Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Harley-town

I want to blog about my weekend, before I forget the details. I had a workshop in Milwaukee for work and I thought. Yuck, that's just great. Who in the hell wants to go to Milwaukee. Well, let me tell you - I was in for a surprise. First of all, it was cool, which was super. And the workshop had an incredible keynote speaker, Jason Dorsey who talks about the differences by generation and how to communicate with each other. So funny, so true - watch his video. If you watched 60 minutes about a year ago - he was the guy talking about Gen X. Okay, back to Mwk - they have a casino. Uh, huh. Did you know it was the home of Harley-Davidson? Me neither. And they have some pretty nice architecture downtown. We stayed at the Hilton, which was built in 1924 and recently refurbished. The details in the elevator were amazing, on six different levels. I know, who'd a thunk - an elevator. Once the business was over, my CE/SE roomie, Jeanne picked me up and we headed out of Dodge for the greater parts of IL. We stopped at the Third Ward in Mwk (thanks for Design Sponge for the city guide). There were 3 stores in the area - Broadway Paper (so-so), The Home Market (super yummy but -spensive!) and Utrecht art (small but good). We passed a junk store and squeezed our way in. Ohmygosh, I felt bad for the owner. I don't know why other than she was a serious hoarder and we had to push our way through her store, through all the junk, there wasn't even a path hardly. Not complainin, just sayin. I found a couple of cool things - a glass/plastic owl (from Avon), a white "cold" hardware knob, some tiny 1" vases and a 2" princess and an old flower frog. We headed out of town and stopped at the Olive Pit and while we're waiting for our sandwich, scoped the antique store next door. It was set out very nicely so I equated that with expensive. I was w-r-o-n-g, thank goodness. I found several goodies: a large ledger for $16, a hotel spoon, 2 vintage books. There was another larger store close by but we were running late so we only did a quick recognizance and no purchase. Antioch was our destination and we met up with three former CE lovelies, Kathleen L, Shelley F and Kathy W. And Hannah's was having a garage sale. I only bought a couple of Tim Holtz supplies (those feet thingies) but had fun looking around. Hannah's is a true crafts store, not just scrapbooking. I was tempted by the latest collection from My Mind's Eye but didn't want to haul paper. We stopped for coffee and a fox ran down the road over yonder. Way cool. Then we were heading to Schaumburg for the Big Bowl and dinner with Cathy D, Nan G and Candi. It was fun to hear about their projects and Cathy's view on 2010 CE and just all the latest events. Then we headed to Crystal Lake and Jeanne's abode. I've never met her 3 old English sheepdogs and 2 border collies and so there was no time like the present. We had a nice visit with her hubs. She has such a comfortable house with alot of land - I could have spent days just visiting and relaxing. And what's not to love about a pile of pups in your lap/feet/floor/everywhere! On the way to the airport, we stopped at Woodstock and looked at one of Jeanne's haunts. Fun to see all the hardware and piles of printer drawers. I saw two women looking at a photo album (the type I collect) and they couldn't figure out why it was upside down. I couldn't either, I've seen several like that - I figure someone tried to repair it and put it in wrong... that's all I can figure. Anyone know? So they bought the album and gave it to me to fix. Hmmmm. Fate is an interesting visitor.
And to answer your question, Linda. Yes, I am taking off Friday and heading to Warrenton, hopefully with Miss Sandy and if not, we'll hook up while we're there. I love the idea of going for 3 days, you lucky duck. Looking forward to a day off, looking at junk albeit expensive junk - let's hope for cooler weather. What about you, Debe?
Oh, and one last thing. I tried priceline and I'm super happy. I wanted to stay at the Renaissance in Amsterdam because of its proximity to the train station but it was $215 or $240 or something so I pricelined it at $125 and got a 4 star... that happens to be the Renaissance. Interesting! Looking forward to their cooler weather next week.
Hey, would you mind leaving a comment? I'm feeling a bit lonely here...

5 comments:

Sandy said...

I won't make Warrenton with you on Friday, :( I'll be in SD. Be back 10/1 amd W and I are planning on going 10/2--join us if you can. When are you back from Rottendarn>

Jeanne said...

It was so fun to have you here! I'm trying to talk Nan & Cathy into going to the Antique Flea Market in Elkhorn with me. It's the last one of the year, and is supposed to be super!

Barb said...

Milwaukee is where my son goes to school! Glad you had so much fun, love Hannahs and wish I was closer and didn't have to demand to stop when we make it up north!

Debe said...

You go to the neatest places....we are thinking about doing Warrenton this Saturday since I am taking Oct 1 to go to Marburger. So I guess I will miss seeing you there altogether...Milwaukee sounded like a FUN trip! Person stupid to relate....couldn't find my camera charger after we remodeled our bath...just found it still in the suitcase I took to SB LAST NOVEMBER!! I am so relieved. Have a good trip home!!

Debe said...

That was a personAL stupid I wanted to relate however person stupid fits too! Chuckle....