Frosty mornings, voting success and dinosaur sightings

We don’t have a lot of political signs around us like some areas in the US do, but that doesn’t mean the upcoming election isn’t on people’s minds! Also, jumping a bit out of order here but to cut to the chase, we voted this morning!

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Last weekend we rode bikes over to our friend Emily’s apartment. She lives in a high rise on the lakefront and we had a lovely time with her on her balcony. We also got to meet her dogs and see her very cool art from Mexico.

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Another great Saturday activity was a bike ride that Sarah found on the Ride Spot app. There’s a self guided tour of the area where the Race Riot of 1919 happened – starting at a marker on the lake front that memorializes the spot where Eugene Williams was killed. The route takes riders inland from there and has stops along the way along with audio clips from a historian who talks about the significance of the stops. It’s very intense subject matter but the tour was really well done and it gives the events a real context to see how the locations fit together and try to imagine what that summer was like.

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We had a week of what felt like unseasonably cold weather and while we didn’t have a hard frost that would have finished off the plants, we did see some misty cold ground fog in the park on our morning runs, and bundled up in wool running gear for a run or two! The misty fog was particularly pretty to see. Last two pics are from an evening walk.

Sarah came over for lunch on Friday afternoon and we had really warm temps and a lovely time catching up in the backyard. The octopus sculpture is made of wire and I hadn’t seen it before in Flying Saucer, where I stopped by to pick up our lunches. Also, in case anyone is noticing that my hair color is changing a lot from pic to pic, it’s not your eyes! I am growing out the permanent color, so it’s already tri-colored (old color, new grays and new browns). I’ve been putting in a temporary blue color about every three weeks, and it not only hits these three existing colors differently, it also changes as it goes from freshly applied to almost gone. So I get blue, purple, teal, and as Beatrice next door said “your hair is green and gray!” Yep!

Today was another beautiful day and we rode bikes downtown to the Supersite to vote early. With participation in democracy a solid start to the day, we then rode on what’s really becoming one of our favorite routes – through Grant Park (where we saw the dinosaurs!), along the lake to Northerly Island, then back north to around North Avenue, through Lincoln Park and then home on the 606. Great day out!

Some comments about the pics – goes without saying but wow fall foliage! Gets me every time! And we don’t have any other info about the 3 dinosaurs other than there were 2 T-Rex’s, one carrying a sign saying Don’t Go Extinct – Wear a Mask!” and a triceratops who took their photo in front of Buckingham Fountain. Little kids nearby on scooters were very interested! Those ducks really thought we had snacks for them but sorry, no snacks. The fourth photo from the end here shows the former Meigs Field airport building, which is now a park district building. And the last three photos are of the lagoon (also designed by Jeanne Gang, who designed Northerly Island too!) at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It got cloudy and cold briefly while we were there but then warmed up again. Again, really lovely fall colors.

I meant to post this earlier, but thought I’d end with a pic of an art club afternoon. Mom, Debbie, Maddie and I have skype calls where we do art projects together (thanks Mom for usually coming up with the projects!) Here we were after a bird drawing session. Maddie heard that after an all remote start to the school year, she’ll be going back one day a week starting this week. She’s very excited about this and we’re very happy for her and her classmates!