Some Maritime and Wisconsin Hospitality

Andrea's windmill

We got an early start this morning and headed into Milwaukee.  I had found a free children's program offered this morning at the Marcus Center for Performing Arts and thought we would check it out.  It was scheduled to start at 10 am and we had about an hour to drive so it meant we needed to be on the road around 8:30 am.  This was the first morning in a while where we needed to wake up the kids and they weren't real enthused.  Natalie advised us to get use to it because she is preparing for her teen years.

David, Natalie and realistic statue of security guard

The theme of the program was science today and was offered by the staff of a local children's museum.  The girls were a bit disappointed that it wasn't performing arts based because I think they were looking forward to that as that was what was promoted.  We finished the program and then made our way to the visitor information center.  Here we found that for $1 per person we could get a trolley pass and visit the downtown.  The entire circuit was 45 minutes and you could jump on and off.

Grammy, look at our parking spot number

At the market in Miwaukee

We went to the Milwaukee market first and had lunch.  Everyone could pick what they wanted to eat.  Andrea just loves going to the bread store and buying her own loaf of bread to eat.  Today she had a french batard and gobbled the entire thing at once.  When she was done she said it would take a while for her belly to digest that but would let us know when it did in case we wanted to get her some dessert.

Aaaayh, it is the Fonz

After lunch we toured a few more locations in town which included getting our photo with the Bronze Fonze.  Happy Days was taped in Milwaukee and they have a statue of the Fonze by the waterfront.  

Brandon and Andrea color the driveway

Mathieu and Francois have a friendly race

It is karate time!

At supper we arrived at Chad and Jenny's place and they, along with their two boys Mathieu and Brandon, welcomed us immediately into their home.  We shared a lovely supper and the kids were quick to get together and play a variety of games.  Later in the evening, after playing outside for a while, we got the kids to bed and the adults had a chance to chat.  Tanya and Chad were talking lots about their extended family and sharing stories of years gone by.  All in all it was a great evening and thank to Chad and Jenny for opening their home to us.

Tomorrow we plan to spend some time hanging out and having fun.

Later,
Francois