This was a quiet week for us, so I thought I’d focus on Miles’s road trip. He and Dylan went on a road trip from Chicago to the Outer Banks, North Carolina, as part of a family vacation that her family takes there every year. They drove there in two days, stopping overnight in Pittsburgh.
Here’s the view from the house balcony. Pretty nice! 
Creature report! I think that’s a crab Miles has befriended. 
These feet have been in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans already this year! 
Miles and Dylan at the beach
It all looks pretty idyllic – but you don’t see a very dark side – Miles reported that he was only one of 3 coffee drinkers out of about 30 people on the trip! Still not sure how they resolved the coffee situation every day but we did discuss how that’s yet another nice thing about Sydney – no need to choose between beach proximity and coffee! After about a week at the beach, they started driving back to Chicago, this time via Asheville, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, and then home. Basically they’re going straight west, then will turn north at Nashville. They sent pics from their stay last night in Asheville – lots of murals downtown in support of Black Lives Matter.
Outdoor dining in Asheville 
Maybe we can get some scoop from Miles once he gets home regarding what is going on here. Dylan sent me the pics then wrote a reassuring “snake is gone” text! 
I’m sure other parents here can relate, but you worry about the pandemic, and the violence during protests, and them driving 2000 miles, and then you get a photo of fun times with a constrictor… 
The snake was named Raskolnikov. Glad he was friendly!
Fluffy creature report! There is a total bumper crop of ducklings in the park. You may find this hard to believe but most of the time I don’t even photograph them! This mallard family was pretty sweet though, and right by the main path one morning last week. 
This bunny was really enjoying playing with this hosta behind St Mary’s hospital today when we walked past.
In the banal but kinda funny news department, an order I placed a while ago arrived today. After all the toilet roll shortages at the beginning of the stay home orders, and my desire to move to a recycled material – and while we don’t technically have NO toilet roll in stores any more, there’s still no choice of brands or types, I saw an article about a company called Who Gives a Crap that sells toilet paper and paper towels out of recycled materials and donates 50% of profits to help build toilets for those in need. Win win! I think they are an Aussie company but they also operate in the UK and US. When I first went to their site, they were having supply issues but then emailed me to say their supplies were back and I could place an order.
So I got one box of recycled materials and bamboo paper towels 
And 48 rolls of toilet paper! 
I am done with not being prepared! As long as the next emergency to hit means we need toilet roll and hand sanitizer, we can be a resource for the whole block!
Also today, we walked to Liam’s house! It took a little over an hour, so wasn’t technically too far, but as Liam put it, crossing under the highway and over the river is a big psychological divide, and we never would have thought of walking there except for pandemic / not much else to do, and not having the car! It was great to see him and Kat and hang out on the patio.
Today was the virtual high school graduation ceremony for all Chicago Public Schools students. So there’s been a lot of parties around town, signs in yards, people making the event special for their kids despite the commencement ceremonies not being held in person this year. So today we heard a lot of honking and assumed it was graduation related, but this honking went on for hours. Like from 3-7pm.
After dinner we went for our usual walk to the park and discovered that the honking was from what seems to be a warm up to the Puerto Rican parade on Division! The usual festival in the park is cancelled this year but everyone was driving all around the park with flags and honking their horns. Here’s a very small taste below – it was hard to catch the full sights and sounds! Will be interesting to see if there is another festival next weekend and this was indeed a warm-up.
To be clear the beach = coffee for a LOT of people in Sydney! That looks like a beautiful beach house Miles and Dylan were at… fab to be so close to the water and it’s always nice to see American cities for together on a road trip map like that. For some reason I wouldn’t have thought a stop in Nashville possible as I had it too far west! Funny about the Puerto Rican parade… I remember the noise from a few trips!
Too right about the map – I was pretty surprised that Pittsburg was the half way point between Chicago and the Outer Banks, NC!
Great to see Miles enjoying h ou s vacation…sounds and looks like a wonderful trip…Good to hear graduation ceremonies are going ahead…unlike here !!! Love the tree canopy 🌻😊
On Mon 15 Jun 2020, 02:55 Cindy and the Kennymen, wrote:
> cndkmen posted: ” This was a quiet week for us, so I thought I’d focus on > Miles’s road trip. He and Dylan went on a road trip from Chicago to the > Outer Banks, North Carolina, as part of a family vacation that her family > takes there every year. They drove there in two days” >
Thanks, Phyllis! In Chicago the graduation ceremonies are all virtual – online events. CPS called in the big celebs though which was really nice, Oprah, Obama and the star of Hamilton among others gave speeches as part of it!
Beautiful beach, and fun times with a boa constrictor! I applaud you on stocking up on toilet paper. I hope you like that kind–you have lots of it now. Such a cute bunny rabbit!
Thanks! Yes – 48 rolls was quite a commitment, let’s hope it goes well! We saw some baby bunnies yesterday too but they were too fast for a photo 🙂
Looks like a lovely trip for Miles and Dylan. Thanks for the lovely photos and map of the route..
Thanks! They arrived back safe last night. The car was also very clean and the gas tank full, and most importantly sounds like they had a great trip!