Mid August Catch Up

Hello! Realizing I have photos from before and after our vacation to Colorado to share. Way back in June, Miles came to Chicago for 2 weeks. We had a great time catching up with him, and he was also able to visit a lot of his friends.

One weekend during his stay, we had already made plans to visit friends Karen and John in Union Pier, Michigan. It was great catching up with them! We kayaked along the little river shown below that feeds into Lake Michigan, had some really great food (thank you, Karen!) and rode bikes to the lake for sunset – a must when visiting Michigan from Chicago, where we can see sunrise over the lake but not sunset. Their dog is also very nice!

The native plants in our front parkway area, the area between the sidewalk and the street, are doing great this year. Here’s a glimpse from June. The top two show milkweed, which the monarch butterflies really love.

We celebrated an anniversary with dinner near the river and then a nice evening walk along the riverwalk. This happened right around the time John got a new phone and our selfies taken with it came with some shock at seeing ourselves in such high definition!

This next section is SUMMER WATER ACTIVITIES. First, some photos of our kayaking trip today – John and I paddled on the Chicago River north from the boathouse (designed by Jeanne Gang) behind Lane Tech. We went north for about an hour then we turned back and went south back to the starting point. It was really nice and John really got some nature photos of a great blue heron in action! Next, a photo of the Seize the Carpe swimming club at Tobey Prinz Beach. And finishing up, we went night kayaking downtown with Liam one evening in early July. No photos of the actual kayaking since we are all too afraid of dropping our phones in the river! But it was a very nice time and I thought I’d share Liam in the back yard and a great view of the latest Jeanne Gang building from the river.

Eric visited us from Denver in July and we had a great time visiting microbreweries that he had identified and going to a Mikaya McCraven concert at Thalia Hall.

Last week, mom and dad came to town to visit a patio home at Tabor Hills that will be coming available soon. We went on a visit there during the week and got a lot of questions answered about the unit. Then on Saturday, we met up for breakfast at Buttermilk in Naperville with them, Jeff and Maddie. Debbie was at a training (she’s learning to fly a new plane!) in Denver so we missed her at breakfast!

I’ll sign off with a funny thing that’s catching my camera eye every time I go to the Smith Park area. There used to be a mound of gravel or salt or something at the streets and sanitation depot just south of the park. From certain directions, it looked like a mountain range (kinda!). It’s been replaced with a very cool dome, that looks so surreal from different directions and in different lighting. Enjoy a view of life by the mysterious dome!