Last Saturday, I took a day trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with ALDA Chicago. In the morning, we had a board meeting in Cary, Illinois. That town is northwest of Chicago and located en route to Lake Geneva. My husband Rob came with me and we left our house at 6:30 a.m. to have plenty of time to get to Cary by 9:00 a.m.
On our way, we stopped at Walker Brothers pancake house. In the photo at left you can see the impressive looking exterior of this restaurant. The inside was decorated like a castle. I had a yummy breakfast of 3 pigs in a blanket (sausage links wrapped in pancakes) and Rob had french toast. Later, we were very glad we had stopped around 8:00 a.m. and had a substantial breakfast.
The board meeting ended promptly at 11:00 a.m. because we needed to arrive in Lake Geneva in time to board the boat for our lake cruise at 12:30 p.m. We were booked on a cruise that included a tour of Black Point Estate, one of the oldest mansions on Geneva Lake. [Lake Geneva is the town and Geneva Lake is the body of water.] Rob and I enjoy seeing historic homes and were looking forward to it. The board meeting location was about 45 minutes to 1 hour away from Lake Geneva, so we thought we had plenty of time.
As you can see from the photos, the skies were blue and we had a beautiful day for travelling. What we didn't know was that Lake Geneva was having a Venetian Festival that weekend drawing more than the usual number of tourists. Traffic on the road was slow-moving getting into the town and parking near the waterfront was difficult to find. Sadly, we missed our boat's departure.
But all was not lost because one of the group members arriving ahead of us but also too late for the boat made arrangements for 7 of us to board the next boat leaving at 1:00 p.m. We got on just in time to claim the last available seats.
The cruise company graciously provided us with scripts of the tour narration which were very helpful in following the descriptions of the million dollar homes we were sailing past. Hooray for deaf advocacy! But I have to admit that looking down at the script and then looking up at the shoreline made me a little seasick. My husband bought me some 7Up from the ship's bar and after drinking that my stomach settled. I did have to take a break from my reading, though, and just enjoy the passing scenery.
The 1:00 cruise did not include the stop at Black Point Estate so we got back earlier than expected and had free time to explore. As Rob and I had missed lunch completely, our first stop was for ice cream cones. Mmmm.
I've included a few photos of things that caught my eye as we walked around: an angel fountain, a horse with rainbow colored "socks", and a pub sign.
We met back up with the group from ALDA Chicago at 5:00 p.m. to have dinner at Popeye's restaurant located on the waterfront. I had a delicious perch sandwich for my meal. It was fun to be together with my friends and catch up on their lives. But I was really puzzled when people kept telling me that after dinner they were stopping to buy funds. I had no idea what they were talking about despite repeated attempts on my part for clarification. It wasn't until we were nearly home that night, that I figured out they were talking about buying fudge. Smile.
