Memorial Day Weekend Trip 2024 — Part Two

On Sunday, it was raining. We went to the Riviera Water Fountain to see the official DND plaque in the ground outside the fountain. We walked around Lake Geneva’s downtown area for some shopping and lunch at Popeye’s on Lake Geneva. Later, we visited the Geneva Lake Museum which had historical exhibits on local history, as well as a special exhibit highlighting the 50th anniversary of the creation of DND.

Afterwards, the rain let up just in time for us to board our full lake cruise by the Lake Geneva Cruise Line! We cruised around the lake learning about local history and seeing beautiful historic homes on the edge of the lake. We then ate dinner at a pizza place called Oakfire. Partway through our meal, a tornado siren sounded, and due to a tornado warning, we had to go down to the basement along with all of the other patrons and staff for safety. When we were allowed back up, we quickly finished our food and went back to our hotel.

On Monday, we drove to a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Niles, Illinois. The one in Illinois is approximately a half size smaller than the original. The original in Italy was used as a bell tower, while the one in Illinois functions as a water tower. There were statistics on the side to show that the one in Italy is 177 feet tall, and the one in Illinois is 94 feet tall. The tower in Italy was finished in 1334, whereas the one in Illinois was completed 600 years later in 1934. The Leaning Tower of Niles was built in 3 years, and the one in Italy took 163 years to be built! We of course had to take photos of each other trying to hold the tower up! It was quite windy during our photo session!

We ate Chicago-style hot dogs at Portillo’s, and then made our way home concluding our short Wisconsin and Illinois Memorial Day weekend trip!