Fall Break 08

I know it's December now, but I finally had time to go back and look at the pictures from Bryan's surprise birthday trip during my fall break in October. It was the first trip that we had taken alone since our honeymoon (which is kind of sad), and I had so much fun planning it. Looking at the pictures brought back a lot of happy memories. Sorry I'm posting so many of them.:)

Our first stop was Madison, WI, to vist Nick. Neither of us had ever checked out Madison and it turns out that it's a really cool city. We saw the university campus, walked around the lake and State Street (the main drag with all the fun shops), ate at a cafe overlooking the street and then spent time around the impressive capital building. You can see a little bit of it there at the end of State St. in the picture.:) We also found a park in the area and enjoyed the fall colors. The weather was absolutely perfect while we were there, which always makes everything that much better.

Nick and Bryan in front of the Lake in Madison. I like the sailboats in this picture. I kind of want one...they are just so happy looking.:)

Next stop was a little historic town in WI named Cedarburg. There was a really cool old winery there and we got to do a tour and a wine tasting. (You can see the main building of the winery behind us) For lunch, we ate at a wood-floored French creperie overlooking the creek next to the winery. We also found a really great local coffee shop (named Fiddlerheads) and did morning devotions with our latte and chai. mmm. I wish I had taken a picture there.

After Cedarburg, we headed down along Lake Michigan. We stopped just after crossing the Illinois border at a state beach park. We didn't have long, but we got to walk the beach and enjoy the sand and water.

The last part of our 4-day trip was spent in Chicago. We had a great time there. We stayed at an amazing bed and breakfast in Oak Park and spent the next day shopping on Michigan Avenue, checking out museums, and hanging out at Millenium Park.

Bryan took this picture through the window while we were eating lunch at the Corner Bakery...very nice.
This is the garden courtyard of that amazing church on MI Avenue. It' s so beautiful there, like a little oasis in the middle of the city. And of course we had to take some pictures at the crazy giant "bean" in Millenium Park. Bryan hadn't ever seen it before...it was fun seeing his reaction.:)

So that's about it. It was a short trip, but we packed a lot into our four days and had a wonderful time together!