Short But Sweet Visits

    Time was approaching for Nathaniel to take off to Duluth, but we had wanted to see Tami before he left. Typical me, I had waited to the last minute for calling her and making arrangements for a visit. Even though there were only a few days before Nathaniel was to leave, she agreed right away and to our delight suggested a time that she could bring Lillian.
   Since we were meeting at a restaurant and I didn't want to be annoying... I almost didn't bring a camera.Somehow, my small 'point and shoot' camera slipped into my purse :-)

Lillian and Nathaniel having a conversation?

I tried to get a picture of her smiling.....

this one is close enough.

"Maybe, if I give a 'bit' of a smile, she will leave me alone!"

Almost 2 years old and she has impeccable timing; food has arrived and is now testing Grammy Tami's limits for standing at the table :-)

Not standing, but Tami's food is getting cold :-)

By now, she has warmed up to Nathaniel...

kind of :-)

Okay, who's the boss here?

testing out the zipper

Nathaniel had to move fast to avoid getting pinched!

Time to check out buttons :-)

This was a very short visit, but very enjoyable!
 
     A few days later, Nathaniel was taking off for Duluth. Since he was stopping at William's and Alice's, I decided to travel (car caravan) with him. After staying a night or so, the plan was for Nathaniel to go on to Duluth and William and I to head for Door County. We settle in for a cozy visit at their house....

and are wholeheartedly welcomed by the 'whole' family :-)

Nathaniel imitating the cat look :-)

By living near the 'Dells', Baraboo, etc.,the opportunities for some scenic outdoor activities are within minutes of their house. We decided to go for a walk and Nathaniel is trying out his new x-country skis. Boy, did my fingers get cold taking these pictures!!

We are all bundled up for the cold weather :-)

River is not frozen here because it is still too close from exiting the dam.

Got off the path here to check out the colorful cliffs and caves.

Looking for treasures?

William playing 'hide and go seek' ?

Alice and Josh checking for bats :-)

Nathaniel zooming right along!

 At the house, we have a good time visiting with family and pets :-)

Bill has all the pets well-trained!

   Nathaniel takes off for Duluth and William and I head for Door County. For insurance reasons, I am required to check out Jim's and my cottage about every 3-4 months. It is fabulous when a 'have-to-do' is something I enjoy so much!!! This time, besides enjoying the beauty of the area, I got to spend quite a bit of time with Martha and William.

I am glad Martha had my driveway plowed before we got there.

 These are pics from the front porch of the cottage.

   In the soft light of a late afternoon, William and I snowshoed in a winter wonderland near Ellison Bay. As long as we kept moving, we were able to keep warm, despite the very low temperature. I did not even attempt to take any pictures then!! 
     When visiting Martha, there is very little idle time. Before you know it, she has you involved in some kind of activity! Here, she is giving William a short lesson on playing the accordion. She had me try the 'button' instead of 'keyboard' accordion. It was quite fun!

A bad picture of William, but the only one I had of this :-)

 What really caught my eye, was her display case. I have always liked the coloration and patterns of shelf fungus (grows on trees), and never thought of the possibility of preserving one. Someday, I will have one that I have collected in my 'nature display' case.

Fancy handmade Easter eggs...last year I helped get the yolk out of a couple of those :-)

    This November, Martha and Dr. Joan Traver opened up Coventry Care; a non-profit, free medical clinic in Sister Bay, Wi. This clinic is funded by donations, volunteers, and the selling of donated art work. The art work is in a gallery in the same building as the clinic....pretty cool.No one will ever know if you are there buying the artwork or being seen as a patient :-) William's and his son Bill's craftman skills were utilized for converting this building into a clinic/gallery. On my short 'to-do' list for this trip was to see the clinic/gallery. I had seen it in various stages over the last year and wanted to see the finished product.The following pictures were taken of the gallery by William, using my cell phone.

     I ended up buying a couple of art works for the cottage :-)

   I had a whirlwind of a time visiting quite a few family members. Besides one of my brothers(and his family) and both sisters(and Lillian), I also got to see my Aunt Carol and cousin Liz :-) The visits were way to short, but, Ooooohhh so much fun!!
    Driving back home, a beautiful sunset capped off  such a wonderful time.

Misinformation

    For the Holiday season, I like to peruse different papers and websites to find different activities/events that we may enjoy. Some of the events we plan ahead of time and tickets are bought, and others are 'spur of the moment' ones.
    Dec.24 was cold, but since it was a beautiful sunny day, it seemed a shame to spend it all indoors. I had read that from Dec19-Jan.2 the Lincoln Home National Historic Site had a decorated neighborhood to walk through that was free and no ticket needed. I was interested to see if they kept to 'olde time decorating' or a modern style. So, spur of the moment, we decided to check it out. When we got there we put 2 hours worth of money into the parking meter. We walked to the edge of the neighborhood and did not see any decorations, so we went inside the visitor center.

    I asked the 'visitor services' for directions to the decorated neighborhood and she looked at me like I had 'lobsters coming out of my ears'!! I was informed that the only Holiday decorating they did was inside Lincoln's Home :-( We could have taken a tour of it, but we had our hearts set on being outdoors. We decided to walk thru the neighborhood anyway. The houses did have wreaths on the doors, so whoever wrote the 'Holiday Happenings' blurb, must have thought that constituted as a neighborhood holiday decoration display.

    The others read some of the display signs, as I took a few pictures. With the trees bare, it was nice to be able to get better views of the houses.

   When we finished walking thru the neighborhood, we figured there was probably more than an hour on the parking meter. So, off to the capitol we go :-) Walking along this street, I start noticing...

   some pretty interesting signs. After taking a picture of this one, I got a bit behind...

   and had to speedwalk to catch up with the others and decided not to take any more pictures (or look at) of the signs.

 We decided there was not enough time to go inside the capitol and walked around the area in front of it instead.

As we walked back to the car, we agreed that we enjoyed our outing very much, despite the misinformation.

One of many beautiful churches in the downtown area.

Now, I am looking forward to revisiting the National Historic Site and exploring downtown Springfield in the future at my own pace...which means lots of picture taking :-)