Summer Vacation

When I was a kid, I used to love summer vacation. Two months away from school, waking up early, homework, ect, ect. But once I grew up and started working, summer vacations disappeared. I still had to work through the summer, despite that it was nice and warm and I would much rather be outside.

This past week, my mother took a whole week off work and suggested that I take a few days off too. We had our own mini-vacation (or stay-cation to be more accurate). I only worked three days. During the rest of the week, we had fun.

We went to the Chicago Loop and walked around. We took a boat tour around the skyline and learned new info about some of those really tall buildings. Like (I forgot which building) one building was originally covered in Italian marble but after two Chicago winters, the marble cracked and started to fall off.

Then we went to the Chicago Botanical Garden. I really enjoyed looking at all those plants, some of which I've never seen aside of movies (like the water lili). My favorite parts of that were the Japanese Garden and the Bonsi Garden.

Then, we ended our vacation by going to Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. There, we took a really long mail boat tour around the lake. As we learned about all of the houses and their history, we also got to see a young girl jumping off the boat to deliver mail to the people who don't get it by local post office because it's too far. The catch was, that while this girl delivered the mail, the boat never actually stopped moving! It was amazing to watch!

I learned that most of the houses built along the lake front of Lake Geneva were originally constructed for the rich people of Chicago. You see, the Fields (Marshal Fields - now a store), the Harris (of Harris Bank), ect, ect, used to vacation in Lake Geneva in the summers.

After the boat tour, we took a horse and carriage ride through the historical district. We enjoyed looking at the houses so much that we came back on foot and took another tour. Most of the houses there ranged from 1847 to 1902. We actually got to walk through one of the houses as the owners had turned it into a gift shot. I would have bought something but the prices were astronomical. There were a few antique guns I really wanted. I like old fashioned weapons. Maybe next time I'll spend some money there.

I had a great summer vacation, and it was the first one in around ten years.

Come back Wednesday to see pictures.