What a fun day!

Since our daughter is camping with friends, Don and I were able to do whatever we wanted to yesterday. Alyssa is not big on gardening or shopping. Come to think of it, neither is Don. However, he was awesome and went to the Mitchell Park Domes in Milwaukee and shopping in Cedarburg with me yesterday. What a guy!

I haven't been to the Domes for years. They weren't quite what I remember, but the inside was beautiful, nonetheless. The first Dome we toured was the tropical one. Even though it's 140 feet across, it seemed smaller than I remembered. It was big enough for a pond, small waterfall, and bridge, though. There are even some fish in the pond.

There were a few different types of birds flying around, and I spent a good amount of time trying to photograph them. This was the most colorful bird. I have no idea what it's called, but it was big on Halloween colors.

Neither Don and I are big on desert plants, but the Desert Dome was nice. It always amazes me that so many plants with thorns can be housed in so small a place.

The Show Dome was done in "Riverboat Tales" while we were there. It looked like Tom Sawyer was the inspiration. I enjoyed how they put flower and foliage colors together in the beds. I even took a picture of the gazebo so that Don would remember what he'll be building for me in our backyard. Wasn't that nice of me?



After the Domes we drove to Cedarburg. We found a park and had a picnic lunch - how romantic (wink, wink). From there we started walking and visited several shops. Their Washington Street has really been done nicely. We went into several antique shops looking for cameras, but didn't find anything that "tripped my trigger". I found a bead shop that I want to take my sister to, though. We recently took a jewelry making class that we both really enjoyed. This shop had some unique beads that I think would be fun to encorporate into some jewelry. Don didn't enjoy it a much as I did, but he's a trooper!

So far I'm enjoying my vacation. Still a couple of days left, yeah!
Jill