June news roundup

Buckle up, readers, I am about to blow the time / space continuum wide open. This post starts the week of Miles’s graduation but instead of going to France and Italy with John, it will follow the Chicago storyline.

The evening before John headed off to Cannes, we went out to dinner at a restaurant that we really enjoy, Elske. Elske is “contemporary Danish” and is also where we celebrated my birthday last year. This time our celebration was 30 years since we met! When we asked the server for a wine recommendation, she asked if we would like a surprise, and brought us these orange wines, which were very fresh and clear tasting.

The next day right as John was heading off for the airport, the Puerto Rican parade began staging on Western Avenue and our street was flooded with festival goers. We walked over to Western for John to get his ride to the airport. Very festive!

West Town bikes, where we’ve gotten a lot of bikes and bike parts, had a great spot at the start of the parade.

The following Tuesday, I joined Sarah at my first movie at Millennium Park of the year. There was a great turnout as always, and we enjoyed the movie “Love, Simon.”

Also on the parade day, Chicago’s test program in electric scooters started. The area just west of us has been designated a priority area, and we are in the next adjacent available area. These electric scooters are the latest new shared form of transportation in Chicago. They can be checked out for a small fee, and you take one to where ever you need to go, and then park it there, checking it back into the system again. The scooters are dockless, unlike Divvy, so they can be left anywhere, but the guidelines ask people to leave them near a bike rack. These ones were very neatly stacked by the bike rack at the Damen L station – people are being very neat with them (I’m looking at you, Washington DC, where scooters are left askew to say the least!) but I think these might have just been straightened up by the people who work for the scooter company. And… it’s been very rainy.

Bunny sighting! Liam, was this the photo you took? It was in my regular photo stream. I’ve been seeing bunnies too, all around Ukrainian Village when I run in the morning.

It was also very chilly, and a week ago I bought a jean jacket (this was me taking a photo in the store to send to Miles and Dylan for fashion advice – they gave it two thumbs up) and two sweaters. Within 24 hours the temperature had risen about 25 degrees F. YOU’RE WELCOME, CHICAGO!

Someone made some very cool chalk patterns outside the Damen L station.

And this building, also near the Damen L, is always nice but especially so with a dramatic sky.

This morning Sarah and I did a pilates class at Millennium Park. My abs are going to hurt tomorrow…

And on my way home, I saw either new or new-to-me additions to the row of murals along Hubbard.

And finally, happy pride month! The parade and festival are tomorrow in the Andersonville / Boystown / Lake View neighborhoods. Have fun, everyone!