June news

Happy 4th of July! I thought I’d take a few moments today to share some June photos and moments.

John and I went to an Illinois alumni event held in the metropolitan club at the Sears (now Willis) tower. The talk was very interesting, about rare book crimes, and the view was spectacular!

We aren’t in that part of the loop too often so I took a pic from the ground as well.

Summer movies at Millennium Park started with a real crown pleaser, the blues brothers. What a bunch of stars in that movie. In honor of Aretha Franklin’s greatness, here’s her singing Think in the movie.

My Chicago history book club held a non-traditional meeting last week. Instead of meeting at a member’s house, we went on a tour of several Bridgeport spots including the old stockyards gate.

The stretch of the Chicago River seen below is called bubbly creek because during the heyday of the stockyards, animal carcasses were thrown in the river, causing bubbles to ride to the surface as the bodies decomposed. The river has cleaned up a lot since! The area is still industrial, with construction materials plants nearby.

We also walked through Palmaisano Park. The site is a former quarry, where there is now a pond, and a hill that is on top of an old dumping site. Really nice park!

John and I went on an organized bike trip called Tour de Shore in June with our friend Andrea. We did just the first day of the trip, which was Chicago to Miller Beach, Indiana, where we had dinner and hung out with her and Mike, and spent the night at their place there. I thought this beer garden named “Lake Effekt” was pretty funny. Lake effect is a weather term that refers to snow that hits the south and east sides of Lake Michigan (and maybe the other Great Lakes). The wind picks up moisture from the lakes and turns it into snow, so those areas get hit with snow even when there’s no actual snow storm moving through the area. This is how one typically hears about it: “New Buffalo, Michigan, got a foot of snow.” “Oh right, lake effect.”

The next day we rode the South Shore Line back to Chicago. This is a terrible photo but it shows how nicely they accommodate bikes. There is one car per train that has half the seats removed (in summer only) and bike racks installed. No extra charge for bikes!

Liam is spending the summer in champaign-Urbana but has come home several weekends. Here he is about ready to enjoy some tacos.

Our day lilies bloomed right on schedule for the Puerto Rican festival as usual!

Here I am enjoying my morning walk along the very nicely landscaped Midway Plaisance before work.

Miles and I went to Irazu for dinner one night after he got off work.

And we went out for ice cream and pie but forgot to take photos of the food, so I took a photo of the nice plates and bowls at Spinning J’s.

The lagoon at Humboldt Park during a walk last week was so still, the surface was like a mirror reflecting the sunset.

The way the morning sun trickles into the backyard nicely makes shadows of the vines on the back fence.

The lake has warmed up to a toasty 67 degrees F / 20 degrees C! I went for a swim Saturday with Sarah then again on Monday, with no wetsuit either time. It’s very invigorating and you warm up really fast out there. There’s a buoy at the 1/4 mile marker, and another at the 1/2 mile market. I swim to the 1/4 mile buoy and back in.