To Racine, Wisconsin, Sept 29, 2019

  We realized last night that we needed to arrive in Racine, early enough to visit the Racine Art Museum because it is closed on Mondays, the day we had planned our visit. So, we left Elyria 

before the sun came up and drove about 400 miles to arrive in Racine early enough to spend part of the afternoon at the museum.

   Most of the drive was in rain. Mark drove around Chicago which had a lot of construction and traffic jams, despite it being a Sunday. (Jecca and Willy were also driving in rain back to Concord after going to a wedding in Maryland)

   Joanne Polster recommended that we visit the Racine museum for its crafts which is why we decided to stop here. She used to visit it when she worked for an arts and crafts council. It is a very accessible museum of only 2 floors and not large galleries, but has one of the largest craft collections in the U.S. The exhibits were about the 1969 "Objects: USA" exhibit in Washington, D.C. "which launched a new chapter in contemporary craft" according to their pamphlet. It focused on huge shifts in craft - the scale, materials, topics, and intent. It pushed the envelope in the craft world as it combined craft with fine art.

 We thoroughly enjoyed the museum and are grateful that Joanne pointed it out to us.
    We were really hungry when we were done with the museum and the drive, and went to an Irish pub that dates back to the 1880s where Barbara had an Irish stew and Mark had a reuben. Then, we checked into the Hilton Harbor View on the docks and then took a drive, still in the rain, to check out the beach and various neighborhoods on the water. The city seems very livable and beautiful.
   Next stop - the hot tub for the bones/muscles!