Milwaukee Domes Day-Trip

ATTENTION LINDA: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO READ THIS IF YOU ARE PREPARING FOOD!
Oops! The slideshow decided to post itself before I had anything written!
Yesterday Connie, Alice, Linda and I took a trip down to Milwaukee to visit the Domes. Or was it to go out to lunch. Or maybe it was just to get together and laugh alot! Actually, we did all three plus some shopping, pretty much in that order, although the laughter part was sprinkled throughout the day.
We started out the day with Connie picking Linda up first, and then swinging by to get me (had to give me time to run through the shower - Alice's request!). After I was on-board, we headed towards the valley to meet up with Alice. As usual, we had everything well-thought out in advance, so only spent about 10 minutes trying to find Alice, who was trying to find us, driving up and down a 1/2 mile section of County II, or is it 11? What color is Alice's truck again? Linda thought tan/brown. Wrong. We finally settled on meeting up in the parking lot of a clinic (via cell phone - without which, we would probably still be driving up and down the road!), where we left Alice's RED truck - hoping it would still be there and not towed away when we got back!
Linda relinquished her job as navigator when Alice got in (none of us could read the tiny print on the map!), only to find out that Alice's eyesight wasn't a lot better. Regardless, Linda and I figured we would enjoy the trip better if neither of us was calling the shots! Besides, Alice has one good eye and could see the map okay if she shut the other one - oh, the joys of growing older! (FYI - she will be getting the other eye surgically corrected soon, so next time....)
The trip down to Milwaukee was basically uneventful, with only one potty stop - quite miraculous if you consider our ages! When we got down to where they had to pay attention to what lane we were in, and where to turn off, Linda and I decided that closing our eyes now and again didn't hurt. We also discovered that Connie is quite adept at making u-turns, whether or not they are allowed! She might argue that it wouldn't have been necessary so often if the navigator would tell her what lane to be in sooner, but that is a minor point. We surprisingly arrived at the Domes without hitting anyone/anything or getting arrested.
We toured the three domes - all beautiful in their own way, and made a stop at the Dome gift shop. The only really disappointing thing about the domes was that some of the panes were broken out and had been covered with plastic. Unfortunately, whoever put the plastic on didn't think it was necessary to trim away the excess plastic and the flapping noise from MANY of these was deafening, especially in the dome with the ordinary flowers (aka: ones we actually knew the names of, or thought we did...).
On our way out of the domes, I spied a solar clock on the pavement and just had to try it out. It worked! By standing in the correct month square and holding my arms, hands together, above my head with my back to the sun, it said it was about 12:40 - right on! This dismayed us a bit, as it meant we only spent about one hour and 40 minutes in the domes. It took us longer to get there than that. Oh well. That was only part of our plans for the day. Next up was lunch. Where to? Considering that none of the four of us really knows Milwaukee, we weren't too sure about wandering around looking for something. Plan ahead, you say? Look something up on the internet beforehand? Next time! We decided to head back north and see if something caught our eye. So back to highway 45 - but not without having to make another u-turn! Connie is pretty darn good at that! Finally we were back on the road. After driving for a few miles, we decided to pull off on highway 100 to see if there might be some sort of eatery on that. We were in luck! After eying a couple of places that would have meant "trying something new", and possibly "backing slowly out of the door, after seeing the prices", we settled on the tried-and-true, Applebee's. Do I have to admit it? I'm afraid we will have to add that particular Applebee's to our "banned from" list. I can't help it, when I get to talking, my hands just sort of fly around and knock things over....just my coffee, and who'd a-thunk my table-mates would get so embarrassed?? I wasn't - particularly - and it got me a whole stack of rather nice napkins to take home with me... (oh, the "banned from" list? That now includes IHOP of Appleton (spilled coffee #1 - guess who?), Atlanta Bread Co. of Appleton (a bowl slid right off the tray and SMASHED all over the floor - again, who but me??) plus the Applebee's.) I will have to admit that I tried Atlanta Bread Co. since then, and while I didn't see my picture on a poster behind the counter, I did notice that my salad came in a plastic bowl!
After a good meal, in spite of the entertainment, we headed north again. Tossing around for something more to do (couldn't go home too early, I might have to go to the barn!), I came up with the "quest for a LARGE whisk" (for the guys to mix calf milk with). It was decided that we would stop at the Outlet Mall by the EAA. We managed to pull in there without making a single u-turn! Unbelieveable! We spent roughly an hour checking out the kitchen stores, plus some others. Alice was able to find a few buys, and I saw Connie carrying a bag, also. But, no big whisk. One of the saleswomen told me of a place across the highway "next to Sears", that sold restaurant equipment. So, after we got done browsing the outlet stores, we headed across to check it out. Where the heck was Sears? After going down three frontage roads, we decided to give it up - and there was Sears at the last intersection, but no sign of any other story, of any type. Oh well. Another time. We got back out on the highway and headed north once more, to find out we had already reached Butts des Mortes - we couldn't have gone any further on frontage roads if we had wanted to. Our fearless navigator was able to get us back to the correct turn-off to find her truck. Luckily, it wasn't towed - didn't even have one of those cool wheel-lock thingys on it. That might have been worth seeing....okay, not really. We let Alice out and Linda resumed navigator status. We let Alice back out first. Actually, she backed out, swung behind us and headed out of the parking lot - or thought she was headed out of the lot. She had to pull into another spot and try again - no exit that way! It wasn't exactly a u-turn, but we figured out where we could lay the blame for at least a couple of them!
The rest of our trip home was quite unremarkable, so of course I will have some remarks on it. We had clear skies, actually beautiful weather in Milwaukee (shirtsleeve), but hit clouds and sprinkles at Waupaca. Not bad, considering all the miles we put on.
When we got home, I had Linda and Connie come in and take a look at --ha, ha-- you thought you were going to find out what I was up to, huh? Nope! Unfortunately, when they pulled out, it was only 5:45 pm and my over-active conscience made me go to the barn. The guys were surprised, but not too disappointed to see me. All in all, it was a great day! Thanks girls - can't wait until next time!! Alice's choice, right?? And maybe we can pick a time when Marina hasn't just returned from a week-plus vacation....