Cliff's birthday at the Baker House (Lake Geneva, Wi 1890's house where everyone wears a period hat.Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Another Lake in Wisconsin
High Cliffs State Park, Wisconsin
Day 10 of our trip finds us in our 3rd day at this location. Located on the northeast side of Lake Winnebago and about 30 miles from Oshkosh, this park is heavily wooded with every spot being very private. This is a park that apparently is typical of the northern US - no water at the sites so we are trying to conserve. We swam at the beach area of the park in the lake and it was like being in Galveston without the salt. This lake is the largest in Wisconsin (10 miles across) and only 21 ft. deep at the deepest!
Prior to arriving we attended the reunion. We had so much fun! Kids swam at the beach. We divided into 5 teams of 14 people each with assignments that were easy but certainly brought us closer. We (Cliff and Deb on the blue team while Jennifer and Johnnie were on the green team and Christian was on the black team ) Points were determined in many ways including a Minute to Win It segment. Cliff came in first in getting an oreo from his forehead to his mouth using face muscles only - FUNNY. In another segment of the program that didn't have anything to do with the "game", was a talent show which included some serious violin performances and dancing along with some pretty funny comedy routines. Christian along with Mira Hougen (about 8 years old), John Hougen (5), Kristen and Katherine Fast made Viking shields and hats and presented a little play about the Vikings.
We took a boat tour (on the mail boat) of Lake Geneva where there are many mansions and camps for varying groups along its shores. During the Chicago fire of 1871, many people moved to this location while their homes were being rebuilt (such as the Wrigleys, founder of Nabisco Corp., Otto Young {who bought up most of State St. in Chicago after the fire when others thought it would never be rebuilt} his house has about 18000 sq ft). These homes are mostly owned by the 4-5th generation.
We enjoyed all of our relatives so much. We now have people to visit in Va., Wash state, Iowa, Nebraska, Wi and thanks to Judy Falness - Minneapolis. Saturday evening was Cliff's birthday and we celebrated with an outdoor musical located on the grounds of George Williams Conference Center called "Music in the Air". It was well done and the singing voices were outstanding. We sneaked out of our Hougen meeting after Tom Hougen showed a comedic look at Norway through power point.
We celebrated the birthdays of 3 ninety year olds. These are all my first cousins. Kathrine K who is my dad's sister Laura Hanson's child, Esther Taylor (daughter of my dad's brother Olaf) and Flo Stuen (daughter in law of Dad's sister, Agnes). They are so sharp and fun! Esther is on a walker and Katherine just gets up and down like no tomorrow. She sat on the steps while waiting to get into Yerkes Observatory and just popped right up when we went in. Flo had a fabulous wardrobe! Flo told an interesting story about Rev. Johan Olai Hougen (my grandfather) who was instrumental in raising money for a silver cross to be placed in a church in ? Norway (I will find out the name of the town) because the original one was destroyed or stolen. Money was sent from the US and the people in Norway thought it would be better used for something else. So in the 30's, the plan was resurrected (pardon pun) and the cross was placed in this church. Rev. JO Hougen's name is on a plaque close by where immigrants from Norway to the US were listed. My cousin, Tom Hougen, has pictures of this. Cliff told us when he was in Norway,he visited this church and saw the cross and had no idea that his great grandfather was instrumental in having the cross purchased and placed in the church. (Another reason to know your roots if you can).
Picked up dogs on Sunday am so we missed church service which was beautiful I am told. J and I were concerned about no one coming forward to organize next reunion. However, when we returned from picking up the dogs, we were informed that 6 outstanding relatives from the next generation came forward enthusiastically including Kjell and Nicole Knutsen (Uncle Joel's grandson from Houston). yea! Tania Hanson (my dad's sister, Laura's great grand daughter) agreed to do the website since that is her vocation. Another relative is an event planner so she has a data base of places to have reunions in US including church camps,etc) so I am asking my family to show up in 2014 as it would be a reunion for us too (that includes my kids and John's family as well)
Corby and William came from Chicago to pick up Jenn and Cliff and Christian so we all went to lunch and had a short visit. We hooked up the RV and headed north to our next stop - missing everyone.
Two funny things!
At the reunion, we all ate together in a private room. After watching how our hosts got our attention to make announcements, Christian got up on a chair on July 21st and hit his spoon on this cup and said, "Attention everyone. Today is my daddy's 36 birthday and I want everyone to sing to him." After a round of laughter, we all sang to Cliff who was getting coffee on the other side of the room."
Now the embarrasing one
When were returning from getting our dogs on Sunday morning, we thought Corby had arrived but didn't know where he and the rest of the family were. So we went to our room to make sure everything was out of it and I wrote the following text message to kids.
"We r back. We have gone to our room for a sex. Where r u?" We didn't get a response but did find them. Later I looked at my text and we died laughing. No wonder we got no response since my "sex" should have been "sec. (for second)"
We are going on a hike now and we will try to go to Oshkosh Air Show tomorrow if the weather permits. Will post some pictures asap.
Day 10 of our trip finds us in our 3rd day at this location. Located on the northeast side of Lake Winnebago and about 30 miles from Oshkosh, this park is heavily wooded with every spot being very private. This is a park that apparently is typical of the northern US - no water at the sites so we are trying to conserve. We swam at the beach area of the park in the lake and it was like being in Galveston without the salt. This lake is the largest in Wisconsin (10 miles across) and only 21 ft. deep at the deepest!
Prior to arriving we attended the reunion. We had so much fun! Kids swam at the beach. We divided into 5 teams of 14 people each with assignments that were easy but certainly brought us closer. We (Cliff and Deb on the blue team while Jennifer and Johnnie were on the green team and Christian was on the black team ) Points were determined in many ways including a Minute to Win It segment. Cliff came in first in getting an oreo from his forehead to his mouth using face muscles only - FUNNY. In another segment of the program that didn't have anything to do with the "game", was a talent show which included some serious violin performances and dancing along with some pretty funny comedy routines. Christian along with Mira Hougen (about 8 years old), John Hougen (5), Kristen and Katherine Fast made Viking shields and hats and presented a little play about the Vikings.
We took a boat tour (on the mail boat) of Lake Geneva where there are many mansions and camps for varying groups along its shores. During the Chicago fire of 1871, many people moved to this location while their homes were being rebuilt (such as the Wrigleys, founder of Nabisco Corp., Otto Young {who bought up most of State St. in Chicago after the fire when others thought it would never be rebuilt} his house has about 18000 sq ft). These homes are mostly owned by the 4-5th generation.
We enjoyed all of our relatives so much. We now have people to visit in Va., Wash state, Iowa, Nebraska, Wi and thanks to Judy Falness - Minneapolis. Saturday evening was Cliff's birthday and we celebrated with an outdoor musical located on the grounds of George Williams Conference Center called "Music in the Air". It was well done and the singing voices were outstanding. We sneaked out of our Hougen meeting after Tom Hougen showed a comedic look at Norway through power point.
We celebrated the birthdays of 3 ninety year olds. These are all my first cousins. Kathrine K who is my dad's sister Laura Hanson's child, Esther Taylor (daughter of my dad's brother Olaf) and Flo Stuen (daughter in law of Dad's sister, Agnes). They are so sharp and fun! Esther is on a walker and Katherine just gets up and down like no tomorrow. She sat on the steps while waiting to get into Yerkes Observatory and just popped right up when we went in. Flo had a fabulous wardrobe! Flo told an interesting story about Rev. Johan Olai Hougen (my grandfather) who was instrumental in raising money for a silver cross to be placed in a church in ? Norway (I will find out the name of the town) because the original one was destroyed or stolen. Money was sent from the US and the people in Norway thought it would be better used for something else. So in the 30's, the plan was resurrected (pardon pun) and the cross was placed in this church. Rev. JO Hougen's name is on a plaque close by where immigrants from Norway to the US were listed. My cousin, Tom Hougen, has pictures of this. Cliff told us when he was in Norway,he visited this church and saw the cross and had no idea that his great grandfather was instrumental in having the cross purchased and placed in the church. (Another reason to know your roots if you can).
Picked up dogs on Sunday am so we missed church service which was beautiful I am told. J and I were concerned about no one coming forward to organize next reunion. However, when we returned from picking up the dogs, we were informed that 6 outstanding relatives from the next generation came forward enthusiastically including Kjell and Nicole Knutsen (Uncle Joel's grandson from Houston). yea! Tania Hanson (my dad's sister, Laura's great grand daughter) agreed to do the website since that is her vocation. Another relative is an event planner so she has a data base of places to have reunions in US including church camps,etc) so I am asking my family to show up in 2014 as it would be a reunion for us too (that includes my kids and John's family as well)
Corby and William came from Chicago to pick up Jenn and Cliff and Christian so we all went to lunch and had a short visit. We hooked up the RV and headed north to our next stop - missing everyone.
Two funny things!
At the reunion, we all ate together in a private room. After watching how our hosts got our attention to make announcements, Christian got up on a chair on July 21st and hit his spoon on this cup and said, "Attention everyone. Today is my daddy's 36 birthday and I want everyone to sing to him." After a round of laughter, we all sang to Cliff who was getting coffee on the other side of the room."
Now the embarrasing one
When were returning from getting our dogs on Sunday morning, we thought Corby had arrived but didn't know where he and the rest of the family were. So we went to our room to make sure everything was out of it and I wrote the following text message to kids.
"We r back. We have gone to our room for a sex. Where r u?" We didn't get a response but did find them. Later I looked at my text and we died laughing. No wonder we got no response since my "sex" should have been "sec. (for second)"
We are going on a hike now and we will try to go to Oshkosh Air Show tomorrow if the weather permits. Will post some pictures asap.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Howdy from the Cheese country! It is Thursday, 19th, and we arrived at George Williams Conference Center on the banks of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Interesting fact - this was constructed for the purpose of educating young men to be leaders hence, the YMCA model was carried out here.
George Williams was the founder of the Y in Europe and the movement spread in the late 19th century. I always love being in buildings that are so old and still in use.
Lake Geneva has a cute little town on its banks called (duh!) Lake Geneva. Very touristy and many water activities one can participate. Don't know if we will have enough time to visit family, hike, swim, take a boat tour and go to the observatory (combining is the only way).
Yesterday was hectic as we drove from St. Louis to Williams Bay, Wi pulling our RV. Our map designated several ways but we thought the fastest way to get from St. Lou to Genoa City (dogs boarded here) was to do the INST 55 route about 30 miles west of Chicago. DON't do this. Traffic at 3 in the PM - traffic lights - going through small towns and when one pulls a RV - you gotta be careful.
To top it off, I called Security at Conference center to reaffirm them letting us leave the RV in the golf course parking lot. Sgt. Segren is so nice and he reassured me to go ahead and do this. Upon calling me back regarding this, my phone kept interrupting me as an incoming "Blocked" call was coming in but I ignored it. (Sgt Segren was calling from a blocked number as well). After I hung up, the "blocked" call kep calling me every 20 seconds even though I would not respond. If I did respond, there was no one on the line. After this happened 80 times (while J drives through outskirts Chicago traffic), I notified At&T. They checked it and saw that it was happening but couldn't get the actual number. They temporarily disconnected my service and reconnected - still getting calls. They said they could change my phone number and gave a recommendation of an app that could trace the number. I called Sgt Segren who apologized thinking it was their system. He called Verizon (I bet Security had more to do then trace this down) which was his provider. Verizon told him that they had no record of him calling my number more than once. So after this continued to happen, I turned it off again, again and again. After 185 callback, it finally quit but what a nerve wracking experience.
Dogs are at the Cedar Dale Pet Resort relaxing and so are we. Getting ready to hike for awhile and then pick up Jennifer, Cliff and Christian at the train station in Harvard, Il since they have no car. They have been in Chicago since Saturday visiting Corby, William and other friends.
Now, unless the storms blows a limb on our RV, we will be fine!
John Hougen, Mira Hougen and Christian preparing to paint
Christian Jackson and John Hougen at George Wms Conf Ctr.
Family at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Debbie, William, Corby, Jennifer, Christian, Cliff and Johnnie
ps thanks to Lindsey for getting me information on a kennel in Green Bay. Reservations for Sept 2 for dogs CHECK!
George Williams was the founder of the Y in Europe and the movement spread in the late 19th century. I always love being in buildings that are so old and still in use.
Lake Geneva has a cute little town on its banks called (duh!) Lake Geneva. Very touristy and many water activities one can participate. Don't know if we will have enough time to visit family, hike, swim, take a boat tour and go to the observatory (combining is the only way).
Yesterday was hectic as we drove from St. Louis to Williams Bay, Wi pulling our RV. Our map designated several ways but we thought the fastest way to get from St. Lou to Genoa City (dogs boarded here) was to do the INST 55 route about 30 miles west of Chicago. DON't do this. Traffic at 3 in the PM - traffic lights - going through small towns and when one pulls a RV - you gotta be careful.
To top it off, I called Security at Conference center to reaffirm them letting us leave the RV in the golf course parking lot. Sgt. Segren is so nice and he reassured me to go ahead and do this. Upon calling me back regarding this, my phone kept interrupting me as an incoming "Blocked" call was coming in but I ignored it. (Sgt Segren was calling from a blocked number as well). After I hung up, the "blocked" call kep calling me every 20 seconds even though I would not respond. If I did respond, there was no one on the line. After this happened 80 times (while J drives through outskirts Chicago traffic), I notified At&T. They checked it and saw that it was happening but couldn't get the actual number. They temporarily disconnected my service and reconnected - still getting calls. They said they could change my phone number and gave a recommendation of an app that could trace the number. I called Sgt Segren who apologized thinking it was their system. He called Verizon (I bet Security had more to do then trace this down) which was his provider. Verizon told him that they had no record of him calling my number more than once. So after this continued to happen, I turned it off again, again and again. After 185 callback, it finally quit but what a nerve wracking experience.
Dogs are at the Cedar Dale Pet Resort relaxing and so are we. Getting ready to hike for awhile and then pick up Jennifer, Cliff and Christian at the train station in Harvard, Il since they have no car. They have been in Chicago since Saturday visiting Corby, William and other friends.
Now, unless the storms blows a limb on our RV, we will be fine!
John Hougen, Mira Hougen and Christian preparing to paint 
Christian Jackson and John Hougen at George Wms Conf Ctr. |
| My cousins celebrating 90th Birthdays Katherine K, Esther Taylor and Flo Stuen |
Monday, July 16, 2012
Day Two of Roots and Routes
Traveled about 500-600 miles on the first part of our journey while we will call Roots and Routes. Going to a family reunion of a couple from Norway and their descendants and attending a step niece's wedding and visiting the Hougen family farm in Norway, Iowa - well, it is definitely tracing our roots. Our routes will take us to places we haven't been (mainly) from upper peninsula Michigan to the Adirondack Mountains of NY to Philly, DC and Amish country.
Today we arrived at Ft. Gibson Lake, Oklahoma and staying at Sequoyah Bay State Park (near Muskogee and Wagoner) where we are one of only 5 RV's in our 10 RV section. There is some sort of green algae in the lake (can't see it except on rocks on shoreline), hot and dry so many people stay away. However, TV reports that they are educating public on the algae which apparently is not as lethal as some may think.
Interesting fact - 225 miles of shoreline 19,000 sq. acres of water (and not one person or boat) and campground sections named after the Five Civilized Indian Tribes. Next research project is to find out why these tribes were called civilized!!
Today we arrived at Ft. Gibson Lake, Oklahoma and staying at Sequoyah Bay State Park (near Muskogee and Wagoner) where we are one of only 5 RV's in our 10 RV section. There is some sort of green algae in the lake (can't see it except on rocks on shoreline), hot and dry so many people stay away. However, TV reports that they are educating public on the algae which apparently is not as lethal as some may think.
Interesting fact - 225 miles of shoreline 19,000 sq. acres of water (and not one person or boat) and campground sections named after the Five Civilized Indian Tribes. Next research project is to find out why these tribes were called civilized!!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
We have had a whirlwind vacation with family last week and now we are alone again. However, when the gang leaves belongings, then it is inevitable that we meet again. Today we met Jennifer and Christian in Uvalde (how convenient is that!) to return their left items namely a guitar and a make up bag (who can live without the specialty bag?) After a lunch at the Oasis and some time spent relating stories of Cliff as a youngster to his son (he really wanted to hear the bad ones), my friend Carol and I shopped at WalMart and HEB, packed our cold items in an ice chest and headed for Leakey.
Upon returning home, the bottom fell out of the skies. After the clouds cleared, I noted that our 16 x 20 foot barn was installed today. Haven't had a chance to get in it yet.
Tomorrow is cleaning house day and mailing shoes, exercise gear, etc back to their owners. We will start on our trip to Wisconsin on the 15th and return in mid September after attending the wedding of our niece, Lindsay and James in Green Bay on Labor Day weekend. On the return trip, we will visit Corby in Chicago if we can beat the crowd to the only campground close to Chicago that doesn't take reservations. Or else it will be WalMart parking lot, here we come.
Upon returning home, the bottom fell out of the skies. After the clouds cleared, I noted that our 16 x 20 foot barn was installed today. Haven't had a chance to get in it yet.
Tomorrow is cleaning house day and mailing shoes, exercise gear, etc back to their owners. We will start on our trip to Wisconsin on the 15th and return in mid September after attending the wedding of our niece, Lindsay and James in Green Bay on Labor Day weekend. On the return trip, we will visit Corby in Chicago if we can beat the crowd to the only campground close to Chicago that doesn't take reservations. Or else it will be WalMart parking lot, here we come.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
On the road again
To begin with, this is a working sample of the components of following a blog. So this is a checkpoint only
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)