Early fall roundup

We’ve had a really good start to Fall so far this year, in fact so much I haven’t taken a break to do a blog post! Here’s some catching up of what’s been going on since early September. First, this morning John joined me at the Comer Race for the Kids 5K – making this his first running race! He did great (and kept my pace up!) We both finished in the top half of our age group and did well overall, and most of all just enjoyed the run. It is a really nice route through the UChicago campus and Hyde Park, and with the leaves changing was very pretty. We ran into our friend Jeremy before the race, and while catching up we were approached by the Chicago White Sox mascot South Paw, who posed for a photo with us.

This is cultural high season in Chicago – with Open House Chicago on this weekend and lots more stuff coming up. We also went to the MCA yesterday – this time last year I don’t think these hanging baskets held plants yet? It’s really cool now.

Fall weather makes for really nice evening walks to Humboldt Park. Those dots in the water are ducks – lined up for some reason!

Of course a probably excessive amount of attention in the last month and a half has been focused on my birthday. Here I am at the firepit at Elske, a Danish restaurant where John and I went to celebrate my birthday. Really amazing food, and we had a lovely table outside – and didn’t need the firepit. I’m just sitting there for fun.

On my birthday weekend, we drove to South Haven then rode bikes along the Kal-Haven trail to Kalamazoo, then went to a friend’s house for dinner. Then we did the reverse the next day. Here are some views along the way.

Much of the trail is shaded. It’s all really flat, with a slight uphill grade from South Haven (by Lake Michigan) to Kalamazoo (inland).

Very pastoral!

John taking some pics.

We weren’t sure what the yellow crop was but it was pretty.

Trees are changing here. These are by my office.

Earlier in October, we went to a 5-hour interview marathon here in Chicago, in the ballroom at the end of Navy Pier. It was very cool, and the 5 hours went so fast! Many artists and local cultural people were interviewed. The ceiling has these cool steel girders and lights.

This is the view looking west toward O’Hare from the el station by my office. One evening recently the cloud cover intensified the sunset, like a curtain was coming down on the day.