{"id":3036,"date":"2019-08-12T10:57:02","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T15:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/?p=3036"},"modified":"2019-08-12T10:57:02","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T15:57:02","slug":"visiting-toms-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/?p=3036","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Tom’s Family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\nMy sister-in-law, Sarah, arranged for me to join them for a\nperformance of the musical, Hamilton, in Chicago during May so I\ndecided to visit both sisters at their respective homes before\nheading to Chicago. On Friday, May 17th<\/sup>, I left home\nearly in the morning to drive to sister-in-law, Lynda, and her\nhusband\u2019s place outside Stryker, OH. Arrived at their place around\n4:00 in the afternoon; the drive was uneventful and traffic not very\nbad. That evening, Lynda fixed hamburgers on the grill; we spent the\nevening catching up with each other\u2019s lives. The next day we went\nshopping in Defiance, OH. Because the weather was much colder than\nthe forecast had shown, I needed to purchase some warm clothing so\nended up finding a sweatshirt and pair of dressy knit pants. Lynda\nhad pulled a pair of jeans she was giving to Goodwill out of her box\nand gave them to me. That evening, we ate at \u201cMom\u2019s\u201d\nRestaurant in Archbold. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lynda and Jim<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Barnes Residence<\/strong>

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\nOn Sunday, the 19th<\/sup>, we drove to Sarah and Mike\u2019s place\nin Adrian, MI. Once there, we loaded into their vehicle for a drive\nto Chelsea, MI where we were having a family dinner at nephew, Jason,\nhome. What a beautiful home, nestled among the trees, with design\nsimilar to Frank Lloyd Wright. It was an afternoon of delicious\nfood, and great conversations. We arrived back in Adrian around\n5:15; Lynda and Jim left for their home while we drove to niece,\nJana\u2019s, and her family home. Spent a couple hours talking to Jana,\nMark, and the kids. Went back to Sarah and Mike\u2019s where we settled\nin for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sarah and Mike<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Family<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Lots of Good Food<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nThe next day Sarah and I drove to a new garden nursery she had been\nwanting to explore. After that, we drove into Tecumseh where we\nvisited a few shops, including one winery where I purchased a bottle\nof local wine, and had lunch at a real cool place called British Tea\nGarden. Once we arrived back in Adrian, Sarah and I walked the\ndowntown area where I saw many changes. We also stopped in the\nCroswell Opera House, an historic theater, that Sarah and Mike\nsupport; it is a beautiful place. Mike was playing on a golf league\nso Sarah and I had pizza at the Pizza Bucket. Since we were leaving\nearly the next morning to catch a train in Jackson for downtown\nChicago, we got our bags organized and ready to go. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early, early, early is the best way to describe the over hour drive to Jackson the next morning. Got on the train for downtown Chicago; because of some delay on the tracks, it took about 5 hours to get to Chicago\u2019s downtown station. Upon arrival, we grabbed a taxi for a ride to the hotel, Hilton Garden Inn, that we had reserved. After checking in and taking luggage to our rooms, we met downstairs and walked to Grand Lux Cafe, a place Sarah and Mike had experienced before and really liked, for lunch. More walking familiarized us with the area. Back at the hotel, we got ready for the evening performance of the musical Hamilton. Before the performance, we met up with the gal who was raised in Adrian and worked at the supervisor of the Costume Department for the theater company; she was able to get us very good seats close to the stage. We met at the bar\/restaurant, the Grillroom, across from the theater. After she left to get the cast ready for the performance, we stayed for a bite to eat. When it was time, we walked across the street to the theater where we experienced a fantastic performance; it was very, very enjoyable! After the performance, we were able to go on stage and meet one of the major actors. And then a walk back to the hotel where we settled in for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Train Station @ Jackson<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Outside Theater<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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In front of stage<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nWednesday found us, after breakfast at the hotel, heading to\nMillennium Park which is an award-winning center for art, music,\narchitecture and landscape design. The last time I was in downtown\nChicago, I did not have a chance to visit the park so really wanted\nto see it this visit. And it was very enjoyable to walk around and\nsee all the sculptures. We grabbed a taxi for Northerly Island where\nHamilton The Exhibition was located. A very detailed, informative\nexhibit in which we spent close to three hours exploring. And, like\nmany visitors, I had a buy a souvenir at their gift shop. We\nreturned to downtown Chicago where we had lunch at the Weber Grill\nRestaurant. We then walked down the Miracle Mile; stopped and\npurchased popcorn at Garrett\u2019s which is well known in Chicago for\ntheir caramel popcorn. Back at the hotel, we went to our respective\nrooms for a few hours of relaxation. That evening we had dinner at\nan Italian place called Pizzeria Due. After dinner, we stumbled upon\na place that had restaurants, gourmet food, deli, and merchandise all\nrolled into one. It was a great place to explore…even though I\ncannot remember the name of it. Back to the hotel for the rest of\nthe evening. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Statue in Park<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The Bean<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Reflection Pool<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Hamilton Exhibit <\/strong>

<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Skyline Downtown Chicago<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Thursday was our\nlast day in Chicago before our catching the train back to Jackson at\n5:45 that evening. We were checked out of the hotel but left our\nluggage in storage and took off to explore some shops. There was a\nCanadian store called Roots that was having a grand opening of a new\nstore in Chicago; Sarah was familiar with the store from their many\nvisits to Canada so she wanted to see what the new store had to\noffer. And I wanted to find Patagonia for another shopping\nexperience. First, we found Roots but it was not opening for another\nhour; however, the manager let us into the store and gave us free\nleather passport handlers that we could have engraved when the store\nofficially opened later in the morning. We proceeded to the address\nof Patagonia; I found a pair of lightweight sweatpants that I\npurchased. By the time I completed browsing and made a purchase,\nRoots was open so we went back to the store. All of us had our\nleather passport holders engraved with name and design. Purchases\nwere made and we walked back to the hotel. It was mid-afternoon, so\nwe decided to find a lunch\/early dinner spot; we went to Rock Bottom\nBrewery down the street from the hotel. After having a drink and\nappetizer, we spent time in the lobby of the hotel. Around 4:00, we\nretrieved our luggage and found a taxi to take us to the train\nstation. Because of the traffic, it took about an hour to arrive at\nthe station. Our train arrived and we were on our way to Jackson. \nDinner was a glass of wine from the dining car and the bag of cheesy\npopcorn I had purchased the day before. We got there around 10:30;\nfound the car and drove back to Adrian where we arrived around 11:45;\nall of us off to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, the 24th<\/sup>,\nI got up at 5:00 in order to be on the road by 5:30. Filled my\ntraveling mugs with coffee and water. Because it was the start of a\nholiday week end, I wanted to be around Chicago by 11:00 in order to\navoid traffic. Made very good time; got around Chicago with no\nproblems and arrived home around 3:30 pm Iowa time. Another\nsuccessful adventure; it was good to spend time with Tom\u2019s family\nand being able to see Hamilton at the same time. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My sister-in-law, Sarah, arranged for me to join them for a performance of the musical, Hamilton, in Chicago during May so I decided to visit both sisters at their respective homes before heading to Chicago. On Friday, May 17th, I left home early in the morning to drive to sister-in-law, Lynda, and her husband\u2019s place … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3058,"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3036\/revisions\/3058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jan.hise.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}