We woke up in Rockford, Illinois this morning which just happened to be home of the sock monkey.
Red heeled socks were invented here and there are sculptures of sock monkeys all over town.
A short drive north on the motorway, we crossed the state line into Wisconsin.
When I spotted a Sci Fi Cafe on the map, we knew we had to take a short detour to Burlington so we could check in out.
Though the cafe was filled with toys aliens and supernatural exhibits, the staff seemed to be lacking in any sense of humour, so we ordered our coffee to go.
We spotted this dreamy retro car nearby.
Our next stop was the Mars Cheese Castle, a castle which wasn't made of cheese but sold lots of it.
We went for lunch at The Safe House, a restaurant for spies in Milwaukee. You enter the restaurant through an unmarked door in a back alley which leads you in to a tiny room.
You then punch yourself in and a secret door opens in a bookcase.
You then walk through a long tunnel and another wall opens where you're met by a hostess who shows you to your table.
I ordered the 'we better stop meeting like this' veggie burger.
After dinner we explored the rest of the restaurant. It was gigantic with tunnels, hidden rooms and fun things to find everywhere.
After lunch we walked down to the riverfront where there was a Bronze Fonz.
We then went for a drive along the lake which was so pretty.
We stopped at Kopp's Frozen Custard and ordered a scoop of butter brickle.
It tasted like a creamier version of ice cream but Tom didn't want to eat it because it was custard and I was only able to manage half of this giant scoop on my own.
We passed a housing estate called The Shire on our way out of town and couldn't resist having a look.
All the streets had names from the hobbit like Misty Mountain Drive and Brandywine Lane.
There was even a tiny little hobbit house with a light inside.
That evening we slept in a hot air balloon in a double height motel room with the balloon suspended from the ceiling. It was so cool!
