Missing Milwaukee...

We love Milwaukee.  We've had such fun living on the east side.  We adore our 1930's Art Deco apartment and love going to the Oriental or Downer Theaters to see the latest independent movie.  We have great restaurants to choose from if we want a meal out, and a funky little grocery store if we need something in a pinch.  The east side is a wonderful place to live...especially in the summertime.

Almost every morning Lance and I get up early to walk along the lake.  We usually walk 3 miles which takes us about 1 hour.  We have several routes that we can take, but here is our favorite...

We leave our apartment, the Park Lane, somewhere around 6:30 in the morning.

We walk past the Shorecrest Hotel, turn the corner on LaFayette Hill and

walk past the Oak Leaf trail...

then down LaFayette Hill until we reach Lincoln Memorial Drive.

We stroll pass Colectivo...Lance's favorite coffee shop, turn left, and head North 

along beautiful Lake Michigan.

As we walk we can look up at the North Point Water Tower, and soon after, we pass the Northpoint Snack Bar.  They serve delicious burgers and chocolate malts.

We hike past Bradford Beach and all the volleyball nets...

and keep walking until we finally arrive at Lake Park Bistro.  We climb over 100 steps to get to the top and then we head south towards home.

We hike past the golf course,

cross Lion's Bridge in Lake Park and look down at the Ravine below.

Then, we walk past the light house and Back Bay park.

When we see this sunflower climbing the lamppost we know we're almost home.  

The Final Countdown!

Yeah!  We finally got all our documents for our residency visa  in place and mailed them off to Gringo Visas last week Thursday.  They received them on Saturday, August 23rd, and have hopefully begun processing the information.  In the meantime we have been busy cleaning the apartment and packing items that we plan to give away.  This week we will also be delivering the last few sold items...our T.V., couch, and bed.

On Friday we move to the Plaza Hotel where we will stay for two days and on Sunday we will have a going away party for close family and friends.  After that we will be traveling for 3 weeks.  First, we will go to the driftless area in southwestern Wisconsin, then, The Clearing in Door County, and finally a week in Monterey, CA.  We'll write more about these exciting adventures in the weeks to come.

For those of you who are new to the blogging world, you can follow us by email.  Simply add your email address to the box on the right hand side and all updated posts will be sent directly to your email.  You can also check out Lance and Kathy's Pinterest Page which has numerous pictures of Cuenca, Ecuador.

 A view of Cuenca with the beautiful mountains in the background.  

 

11 More Days...

We were very busy last week.  Lance and I finally sold our last household items.  Our dear friend, Sande, came down from La Crosse to purchase our area rug and silver lamp.   She was also kind enough to take 2 large pictures and some smaller items that we needed to unload.  Thanks Sande!  Now there are just a few odds and ends that need to be disposed of and we will be good to go.  Of course we also need to clean the apartment, but we are trying to do a little bit of that everyday as we slide into the final two weeks of our remaining time in Milwaukee.

We also began work on our residency visa.  Long ago we decided to hire Maite Duran of Gringo Visas to assist us in this matter.  She will help us obtain our visa before leaving the United States.  There are multiple documents that we need to have in place before mailing them all to her.  Once she receives them she will translate them to Spanish and/or do whatever else needs to be done.  When the visa is ready we will need to drive to Chicago to have our passports stamped at the Ecuadorian Consulate.  (At least that is what we think happens in Chicago, but we aren't entirely sure.)

Lance and I also finally started packing our storage lockers last week.  We gathered all the clothes that we didn't think we would need for our upcoming trips, folded them, and put them into space bags that my friend Tammy gave to us.  Space bags come in all different sizes and are used to store clothing items.  You hook up a vacuum cleaner to the bag and it removes all the air so that they shrink down to a smaller size.

This is how the clothes look before they are placed in the space bag.

Once they are packed inside the bag you carefully zipper it closed...making sure it is sealed tight.

Then, you attach the vacuum and remove all the air.  It's hard to tell by looking at this picture, but the clothes are considerably smaller with the air removed.  We can fit twice the amount in our suitcase using this method.

Everything we are taking will be packed into 3 large suitcases and 5 storage lockers.  We will also have 2 carry on suitcases.  The storage lockers look like this...

They have wheels on one end which allows us to roll them when they are tilted up.  My son Adam will have to bring us to the airport in his truck because they won't fit in the car.  Four pieces of luggage are included with our tickets.  We will have to pay $175.00 each for the four additional pieces.

It's all a lot of work, but we're sure it will be worth it in the end.    

21 Days to Go!

As of today, we only have 21 days before we officially become homeless.  For the past four months we have been selling everything that we own.  We will be leaving our apartment at the end of August and will be traveling for the next 6 weeks around Wisconsin...with a side trip to Monterey, California.  After that, it's off to a new life in Cuenca, Ecuador!  We can hardly wait!  Below is a picture of our Cuenca Office.  At one time it was our lovely dining room.  Now, it holds all the boxes of items we are selling or giving away.  On the wall are various charts that help to keep us organized.