We decided to stay one more night here at Indiana Dunes. We have been so busy riding the train into Chicago for the last two days and getting back late in the evening, we thought it would be nice to spend the day just relaxing and catching up with life at the campground and maybe do some exploring of the nearby cities.
When we were at the beach yesterday, we met a young mother and her son. She told us about the South Shore Line that picks up at the Beverly Shores station right outside of our campground. It is free for the kids to ride and only costs $8.25 each for us to take the train all the way to downtown Chicago. The station is a 10-minute walk from our campsite but we decided to drive here since we wanted to get an early start and didn’t know if it would be dark or not when we got back.
We are now in Indiana. Indiana has only about a 40 mile stretch of shoreline by Lake Michigan and much of it is designated as either a State Park or a National Park. We woke up in the Walmart in Portage, Indiana and headed into one of the two campgrounds hoping to find a spot.
Our second day in Milwaukee took us into the Historic Third Ward. We have limited time here in Milwaukee so we are not getting to do as much exploring as we would have liked. There were a lot of great recommendations for this area and since it spans just a few blocks so it is very walkable for our little ones.
Our first night a Cliffside Park was great. With no one in the campground, clean bathrooms and free hot showers, it beats camping in tight spaces near the city. The girls got up early and as usual, both squeezed into Ava’s bed for a little morning entertainment on the iPad. This time, Luka thought he would join in on the fun.
This morning before we headed down towards Milwaukee, we are taking it pretty easy. We woke up at our usual west coast schedule at around 9:30, 10 o’cock. Since we have some decent wifi here at our courtesy parking, we decided to do a little Skyping with Marlene’s parents. They miss the kids and the kids miss them as well.
You wouldn’t think Sheboygan is a place that you would find great, authentic mexican food but you would be wrong. We stayed last night at the side of our hosts Steve and Jenny’s house and it was nice and quiet. We asked them for some advice about local food and El Camino Mexican Restaurant was highly recommended.
Every 20 or so school days, Ava has to have a meeting with her kindergarten teacher to check on her progress. Even though Marlene is doing the actual schooling, Ava has a teacher at the charter school she is enrolled in with this homeschooling program. Today is her first scheduled meeting with Teacher Stephanie and we came to a McDonald’s for lunch and to use their WiFi so she can have her meeting via Skype.
We woke up this morning with our batteries nearly empty. The overnight temperature hit an all time low for us on this trip at 34 degrees. If it gets any lower, we might start to see some snow around here. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen or we might have to high tail it out of here and go south.
Last night we drove from Chippewa Falls to Wausau, Wisconsin. Don’t worry, people. Dan did not drink and drive after our day at Leinenkugel’s. Nor did he accidentally hitch up their beer-stream instead of ours. Good job, Dan!
We started the last day here in the Twin Cities with a trip to get some authentic Mexican food. Being from southern California, there is not a shortage of great Mexican restaurants. But having been gone for over a month already, we are savoring the opportunity to eat at a good one.
With two days left in the Twin Cities, we still have a lot to see and not very much time. As we mentioned before, we are not fans of towing the Airstream in the snow and at this part of the country, it would not be totally strange if we were to see a little snow in September. Our plan today, stock up on some local farmed goods at the Saint Paul Farmers Market and head over to Minneapolis to see what that ‘other’ city is all about.
