I arrived in Milwaukee late last night. My plane had been delayed by about 2 hours. So eve though the United Airlines website and even the sign at the gate indicated that the flight was on time, I was informed by the gate attendant at the time we were supposed to start boarding that the plane I was supposed to get on was in Rapid City, South Dakota. I felt bad enough that I was having my dad pick me up at the airport at 11:30, and now felt even worse that it was going to be 1:30 instead.
Rachel has once again proven to be a wonderful travel companion. Next week she will be one year old and this is already her fourth trip somewhere on an airplane. I got lucky that I was seated next to a girl who must have been about twelve and loved babies. This girl ended up being a big help and was nice to talk to as well. She explained that this was only the first time in her life that she had been on a plane. Her family had gone out to Colorado for a week where she got to do some hiking and spending time in the Glenwood Hotsprings. I finally got to bed at my mom's house about three o'clock in the morning.
After going through a fiasco renting a car this morning I picked Bree up at the airport about an hour after she landed. We got some lunch at a burger place on Brady Street and walked down to Bradford Beach. It was a nice day and the beach was crowded. Bree took Rachel wading in the very shallow water near the shore. Rachel still can't walk on her own, but she is able to walk with help and I think she was intrigued by the way the sand felt on her feet. But as with everything else, after a while she reverted to trying to eat the sand. That was our queue to move on down the beach.
Back at my mom's we got a much needed nap followed by a nice dinner prepared by my mom. After dinner my dad, Rachel, Bree and myself headed down to the lakefront to see the fireworks. This was Rachel's first trip to see the fireworks. Last year we went to see the fireworks in Golden, CO, which were good but no real comparison as far as the size of the display. Rachel was there also, in Bree's belly. The fourth of July was past Bree's due date last year and she had been hoping that the noise of the fireworks would throw her into labor. As it turned out, she didn't have Rachel for another week.
The display tonight was very impressive and Rachel seemed to enjoy it for a while. In time, however, her short attention span got the better of her. She was able to crawl around in the grass and seemed to enjoy herself for the most part anyway. I remember the first time I went to the fireworks here in Milwaukee. It was with my dad and my grandpa. We set on the grass down by the old gun club. I remember thinking how absolutely cool they were and through the years as I got older, my brother and i often went down to see the fireworks with my dad. My grandpa didn't go often, but he lived on the other side of town and it probably wasn't his thing so much. He had been in WWII and probably got more than his share of explosions at Iwo Jima and Okinowa.
I saw in the paper this morning that the Brewers are playing the Cubs at Wrigley Field this weekend. That hit home pretty hard. It was two years ago on June 27th when we lost Owen. We were all set to take him to Milwaukee in a few days for the 4th of July celebration and I had been trying to get tickets to the Brewers and Cubs at Wrigley. It was going to be the first trip to Wrigley field for both of us, and I wanted it to be for a Brewer game.
