Peckish Travels

For our outing today, Bob found us a lovely route to Butler University on a different, longer section of the Central Canal Towpath that we were on yesterday.

Butler University is a private university known for its liberal arts foundation, strong programs in business, pharmacy, and health, and NCAA Division I athletics (Bulldogs). Their men’s basketball often makes the March Madness competition, which is how most people outside of Indiana may know of the university. Their men’s basketball university was founded in 1855 and offers 85+ undergraduate and graduate degrees.

It is located on a 295 acre campus in a residential area about 5 miles from downtown Indianapolis. We approached the university from the canal towpath, so we first saw its baseball fields and track across from Holcomb Gardens before getting onto the main area of campus.

Note: The Holcomb name is for James Holcomb, who was a Trustee of Butler University and who co-designed the gardens that bear his name.

Bob and I started a housesit yesterday for the older but sweet Poppet. We had a great walk through with the homeowners before they headed off for an annual visit with family. They showed us how to apply lotion to the inside of Poppet’s ear twice daily for her low thyroid condition.

Our housesit is in the Indianapolis neighborhood of Broad Ripple. It is about 6 miles north of downtown and has a vibrant retail and restaurant area along the Monon Trail and Central Canal Towpath Trail. The house is a cute older home in another lovely, established neighborhood. We noted today that it is our 3rd home in a row with three livable floors. We are getting our stair climbing in!

This morning we headed to the Monon Trail to walk the few short blocks to the free Indiana Art Center.

The Monon Trail is a paved rails-to-trails walkway in Central Indiana. It runs 27 miles — from downtown Indianapolis to the northern neighborhood of Sheridan. It is popular for walking, running, and biking.

Unfortunately for us, the art center was in the process of changing over a number of galleries. We got to see the art but for the most part, didn’t have information on the artist, materials, year, etc.

The initial gallery, however, had a special exhibition called “JoeWill: Better Together,” which told the tragic story of two Indianapolis-born artists, Joe and Will Lawrence, twin brothers, who both died by suicide as young adults. The exhibition told their stories and displayed some of their art to help highlight the need for mental health resources.

From the art center, we walked back along a road to where we had first entered the Monon Trail. We then reentered the trail to walk a few blocks in the opposite direction towards Fresh Thyme Market, which is the closest grocery to the house. It is also in the heart of the Village of Broad Ripple, so we explored a bit of that as well.

We left Monon Trail to walk to the grocery store once we hit the Central Canal Towpath Trail, which runs 7.7 miles along the historic Central Canal, the primary source of drinking water for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area.

Bob and I arrived at Starved Rock State Park near Utica, IL, late yesterday afternoon after spending a few hours with my mom in Janesville, Wisconsin. Bob and I had visited the park on a day trip from Rockford, IL, with my sister a few years ago. We enjoyed the trip and had poked around the lodge at that time and thought it would be fun to stay there.

This is that time, although we had little hope for hikes or anything outdoorsy during our stay as rain and storms were forecast for most of our time here. However, we had very little rain on our drive down and none so far today.

This morning we had coffee and breakfast in the room and then headed to the Visitors Center before hiking. Rain was still in the forecast, so we had rain gear with us. It was a muggy 80+ F.

The park is a series of overlooks of the Illinois River on the top of rocks and canyons surrounded by rocks, so we had a lot of up and down.

We returned to the room near midday and then headed to the nearby town of La Salle to visit their Illinois and Michigan Canal Visitor Center. The Visitor Center is located at Lock 16 of the I &M Canal, the western terminus. Sadly, that is about all we know, as the Visitor Center is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We took the opportunity to walk the few blocks of the small downtown.

We tried again and headed to the Starved Rock Country Welcome Center in nearby Utica, Illinois. It was acute stop, lengthened by a friendly but overly “helpful” clerk at the Visitors Center who opted to give us lots of information and historical bits and pieces of sites that we told her we had no time to visit. Having said that, she was friendlier than most of the staff we have had interactions with at the park.

We’re chilling in our room now until dinner, which we have reservations for in the lodge dining room. Tomorrow we drive to Broad Ripple, Indiana, for an overnight in a hotel before starting our next housesit on Thursday.

Bob and I left Wauwatosa today and one of our favorite housesits. Some housesits are just special — Thornhill, Scotland, Green Valley, Arizona, Cambridge, England, where the homeowners, pets, and location are all super special. We hope to do another sit in Wauwatosa.

As a catch up from the last blog, we have learned (via our homeowners) who won the $20,000 prize at the art festival.

The cats also made this housesit special. They were 4 of the cutest, softest cats ever.

Also while we were on this housesit, we were able to watch the University of Texas women win the National Softball Championship and watch the men compete to go to the Men’s College World Series. The homeowners also subscribed to Britbox, so we got to watch the “Vicar of Dibley” as well as the latest episode of “Shrinking” on Apple TV.

After a rainy day yesterday and a much needed hair appointment for me late this morning, Bob and I walked down to the Village to check out ART 64 for which our homeowners had left us information. It is the 5th year that The Village of Wauwatosa has hosted the nation’s largest bracket-style painting tournament. Over the course of two days, 64 artists paint 3 paintings live for a set period of time — 60 minutes for round 1, 75 minutes for round 2, and 90 minutes for round 3. Virtual and live spectators vote for their favorites to advance to the next round. The grand prize for this year is $20,000!

There was no cost for entry. While we were there, it was well attended, but not crowded.

Here are some of the artists and their third painting of the competition, so these are the best of the best or at least those who received the most votes to move forward.

We popped into The Village Cheese Shop while we were there.

While we didn’t do another full self-guided historical architectural tour, Bob and I did walk to the next street over to check out three mail-order homes. Mail-order homes were available from 1908-1940 through companies such as Aladdin Homes, Harris Brothers, Montgomery Ward, and Sears, Roebuck, and Company. During this period, more than 200,000 families purchased catalog homes.

Catalog companies sold homes in “kits” which typically included lumber, roofing, siding, framing, wood flooring, porch materials, finishing lumber (millwork and interior doors, trim), windows, mantels, design hardware, and paint and varnish. Kits were sold at various price levels. In 1908, Sears mail-order home prices ranged from $650 to $2,500. In 1921, the prices had increased to $460 to $5,100.

Bob and I split up today. Bob went to watch the Milwaukee Brewers play the San Francisco Giants at the nearby American Family Field. It was a gorgeous day for a baseball game — mid 80s F with very little humidity.

Sadly, although the Brewers are currently ranked first in the National League Central Division, they lost today’s game 12-9.

While Bob was at the game, I checked out the shops down in the Village and later walked to Hoyt Park, about 20 minutes from the house. Hoyt Park is known for its large pool and outdoor beer garden. It also has walking trails along the Menomonee River.

Before I get to today’s outing, Bob and I walked ourselves down into the Village of Wauwatosa (about 20 minutes) to a restaurant called Buckatabon Tavern and Supper Club. Supper clubs are a thing in Wisconsin. They began in the post-prohibition era and traditionally combined dining with entertainment to offer a full evening out experience. Now, they are mostly known for their Friday night fish fry’s, wood decor, and drinks such as a Wisconsin Old Fashioned and dessert type drinks such as Grasshoppers and Pink Squirrels. Bob and I went for their happy hour and to check out the local WI style establishment, but after reviewing the drink menu we ordered martinis instead.

We had a good chat with the friendly bartender and enjoyed seeing the restaurant and some locals.

Today, we drove about 30 minutes to River Hills, WI, through more road construction (The Milwaukee area is working on its roads!) to the Lynden Sculpture Garden, which I had seen mentioned in the April edition of the “Milwaukee” magazine that the homeowners have. The sculpture garden is a 40 acre outdoor museum featuring over 50 sculptures set in a natural setting of gardens, woodland, and a small lake. It is free to visit. It was lovely to walk around, as the setting is just as nice as the artwork. The artwork is primarily metal based, and sadly for Bob, did not contain any big heads. Since we came on a Wednesday, we were able to see the bonsai exhibition as well.

A couple of samples of the many bonsai on display.

Bob and I had a great 3+ hour walk around Wauwatosa today to check out some of the murals that adorn buildings along the busy North Avenue as well as some homes on one of 5 self-guided walking tours put together by the City of Wauwatosa Historical Preservation Commission to showcase local examples of Arts and Crafts, Bungalow, and Mail-Order homes.

But first, we went back to the library, as it was in the desired direction, and Bob had found a cut-through from “our” neighborhood that we were interested in checking out. It was a lovely mid-70s F day for a walkabout.

We then started walking east on North Avenue from Wauwatosa Street.

We walked through a number of neighborhoods to get to the architectural walking tour, but the Washington Highlands neighborhood was especially lovely. So many trees, beautiful homes, and well landscaped lawns and/or gardens.

We mainly chose the Tour A tour today because it was closest to the other things we had planned. However, the guide described this route as offering examples of the full range of Arts and crafts and bungalow styling. The homes on the route were built between 1908 and 1928.

First, a couple of brief definitions. Arts and Crafts is a style that can appear in many forms of architecture. It can be in the use of materials, overall styling, simplicity of elements, or decorative details. Bungalows are a building form rather than an architectural style. They are typically a1.5 story home with a broad, low-gabled roof with overhanging eaves and a prominent porch.

Bob and I have been seeing a bit more of Wauwatosa (or Tosa as the locals call it) and a bit more of our shy cat as luck would have it. We have discovered his favorite hiding places — behind the washing machine or among some boxes in the basement.

We are loving this area and thrilled that the cats are continuing to warm up to us. They are an amusing bunch.

Saturday, I drove 1.5 hours to Janesville to see my mom. We got some cleaning done at her house and some errands run as well. Bob did errands of his own here.

Wauwatosa is a town of about 49,000 that is a suburb of Wisconsin’s largest city of Milwaukee. It is known for its historic village, parks, and diverse housing. Yesterday and today we walked to and explored a couple of its parks, and tomorrow we hope to do a portion of one of the 5 neighborhood self-guided walking tours to see some of the varied housing styles throughout the town.

Yesterday’s walk to Hartung Park took us through more lovely neighborhoods with large (but not huge homes) and by a small college.

Today began with a lovely surprise.

Bob and I then walked to another pretty neighborhood park — Firefly Grove Park. It looks very new and includes a bicycle pump track, play area, walking paths and pond, and a Thomas Dambo troll, which was the main attraction for us.

Most of our walk was along busy North Avenue, but homes in “our” neighborhood continue to catch my eye.

There were some artistic benches around the park.

This type of sculpture is typical of Thomas Dambo, as he is known for his installations of giant wooden sculptures (usually trolls) made out of recycled materials. We have seen other Dambo trolls including one in Austin, Texas. Sadly, that troll just burned down in the last couple of weeks.

Bob and I visited the Mitchell Park Domes Horticulture Conservatory today. Our homeowners kindly left us their membership card, so it was a free visit. They have 3 domes of plants — the tropical dome, the desert dome, and a show dome which has a seasonal display. Sadly for us, we’re here during the transition from the spring exhibit to the summer exhibit, so we only got to see two of the domes. Still, a lovely way to spend a bit of time and fairly close to the house.

On the drive over, we passed by the ball field for the Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Team.

Some pics from the tropical dome.

Some pics from the desert dome.