We flew out of Milwaukee (MKE) again and, like the previous time, it was a huge success. The airport is small but well staffed; the lines were very short; parking is a breeze; and given traffic conditions most of the time, it's about as long a drive to there as it is to ORD from Crystal Lake.

It was very nice to see all our friends gathered together again. I wish we all had more time together. We stayed the rest of the week and made a proper vacation out of it and I'm very glad we did. It was relaxing and felt very much like home thanks to our hosts. We did things in VA and DC but not lots of things. I wish I was still there.

Of course, a post from me would not be complete without some mention of photography. Some great opportunities all week and few prints will be made. I have an image of one of the kids in particular (from the weekend) that, even for all my own self-criticism, is pretty darn good. (Also, our Canon T1i counter rolled over 10,000 during the trip. I sure do love the freedom of digital!)

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Friday afternoon we headed over to Millennium Park. It was misting out but we still had a good time. We saw Cloud Gate, the fountains, the temporary Burnham Pavilions, and climbed the new bridge to the Modern wing of the Art Institute.

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Friday evening, we were invited to the reversal dinner so we all hopped on the Red Line and headed north. Nate was treated to the quintessential public transit experience: a very loud and annoying (and young) Baptist preacher telling us we are all evil in everything we do and we're going to hell. Nate took it all in stride and eventually ignored the guy. On the way back to the hotel we were treated to slightly inebriated college students. The circle was complete.

Saturday morning we took a cab over to the Field Museum. Nate really enjoyed Sue the T-Rex and some of the other skeletons he saw, but for the most part the museum was over his head. We ran from room to room (he was setting the pace) and eventually decided we were all done for the day. The cab ride back was fun, and the driver quite taken by Nate. When we stopped at the light in front of the Art Institute, the driver asked Nate: "Do you see those lions? Are you afraid of those lions?" to which he answered very matter-of-factly: "No, they're just statues." The cab driver had a really good laugh.

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The wedding and reception were held at the South Shore Cultural Center, a beautiful location right on the lake. Nate did a lot of running around with a boy a little bit younger than him and before long we were all exhausted. Gone are the days of being one of the last couples to leave the reception.

Sunday morning we decided to head out to breakfast rather than eat in the hotel. Nate was a little restless so I took him for a walk while we waited for our food. It was a cool morning and the streets and sidewalks were empty. We ended up in Federal Plaza which contains the sculpture Flamingo by Alexander Calder.

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Following breakfast we packed up the car and drove north to Wrigleyville to attend church with my in-laws good friends. By that time the clouds had broken and we ended up with a beautiful fall day. Nate slept soundly during the drive home.

I managed to catch my odometer rolling over 111111.1 miles. My Chevy Cavalier has been with me since Easter before graduating college. I put quite a few miles on it those first couple years (trips out east, down to the Carolina's, back and forth between Indy and Crystal Lake) but a majority of its life has been quite mundane: It travels between home and the train station and around town.

Nate saying "cheese!" in the most earnest way!

photo by helloheather

I know, I should be fixing cetan.org and posting all these wonderful (to me) archive finds there, but I'm lazy and this works...

It was Nate's first and he really enjoyed it. He kept asking "Where's Comductor?" (which was how he pronounced it) and would say hello whenever a conductor would walk by.

Stopping at Des Plaines turned out to be a pretty good decision because the 45 minute ride was about Nate's limit for being on the train. We exited and made our way to the public library for a little bit of reading before heading to The ChooChoo for an early lunch. We had hoped to get the 11:04 back home but missed it by a few minutes. So, we headed back to the library for some puzzles and watching fish in the big fish tank until we could catch the 12:04.

Thanks to fellow Metra travelers on the return leg (who's names we never got) for snapping this photo.

It's not a particularly good photo and still doesn't show a ton of context, but it's a little less mysterious than the first image.

http://www.dariencornfest.com/

It was a pleasant afternoon, though a bit on the warm side. Nate and helloheather went down one of those carnival slides where you sit on a piece of burlap. He seemed to be unsure of what exactly happened after reaching the bottom.

Later he spent some time flirting with Charlotte. It was cute.

It's true that, for some of the trip, I was rather stressed out. I'm still (even a year on) trying to work through the over-protective fears and feelings I have with Nathan. Worries abound, leaving my head and emotions spinning. Unfortunately it doesn't always stay inside. It's something I struggle with.

But less navel gazing and more vacation discussion...

Nathan had a great time. He had explosive behavioral growth in the span of these five days. By the end of the trip he was 1) no longer walking as if he were Frankenstein's Monster. 2) able to climb onto and (and fall off of) push-toy cars and 3) able to climb up and sit down at a kids plastic play table. He also started using new sounds and in some cases, two syllable "words." He seems to mimic sounds a bit more too.

We spent some time at a neighborhood pool on Saturday. This pool featured a waterslide that pushed a fair amount of water around. Enough so that you could swim against the current near the slide and not make any progress forward. So, with Nathan in arms, I stood in the middle of the current watching kids (and adults) go down the slide. He /loved/ this. He was so calm in my arms, and simply sat enjoying the feeling of the rushing water. At one point I thought he was going to go to sleep, he was so relaxed.

He was pretty much a joy at the airports. He loved being pushed around in his stroller because he could see all the people and point and make his "heeeeyyy!" noise at them. And they, in turn, would smile and sometimes stop and say hello to him. At DEN a ~10 year-old girl with a stuffed toy (river otter) befriended him and became a de facto babysitter for a time. She would let him grab the stuffed animal and would follow him around, playing peek-a-boo around the support column near our seats.

and here it is

The weather only improved during the weekend but not really enough to go swimming. We went out on the boat a couple times though and Nathan seemed worried. He didn't really like the life vest and being in the sun so much, so the trips were short. But that's not to say he didn't have any fun out there. He liked the wind blowing in his face and liked looking at people as we went by. Serena and Charlotte came up for a visit on Sunday which was fun. Charlotte is getting so big, it's hard to believe.

On Monday we went to the Wisconsin Rapids Municipal Zoo. It's a small thing with only a few animals, but Nathan was very interested. We first stopped at the petting zoom where he actually became a bit scared at the noises the baby pigs were making. As a result he was a bit unsure of the lambs, the calf, and the goat and her kid. (He would actually clutch very close to me when we'd go near one of the pens.) But he was very interested in the hen and her chicks and all the ducklings. For the rest of the zoo Nathan was happy and very engaged. When we visited the pen with alpaca, donkey, turkeys, and two very large goats, he was most happy. He kept saying "Hey!" or "Eh!!" to the goats (which were laying down near the fence). When the tom turkey would make his call and stomp his feet, Nathan would stare in fascination. Surprisingly, he was also rather interested in the large tortoise sunning itself near the door in another pen.

As the sun was setting, I decided that, even though it was too cool for swimming in the lake, Nathan should at least experience the water a bit, so I rolled up my pants legs and sat down on the steps leading into the water. Nathan loved dangling his feat in the water, kicking and splashing, and wanted to jump in.

Tuesday, on the drive back, we stopped off in Milton to see Aaron and Charlotte where we had lunch at a local diner.

All in all it was a nice respite.

http://www.bernhard.us/photos/port-washington-06

Lighthouse - Port Washington, WI - 2006

click for larger view

The above shot was deliberately over-exposed to achieve a "high-key" effect. I did this with the desire to focus, less on the contrast that results in the noon-day sun streaming through the windows, and more on the shape and form of the building. The people put some perspective on the size of the space and their colored shirts really enhance the high-key nature of the image.