Baby Watch

After saying our goodbyes to Stan and Lynne Brown we headed to the Chicago area to await the birth of our first grandchild. Our daughter Ariana was due on September 16th, so getting in town early was important to us to make sure that we were there for the birth.

We stayed in Palatine at Camp Reinberg, more of a day camp but it does have five RV spots of which we can fit into three of them. They only allow a maximum of a five consecutive night stay. Katrina was able to get us two back to backs so we had ten days relatively close by to Ariana and Matt. We didn’t take any pictures of the place as we have stayed here many times before.

While we waited birth of our grandson, we were able to see some friends and complete some upgrades to the Busse Bus.

Our first night we were able to grab a dinner with Ariana and Matt at Milwaukey Taco in downtown Libertyville, our old stomping grounds. Great tacos in a relaxed environment! It was so nice to catch up with both of them.

The following evening we met up with Debbie Pickus and Bill Garcia in downtown Arlington Heights for dinner at La Tasca Tapas Restaurant.

Arlington Heights has closed down a few of the cross streets to allow the local restaurants to serve outside. Very nice!

The next evening we joined Ariana and Matt for dinner at Fat Rosie’s Taco & Tequila Bar in Lincolnshire. Great food and we had a lot of fun. Afterwards we stopped at Greg’s Frozen Custard.

Greg’s is rated number six in the country for best custard!

Scott and Linda Black joined us for Oktoberfest in downtown Palatine. I’ve known Scott since kindergarten and we met Linda when they moved into the same housing development that we lived in Mundelein in the early 90’s.

Good German beer, food and music! Afterwards we headed to the Busse Bus for a nightcap and a little card playing.

As Ariana’s due date came and went, we used up our ten days at Camp Reinberg and had to move farther away to the Illinois State Beach Park in Zion, IL. It is almost into Wisconsin! The campground was nicer than we anticipated although it was dated. The only sites with 50 amps was a stretch of asphalt where about eleven coaches could park with no water nor sewer hookups.

Check out the old midcentury modern bathhouse along Lake Michigan:

Probably designed by someone famous who successfully utilized a concrete roof to reflect the waves of Lake Michigan. The newer store replicates the bathhouse:

Bear loved looking at the beach and waves and really wanted to play in the water but no dogs were allowed on the shore. Poor Bear!

The campground also connects to the Robert McClory Bike Path that travels north/south from Kenosha, WI to Navy Great Lakes facilities in North Chicago, IL. I was able to ride the path both ways over the days that we were there.

As we waited news of the birth we had time to head over to my niece’s house (Jeanette and Danny) to pick up our skis to take to our townhome in Colorado. While we were there I got a chance to play with my nephew Bryson and Katrina got in some practice holding Freddie who is 8 months old.

On Friday night we headed into Mount Prospect to celebrate our family’s court win against the Village of Mount Prospect over a piece of land that they were trying to take from us. After over five years of a court battle we reigned successful.

Mount Prospect was also hosting Oktoberfest where we were able to grab a brat. While we were gathered we heard the news!

Well, the day that we had been waiting for finally arrived!