Cheryl In Wonderland...

Also known as:   Kenosha!  That is correct!  Instead of our tradition of coloring Easter Eggs for Easter,  Cheryl decided to come up to Kenosha for a visit!   Lucky Me!   Mostly because I did not have to brave the 5 hour drive to Iowa with an aging Subaru.   Instead... She drove up with the newly revamped and repaired Bean Subie and we got to spend  several almost days together exploring Kenosha.  

Now I know that it has been a couple weeks since my last post.   Phil is now officially gone and there simply was not much else to write about.   Time in the evening had been taken up by my Silver Bullet Subie being repaired and me either having to drop it off or pick it up.   So... Blogging took a back seat. 

But then Cheryl arrived and I, once again,  have something to blog about.  Or at the very least,  I have enough of everything else to lump together for a half-way decent blog post. 

So what did we do of this Easter Weekend?  Well... Nothing too crazy.  Explored Kenosha mostly.    We visited the Mars Cheese Castle

Tenuda's.    The Italian Store with all of the Cool Italian things it offered. 

The outlets!   Which I had never explored before.   We didn't buy anything!  But that did not stop Cheryl from trying on a bunch of things and making me hold all of her stuff while she did it.  

But mostly we ran and Beach Combed.  Did I mention that I will be attempting a Half Marathon  in two weeks?    Um...  Yeah.   Kind of scared.   Cheryl has been running 20-30 miles for the last two weekends and I have been running 9 if I'm lucky.  ( Half marathon... Half the training... because it is half as long....Right?)  Well,   we ran both days at the Petrified Springs Park and I must say that Cheryl is FAST!  Much faster than me.   But that is ok... because I'm running for a different reason.   I might post about my running and life lessons later, but not now. 

And then there was the Beach Combing.   The weather was just on the edge of nice by the big lake for the weekend.   You would think that 50-60's would make walking along the beach tolerable,  but whatever the temp is a few miles inland,  the lake coos things off by about 20 degrees.   Add in the wind and you get the feeling that it is plenty cold.    That being said, it was still tolerable to be out there looking for Beach Glass. 

Beach Glass!   Lake Michigan's claim to fame, next to floating medical waste. ( that was sensationalized news story back in the 80's that has since gone silent.   Either they cleaned it up or it was never an issue to begin with.)   Beach glass is the product of people drinking beer on the beach before laws were made to prevent people from having fun.  Drunk people would naturally toss their finished beer bottles into the natural glass recycling bin known as  Lake Michigan; and 20 years later, you have a valuable gem wash up on the beach where excited tourists collect  the shards and make jewelry out of it for their Etsy Shop!   It's a Win Win Win!   Mother Nature turns  the ugly beer bottles into pretty glass flakes.   The City of Kenosha  promotes the beach as a "Beach Glass Mecca!"  and Tourist clean up the beach... For FREE!     

Cheryl noted that admitting the "History of Heavy Industry  has led to a wonderful beach combing opportunity was an awesome spin on saying that they area was a heavy polluter.  All that aside,   We had fun searching for small shards of frosted, rounded, colored glass in the sand by the shore. It was a great way to spend several hours engaging in a "Zen-like" activity.  Cheryl got to add to her beach glass collection and I enjoyed helping her in her search.   Like hunting for Mushrooms in the Summer.   OR Easter eggs during ...  ah.   Yeah!  Easter! Like it was totally planned. 

I mentioned that Cheryl had the Bean  refurbished two weeks ago.   She took a few days off and headed to Michigan to get the Bean Subaru checked out by the only Subaru Mechanic we can truly Trust:  Andy!  Her Brother!   He did the Gaskets, Brakes, sensors, Cat Radio, and a bunch of other things. Water pump, timing belt, brake caliper replacement, Software upgrade.....  And brought the Bean back into the present.  Hopefully,   Bean will now be able to run for many years. 

That being said,  Silver Bullet had to get new brakes and new wheel hubs last week.   He sounds much better now, but Andy has offered to check him out for me to make sure things are up to snuff.   I would very much like to take him up on his offer if I can.   But I also realize that Andy might give me a verdict of bad tidings.   I know Rust has begun to eat away at Subie.   And that is irreversible.  

So there it is.   Cheryl came to Kenosha and we did stuff.   And it was over too quickly.  I imagine I will have more to blog about when we have our Race in a  a couple weeks.  (it's in Ohio!  Yikes!)   But until then... I will end this blog post with a Wish of a Happy Easter of Everyone.   Hope you got to enjoy friends and Family and remember the real reason we celebrate this Holiday.  It's kind of a big deal in the Bible, in case you were wondering.  ( Bigger than Christmas!)   

So,  Happy Easter!  And thanks for stopping in.