Kenosha Landmarks

This week I had the opportunity to go back and visit the town I grew up in - Kenosha, Wisconsin.

I was invited to a blogger event in Milwaukee and I jumped at the chance since it would allow me to spend a little time visiting Kenosha too.  My best friend from childhood LuAnne Yenawine lives a few hours from Milwaukee so she drove over to pick me up and then we headed down to Kenosha.  I was so excited and it was so fun to see LuAnne again and spend the two days with her.

I knew I was in Kenosha as soon as I saw this.  Looks a little different now but the same sign!

 Our first stop was our old church building.  Looks the same except for the new phase they added on.  The surrounding area looks totally different!  The church is now surround by houses/apartments.

 I really knew I was in Kenosha when I saw this!

 We drove through the beautiful Petrifying Springs Park and the leaves were just beginning to change.

From there we headed into town to see some of the old sites!

We weren't looking for it but we found Woodhaven - our old Girl Scout Day Camp, right in the middle of the city!

 Then there was Tenuta's - a landmark in Kenosha.  I don't remember it that well but LuAnne did and she said it smelled exactly the same - the place has more inventory than any other store I have ever seen!  It was unbelieveable!!

 Pioneer Women had featured their Italian Seasoning in one of her recipes so I had to pick myself up a bag!

From there we headed down towards the lake.  It was a cool, blustery day.
I always loved the huge, rocks that line the lake front.  I remember many a fourth of July spent sitting on them watching the fireworks and throwing sparklers into the lake.

 We even saw a rainbow.

 We drove through Simmons Island on our way downtown.  I had forgotten about all the old beautiful bath houses.

And then we hit the harbor and that was a huge change!  The huge AMC plant is now gone and replaced with hundreds of apartments and condos!  The harbor looked smaller than I remember.

 Friday morning was another blustery day and the lake was really wavy and choppy.  We went down by the lighthouse to watch the amazing waves crash against the rocks.

 I got a little too close and turned my back on one and got a little wet!

 Downtown Kenosha - pretty much a ghost town.  More than half the stores were empty.

 The old Penney's and Barden Department stores.  I loved buying candy at the candy counter in Penney's on my lunch break from Bradford.

 

The old Eagles Club where we had our senior prom.

 And the Lakeside Theater - where I saw Gone with the Wind for the first time!

 

The old Elks Club where I learned to swim in the pool in the basement and enjoyed many dinners in the dining room.  It is totally empty and in horrible shape.

 The old municipal building across from the harbor.

We also visited the old neighborhood, Bradford, Library Square and Kemper but they deserves posts of their own!