Hooray for visits

My best friend from junior high and high school is coming down from the Twin Cities to visit this weekend. It hasn't been too long since we last saw each other - January, I think - but this time we're going to Kenosha. She hasn't been back there in three years. I'm very much looking forward to this - I'm excited about showing her everything that has changed ... there's now a Starbucks where a 24-hour diner used to be; there's a giant cement atrocity for storing boats along the lake, which practically makes me burst into tears of horror whenever I see it; the city's biggest and oldest hospital has been demolished and a new one built out by I-94; 8 million identical condos have sprung up blocks from the lake; they've enclosed Shirls' ice cream parlor so now you go inside to order (THE HORROR!); and about a thousand other little things that I've probably forgotten about. Oh, and my parents have no idea she's coming. We figure the surprise will be worth the slight inconvenience of having to prepare the guest room on short notice.