Bayview represents.

So while I was hanging out in the park working a few days back, I met this guy named John. He was one of the people asking about the van. He was a pretty fun guy. I was lamenting to him my hardship of finding dog fun things in the city and things to do other than eat. He let me know that I was in luck as Fido Fest was on the next day at the park on the lake. Fido fest was really fun. Tons of vendors and every person there had at least one dog. Fido fest is a fundraiser to shoot the people that abuse dogs. At least it should be. There is a pretty sad problem in Wisconsin with illegal dog fighting. It really broke my heart with the number of tents set up to try and get the word out about the problem.

Fido Fest! 

This guy actually had five beagles. All rescues. 

Moving on from Fido fest we checked out the 'Brady Street Experience'. Just like every other town, it is a street filled with hippy crap at yuppy prices. Wrapped that one up fairly quickly.
I actually ran into John at the dog festival again and he let me know that there was a bike race in town later that afternoon so I headed out of the hippy area to go check that out.
The racing was pretty lackluster however as the majority of racers had blacklisted the event due to the organizer not paying out as promised over the years. Funny thing though I ran into John and his family again at the race!

John is trying out for the cutters next year.

At this point John let me know that it was pretty much a rule in Wisconsin that we needed to break bread and drink a bunch of booze together. So we did. His family invited me back to stay at their place and sleep in their camper. IT WAS AWESOME.
It was a great night of chinese food, beer and laughs. Both John and Stephanie are born and raised Wisconsinites so listening to their stories was pretty fun. Their entire lineage/family tree lives within a 2 miles radius it seemed.
After waking up this morning and attempting to put some life back into myself after drinking way too much, John pulled out his photo album showing the surfing he does on Lake Michigan. I have to say I was skeptical at first but they actually do surf on waves at times over 6 feet. It looked pretty damn cold though. 

The Petersen's. 

Home of the mega slice.

I arrived in Chicago to meet the sugar momma!  Chicago is a big big city. Its pretty overwhelming. That is all I have to report at this moment however.