It was a full and wonderful Autumn weekend. Friday evening we met our beloved friends Boo and Doug for dinner at the Esquire. They seemed to know half the place and we seemed to know the other half, so there was lots of talking and laughing. I must have had an extra glass of wine because when my friend Amy asked me if I wanted to wear Gene Honda's Blackhawks championship ring I said, "YES" and then said "take a picture, take a picture." Very un-Cynthia-like which made me laugh all the more. The absolutely fascinating thing was its incredible weight. We tumbled home relaxed and happy, chatted with the boys and rolled into bed.
Saturday morning we left only 40 minutes later than planned for our trip. Not too bad. Leo drove most of the way to Union, Illinois. We got to Union after Google maps led us through one cornfield or another. Sometimes you really would just be better consulting a map yourself, but it was entertaining. We found an old tavern with a delightful tin ceiling and walls and enjoyed a meal together before heading over to the Illinois Railway Museum. It's hard to believe we had never been there before, but somehow we hadn't. Our extraordinary friend Van and connected us with an old friend of his that works there. He spotted us before we could even track him down. Perhaps Leo's Milwaukee Road hoodie gave us away....
I had expected him to be lovely, after all, he is a friend of Van and Karin's, and he had been kind enough to show us around but he was absolutely incredible. He had asked ahead of time what Leo was particularly interested in and had found out where everything was. He took us on a tour for three and a half hours. Talk about above and beyond. Leo was absolutely glowing. He actually got to get in the cab of the Little Joe 803 which he was most interested in. He photographed like crazy. I did o.k. walking. I didn't do it all. I sat out some but actually I was pretty happy that I managed to do as much as I did. Those engines really are amazing beasts. The sheer scale of them is mind boggling. It was a wonderful day. There is nothing better than seeing one of your kids so happy. My sweet pea Leo.
On Sunday we went to a Swedish restaurant for breakfast. It felt like we were in a conference room, complete with a screen pulled down...they were showing the Food Network on it. At first I got excited thinking it was close captioned in Swedish. Then, after asking Leo, I realized I just can't see very well and it was English. I ordered fried herring with eggs and hashbrowns. I decided afterward that perhaps I should tone down the experimental ordering. At lunch on Saturday I ordered a burger with jalapeno, peanut butter and jelly. Yes, it sounded somewhat disgusting but it was called the Lipsmacker and I thought, what the hell. Actually, it might have been edible if the burger hadn't been overdone. The fried herring for breakfast wasn't bad....just STRONG and SALTY. I know, I know, it was salted herring, what did I expect? The hash browns were great though. I always order hash browns with great hope in my heart and so often they aren't great. These WERE. Perfectly crunchy tops, tender inside. I will however, probably skip the fried herring next time....I burped fried herring all day long...and that was after only eating a portion of it. Oh well.
After that we visited Anderson Gardens and then hit a few antique malls and stopped at Toad Hall (thanks for the recommendation Annette and others). Owen and Ernie were beside themselves and Owen bought several Sparks albums, some Stones, Who, Springsteen and Genesis I believe. Oh, and a Beach Boys cassette because he found an ancient Walkman in the basement and has been using that. In fact he dug out some old cassettes of ours and played some of them on the way there as Leo drove. He played the first Mavericks album and I could have just cried listening to it. I don't even know why. Of course Raul's voice is so beautiful it could break your heart, but it was more than that. I couldn't help but sit and look at the pictures of all of them and think about how young they had been, and all the nights we spent seeing them. It just brought back this time that in hindsight seems so innocent...a time of excitement and anticipation. Listening to it under the dark grey skies as we drove along touched my heart somehow. When it clicked off we asked Owen what he thought and he said he'd loved it. My baby.
Driving home I said,'This was a nice weekend" and all three boys chorused, "Yes, it was!" A good feeling.