On July 5, I went back to work and Rich Gittleman stopped by and so I took a picture of him with the fish I also took a picture of Chris Achen (Politics) who had somehow escaped my lens but can do so no more as Associate Chair

This set the stage for another college tour with Jane. We got up ridiculously early and drove to long term parking at Newark and marked our location got our stuff together and marked the bus stop as Jane waited for the bus and I read the sign and next thing we knew we were in the terminal looking at the wares at Seattle's Best where Jane had a bagel and I had a large decaf before we went over to the other side and landed in O'Hare where the hallways were busy as I waited at the Dunkin Donut for Jane and we rode the bus together as I took this self portrait and then this woman at Hertz rented us this car with these Florida plates so that we could drive to Evanston and find parking at our hotel and then find our way to our room where this was the view

Next we headed out to lunch at the Greek place where this was the menu and Jane and I were happy to see the condiments as I ordered my Greek salad which came with pita bread and dressing on the side and she had her burger which the waitress took care of as she took our picture

On our way to the Northwestern campus, this girl asked to interview Jane for her journalism project and then we found the campus and made our way through the exercise course to the lake and the beach where people were bathing as we looked north to the point and south to the Chicago skyline as we walked around and found a small whirlpool and a very calm lake of beautiful colors before taking the tour.

After the tour, we passed Urban Outfitters on our way to a creamery (which turned out to be the wrong creamery) we approached the creamery checked out the menu and the specials and then Jane got this ice cream cone and we had these drinks while recording the location for future reference.

After a respite, we went to the Blind Faith Cafe for dinner. The menu offered many choices but we began with drinks and Jane and I enjoyed our waiter who was from Brazil via New York as he brought Jane's salad with dressing and my rice and main dish (Mongolian with meat substitute) and a very large sample of peanut sauce. I managed to finish my main course even as this waiter filled my water glass many times. The dessert menu had a wonderful peanut butter bar and then we paid the check and called it a night.

The next morning, July 8, I took a short walk and passed the Frances Willard house before we began our drive past Gary, Indiana

and down the highway

with our directions that took us through the Indiana Toll Road where we paid our toll and made our way to the IHOP at Benton Harbor, Michigan where the bathroom had a great collection sign with all details as we ordered our drinks and Jane tried to recover as my self portrait brought out her cereal but my sour dough toast took a while to prepare. While in Benton Harbor, we also went to Wal Mart to get Tylenol but we were happy to hit the road to Ann Arbor where this gentleman checked us into the Bell Tower and our room looked like this with a view of our car in the parking lot

Because we were rushed, I got this sandwich following the advice on the neon sign and Jane got this sandwich as Jane and I realized that Jimmy John's was a restaurant with a lot of guidance and much signage to behold.

After we finished the tour, we rested and then went to explore the town where we found the Seva restaurant and once correcting our settings realized that it had been a VFW hall before taking on the Seva name. Before eating, we explored the car show in town which had caused us large delays in getting to the hotel. There were fancy cars and old cars and a fire engine another old car a Ferrari that Jane posed with

and car engines where you could see distributor caps not to mention these midget cars that you enter through the front windshield and this deux chevaux (2CV) which set the stage to head back to Seva and read the menu while Jane and the waitress were amused as the drinks arrived and we admired the hot sauce and the best French (aka freedom) fries we've had in a long time as Jane had the ravioli and I had the pasta which made my self portrait and the second beer feel even better even as the waitress took a picture of Jane and me and told us her interpretation of the name of the restaurant which we tried hard to write to remember

so that we could go to the chocolate shop and buy this chocolate for Jane from this sales person and then head back to the hotel where we saw this wonderful sign and thanked the hotel staff for their dinner advice.

Saturday morning July 9 began with a breakfast spread of cereal fruit and donuts and pastries at the hotel. I began with cereal and banana but couldn't resist this donut after which we headed out until we got to Kalamazoo and followed the road past the Kalamazoo exit into town past the colleges looking in all directions until we found gas at this place that seemed to not welcome us to their rest rooms in signs but did offer a good station sign as we drove on until it became Jane's favorite time (11:11)

and then headed off I-94 to the Indiana Toll Road observing a sign for Krazy Kaplan at every turn and so deciding to explore the Fireworks market where Uncle Sam's store sold many varieties of fireworks

and we captured Uncle Sam, the proprietor, who had little advice about Chicago restaurants before heading down past the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge ($2.50) into a small traffic jam where we recorded license plates from Ohio and Illinois before the traffic got back and Jane decided to record scenery cars on the road

scenery directions and more road scenes occasionally with the Chicago skyline

before we saw the signs for Wisconsin (and yet another traffic jam)

as we tried to get the rental car to this woman at Hertz and get Jane on the bus to the terminal so that we could record the prohibition against fireworks and then make our way to Wolfgang Puck's restaurant where Jane was amused and relieved that the SSSS on her boarding pass meant a search she had survived and so could have her table setting and admire my self portrait as Jane had her sandwich (and fries) and I had my pizza and we celebrated a successful trip to the colleges of the MidWest.