

Evidently the power was restored during the night after the First Night of Solderkkah (hope you all lit candles in our honor), and all was back to normal by the time everyone awoke. After 12 days of driving and running and site seeing, the gang clearly was getting a little rundown and tired, so this day was a perfect day to hang out in Glencoe and recharge the batteries before the last week of the trip. This morning my cousin Gary, his wife Jeanine, and their adorable little 2-year old son, Max, came to Marti and John's for brunch.

Now, when we made the plans for brunch, I kind of just assumed that John might go pick up some bagels, muffins and donuts and that would be that. Just cousins hanging out having a nice simple brunch. But NOOOOOOOOO, in the tradition of our 2 week food eating expedition, Marti and John brought out all the stops. They made cinnamon rolls, cheese souffles, a pasta and vegetarian sausage combo (although I only learned that they were veggie just now), a fresh fruit bowl, shrimp, and fresh from the home garden tomatoes, cucumbers and squash.



Amanda and Brian, who were up early, helped John pick the veggies from the garden. We are now under a mandate from Amanda to grow a garden at home. However, I don't think we will go as far as having an actual greenhouse in the yard like John has, as I think Great Neck Estates would require a permit and I would have to check Paul's availability. I would probably also have to hire someone to grow the plants.

We had not yet met Max, but had heard what a cutie he was. The reports were accurate. After an initial shy period as he got used to the new 2nd cousins in the room, he played with them and they all had fun together. He had so much fun, in fact, that when it was time to leave he said to Gary, "I want Mommy and Daddy to leave without me," or something close to that. I am guessing that he either threw a pretty good tantrum when they left or fell asleep in about 20 seconds.



After Gary left, we hung out for a little while. The boys played basketball in the driveway and Amanda watched some TV. Eventually, we decided to head out and explore Glencoe. And what could possibly be a better way to start that than by getting some ice cream after a huge breakfast. Marti told us about a place that made excellent homemade ice cream in the town nearby, so we went there, and it was very good. For those at home keeping score, I had banana and coffee chip.


After eating the completely unnecessary but delicious ice cream, we headed towards a park near Lake Michigan. There we played some Frisbee, Amanda went on the swings, the boys created a Frisbee/tennis game on the tennis courts that they named "Frisnis" and we otherwise just relaxed. We took the obligatory photo of the kids with Lake Michigan behind them, then headed home to get cleaned up for dinner (it remains quite hot here).




For dinner we decided to head to a local delicatessen, where we once again ordered meals that we absolutely did not need but tasted great. I had a Reuben and Debbie ordered a meal called the Little Nosh. This was neither Little nor a Nosh. It was half corned beef and half pastrami and instead of bread it was served on potato pancakes. The good news was there was no bread, so she has that going for her, which is nice.



After dinner we (stunningly) did not have dessert and headed back to Marti and John's. The hardest part of leaving here tomorrow will be for Amanda. She and John have made quite a connection (John calls her his little gardener) and she was upset that John was out for a walk when she was going to sleep tonight so she could not say good night. John is a statistician by trade, and he will no doubt understand that there is a 100% probability that Amanda will start crying before we back out of their driveway tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a drive day. We will end up in Sandusky, Ohio, but on the way will likely stop in South Bend, Indiana for two reasons. One, to complete the tour of colleges that Matt Tucker hates, and two to have lunch and maybe go to the College Football Hall of Fame.