July adventures

After our fun holiday weekend, John had some work back in Chicago and I stayed put for a few days. It was quiet and I worked a lot but also had some nice beach time!

On Friday the Groves arrived by car and then John arrived by train. By morning Sarah arrived by train too, bringing the full Carpe swim group together! After picking Sarah up in new buffalo, we visited farmette, a very nice bakery, cafe, and produce farm/garden.

After farmette we drove to the lavender farm for a repeat visit! Delightful again!

We continued on to the round barn brewery and walked through the woods to tabor hills winery. We’d seen this area from the tabor hills side on memorial day weekend but the walk was very cool too! And literally cooler too – it was a very steamy day and the shade helped!

Then back at the house after some rest time we had a game of mukky (name? It’s a skittles game of knocking down numbered pins, very fun!) while John made dinner.

After dinner, we swam then took a quick walk. Sadly, there was no visible sunset – there were clouds in the horizon.

We returned to Chicago early in the week and did some fun things like seeing Indiana Jones and the last crusade at millennium park with Liam. I love the role that rubbings play in Indiana jones movies. Somebody has always thought to take a rubbing of an artifact that turns out to be a crucial clue.

On Thursday I met Annette at her office, which is in a building called The Old Post Office. It’s massive.

It’s been renovated into offices and has a lot of very cool postal themes. One wall is all mounted postcards.

There’s a really amazing roof garden, quite large and hard to capture in one shot! There are pickleball and basketball courts up there!

I didn’t get a photo if Annette and me together but here we are last winter, at an REM cover band performance of Fables of the Reconstruction, sooo good!

Last weekend, Liam asked for help installing shelves in his kitchen as a birthday gift. The project went smoothly despite his landlord’s comment ‘who knows what’s behind those walls’ proving true. Anchors were applied sporadically and the shelves are sturdy.

And it’s nice that Liam will turn 29 this weekend with some excellent shelves and a place for his air conditioner! A standalone cart was blocking a spot that was better used for the a/c, which is crucial this really hot summer.

Speaking of birthdays, happy birthday to Debbie (today!) and Kathleen (also Saturday!) 🎂 🎉 🥳