The Martin's Blog

11/20 Tu –Lunch with Mike, Cathie, and Jim in Downers Grove IL, arrived in Milwaukee in time for Drago, Lena, and Seamus swim lessons

11/21 W – I did Physics Labs with Drago, played catch with Seamus, and read/played with Lena. Helen and I also took the children to Kops Park for kickball and playground activities. Lena, Seamus, and Drago relaxing after a hard day at the park.

11/22 Th – Thanksgiving, Mimosas and pre-event snacks

Andy (bartender), who had arrived from Chicago by train, mixed some additional specialty drinks; Sidecar, Brandy Sour, to get us ready for the feast.

The Feast!

Dessert – that’s whipping cream on a huge piece of pumpkin pie

11/23 F – Drove Andy to the train station; Chad showed me U of WI/Milwaukee, his office, classrooms, labs, and reviewed his thesis project. In the afternoon, he and Liz decorated the house for Christmas.

11/24 Sat – Breakfast at Maxwell’s, Dollar Tree with 3 grandchildren, and 1.5hr drive to Madison, where I was able to watch most of the Ohio State vs. Michigan game (OSU 61-39) with Vera and Bill. Continued for another 3hrs to Cedar Rapids, IA

11/25 Sun – 0.5hr to Herbert Hoover National Historic Site; we arrived earlier than originally planned, 7:45am, because a severe Winter Storm had started to blow in.

The site is in West Branch IA, just east of Iowa City

We walked by the restored homes on Downey Street, the blacksmith shop, and schoolhouse

To the birthplace cottage

Hoover was the first U.S. President to be born west of the Mississippi River

We drove to the President Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover gravesite. We would have normally walked. However, the storm was becoming more severe by the minute.

Herbert and Lou had much in common: roots in IA, love of the outdoor, a sense of adventure, and degrees in Geology from Stanford. Hoover was, by profession, a mining engineer. He was a millionaire by age 40. After serving as Secretary of Commerce for 7 years, he was elected the 31^st President of the U.S. He served from 1929 to 1933. The stock market crashed in October 1929 and The Great Depression became the central issue of his presidency. FDR promised a “New Deal” and won by a landslide in 1932. I found it interesting that there was no mention of The Great Depression in the NP brochure for this site.

We did not wait for the Visitor Center to open at 9am because of the storm. After three hours of driving east at 70+mph, we were able to get out in front of the rain/sleet. The remainder of the drive went well; we arrived home at 5pm. It was a 1300-mile trip.