Days 6 & 7

We tend to be a little structured in some areas of our lives. We have our packing and loading luggage onto the luggage trolley at the hotel and then into the car down to an art form. Sometimes we have a small battle holding open the hotel room door so we can get the trolley out, but we get the job done. The employees at the hotel we stayed in Wednesday night in Green Bay were so very nice and always wanting to be helpful. As we were trying to maneuver our trolleys (some of the hotels have started using much smaller trolleys, so we each had one) out our hotel room door, an employee offered to hold the door open for us, for which we were very grateful. We made our way to the elevator and rode down to the first floor. Sandy pushed her trolley out but as Edie was trying to do the same, the elevator doors started closing and we couldn't get them to reopen. Edie was lost in an elevator abyss. Sandy just stood outside the elevator on the first floor hoping that Edie would eventually make her way back. After a couple of minutes, the elevator doors opened again and there was Edie, her trolley, and the same helpful employee who held our hotel room door open for us. Evidently, she pushed the elevator call button on the upper floor where she had helped us, and the elevator decided to heed her call before Edie could exit - elevators gone wild, as it were. We all had a good laugh and then we made our way to the front of the hotel so we could load the luggage into the car. Another extremely nice employee said he would help us with our luggage and no matter how many times we told him thanks but we could do it, he insisted, which was very thoughtful, and then he proceeded to load the luggage into the car wrong. But we were gracious, said goodbye, and then headed down the street to a KwikiMart so we could rearrange the luggage somewhat.

And then we were off, heading to Holland, Michigan, for the next part of our trip. We drove through some very beautiful, green Wisconsin farmlands.

We also drove through Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Edie served for four months as an LDS missionary. Below is a picture Edie took yesterday of the house where she and her companions lived while assigned to Kenosha.

Then we stopped by Lake Michigan.

Eventually we were back on the road but before we could reach Michigan, we had to drive through Chicago. Oh my goodness - what a nightmare! Bumper-to-bumper traffic moving so slowly, trying to move into the lanes we needed to be in to make the exits we needed, trying not to swear but not being totally successful at the non-swearing - ugh! Sandy hopes she never has to drive in Chicago again, and Edie hopes to never experience such a white-knuckle commute again. But even though Edie was sweating bullets, she managed to take a picture of a part of the Chicago skyline.

We finally made it to more open freeway and arrived safely in Holland, Michigan. We were excited to go sight seeing (aka shopping and spending) today. The area where we shopped was very quaint with old looking shops. We enjoyed exploring many of them...and maybe buying a few items.

Tomorrow is a new adventure for us.

Y'all come back now.