What a Trip!

Coming into my old home town.


Coming up to the old library on the left.


I spent a lot of time at the library when I was in high school. It's a church now.


I had to take a photo of this mural of what the town used to look like. I had forgotten Soukups.

Where I used to live

There was a sidewalk sale going on downtown.



I had to go see our old house on the river. That's where I lived when I graduated from High School. The neighborhood is full of tear downs and brand new mini-castles.



Here's where we lived when we first moved to the town. That neighborhood is very pretty with all the trees grown up. No tear downs there yet, probably because it's a little farther from downtown. I was amazed to see a Trader Joe's nearby.



The backyard look great too. My parents planted those really large trees.

We stayed at the only B&B in town

Before the reunion, I relaxed on the porch. It was hot and muggy but pleasant when breezes came by.


So different from where I live now!



Every room had a different theme. Nancy stayed in the Nantucket Room.

All dressed up and ready to go

It was fun to get dressed up for the Reunion.



















Nancy looked great!
















Nancy took this shot of me in her room before we walked to the VFW for the event.

At the Reunion

It was hard to take pictures at the reunion. It was dark and I'm not used to having a camera so I kept forgetting.

Gina Clapper took a lot of Photos and they are posted on Shutterfly.

Here are the photos that I took.

Here's Bette. Yes, she wondered what had happened to my red hair. Sigh.


















Steve and Gail. Steve was my high school boyfriend and Gail was in a lot of science and math classes with me. They were both quite easy to recognize.




















Steve and his wife Rosann were both in our class. Rosann's hair is still long and blond and gorgeous.



















I have no idea who all these people are! And the name tags kept falling off. Of course some of them are wives and husbands of our classmates. I wish we had had a list of attendees.




















It was so noisy and hard to talk that we ended up leaving early. But it was fun to see how people had changed.

It's like an upscale mall

I knew the town had moved upscale but still I was amazed to see all the new development and upscale chain stores.



The new developments are very pleasant and the trees and plantings are great.


I was amazed at the flowers. It was a great time of year to visit.

More town scenes

Standing outside Starbuck's, that's Anderson's bookstore across the street.



Russell's Dry Cleaners is one of the few stores that is still there. I wanted to take a few photos that my parent's would recognise.



The spires from the Catholic church rise in the background. Construction everywhere.



Dean's is still there.

Riverwalk to The Beach

Nancy's daughter, Katie, was in town, working hard on a new store opening, but she got away for a bit and we walked the Riverwalk.














On the Riverwalk, looking at The Beach, an old quarry that was converted to a swimming pool by the WPA during the Depression.

Chicago

On Monday we went into Chicago. We had a wonderful meal at the Art Institute. Then I set out to see the area of town that I had lived in once upon a time.

Here's our old apartment building.






















It's gone condo! The doorman said I should go up and see the sales office.






















Here's the view from the sales office, which is much the same as the view from our old place. Gorgeous and what fun to see it again.
















I walked up Michigan Avenue, and stopped at Border's near the Water Tower. The table where we used to sit was free, so I sat there and took this picture for my husband. I showed it to him when I got home and he recognized it instantly.






















Nancy and I went out for lots of delicious Indian Food and then back to the B&B to confirm our flights for the next day.

It was a great trip. Thank you, Nancy! Hope we don't wait ten years to get together again!