Ladewig.com

I’m heading up to Green Bay with my dad in a couple weeks for the first Packers Fan Fest. On the way there and back, I’m going to stop at a couple cemeteries to do some genealogy research. It wouldn’t be a road trip without a cemetery visit.

One cemetery is Lincoln Memorial Cemetery (formerly Wanderer’s Rest) in Milwaukee. My great-granduncle, Emil Ladewig, was buried there in 1911 after succumbing to typhoid fever. I’ve been to the cemetery before, but was not able to locate the grave, so this time I planned ahead and sent an inquiry to the cemetery.

Within a few days I received a response which included a map of the cemetery and approximate locations for Emil as well as his mother-in-law, Lena Hopp Kunkel, along with detailed info on the plot locations. It turns out I probably walked right past his grave on my previous visits without noticing… because he doesn’t have a marker!

It is sad to think of all the graves that have been forgotten over time, those that no one ever visits. But for those graves, there is at least a marker to tell people who is buried there, so that eventually someone may rediscover that person. But to have a grave that doesn’t even have a marker… that is especially sad. Maybe someday we can get get enough family members to chip in and place a marker at the site.

I’m finally on the waiting list for season tickets for the Packers. Yesterday I received a letter from the team letting me know that my priority number is 67439. So I should be getting my offer to buy tickets any day now… in my dreams.

We decided to take advantage of the three-day President’s Day weekend (holiday for Kristin, vacation day for me) and spend a relaxing weekend out of town. In the past, we’ve used this weekend for outlet mall trips, but this year we went to Rend Lake Resort.

Rend Lake is the second largest lake in Illinois, located just off I-57 and south of Mount Vernon. There is a highway rest stop that we’ve visited on several trips, and it always struck us as the prettiest rest stop we’ve been to, as it sits next to the lake. A few weeks ago, the Post-Dispatch ran a story about weekend winter getaways that included Rend Lake Resort. So I booked one of their Jacuzzi rooms in what they call a “boatel” and we were off!

The weather was pretty chilly and overcast, but it was a great weekend. The room was spacious with a fireplace (which came in handy) and plenty of space. We visited the nearby Pheasant Hollow Winery and hit a couple local restaurants (including a pizza place in Christopher called DiMaggio’s pizza which tasted very much like pizza from Kenosha, yummm!), but otherwise we just relaxed and caught up on reading.

Pictures from the trip are online. They are all pretty dark and gray owing to the weather, but they give you an idea what the resort is like.

Kristin and I went with my dad to the auto show yesterday. There were a few interesting cars like the Chrysler Firepower, but overall not much to write home about. Aside from Chrysler and Infiniti, the majority of the cars at the show were pretty blah.

It seemed like we spent more time in line than we did looking at cars. In a bit of counter-programming against the Super Bowl, the auto show brought in two people from Days of our Lives to sign autographs. Eric Winter (who plays Rex Brady) and Kyle Lowder (who plays Brady Black) each spent a couple hours at the show, signing autographs and posing for pictures. So of course we waited in line. Both of them were really great with the fans, taking the time to answer questions and pose for photos. Would it have killed them to bring Farah Fath or some of the women from the show?

Because of the long line for Kyle, we didn’t get home until an hour or two before the game, so we were rushing a bit to get our Super Bowl snacks ready. It was just us and my dad, so we didn’t go all out, but we munched on chips and taco dip (yumm!), shrimp cocktail, grilled shrimp skewers, brown sugar smokies, and other tasty treats.

The game was OK. I was pulling for the Eagles, but I didn’t really care that much. Overall I was really disappointed in the ads. There were a few good ones like the Pepsi ad with Carson Kressley and the CareerBuilder.com ads (monkeys are always funny), but that was about it. We were disappointed that Budweiser didn’t show the Clydesdale Snowball Fight ad that everyone was talking about before the game.