Saturday morning we checked out of the airbnb and took a taxi to west Antibes, an area called Juan-les-Pins. This town is so close to where we stayed in Cannes we could have walked in 90 minutes! Although with suitcases and a hot sun overhead, we didn’t. Our hotel room wasn’t available until later in the afternoon so we grabbed our books, sunblock and sunglasses and headed to the nearby beach, where we rented 2 chairs and un (deux!) umbrella. Unlike a lot of sunbathers, we set up our space with maximum shade, even rearranging the umbrellas so we had…

We had a great weekend in Dublin before heading to Cannes. It was really wonderful to see everyone! Colette did a great blog post about the Kenny weekend and I would be sharing the same photos, so I hope no one minds too much if I link there: https://odriscc.wordpress.com/2022/06/20/kenny-weekend-2022/ The only addition that I have is that John and I went to the Museum of Literature Ireland and saw a first edition of Ulysses, James Joyce’s notebooks, and a very cool set of frames with items included that each represent a chapter of Ulysses. The pieces reminded me a lot…

It’s duckling season again! May 27 was our first duckling sighting in the park this year, when we saw this mom Wood Duck with two ducklings. Since then, we’ve seen what is either a very large family or a day care situation. 13 ducklings with one adult! And this mallard mom with 5 ducklings This weekend is the Puerto Rican festival in our neighborhood and I hope all of the ducks have their little ear protectors on and enjoy the festivities. It’s pretty loud!

We took a quick trip to the Indiana Dunes today and went on a favorite hike: Cowles Bog. Very sunny day and despite a cool temp on the thermometer (35 F / 1 C) there was very little wind and lots of warmth from the sun so it felt really nice out! There was a big ice and snow shelf at the lakefront / beach area. Note the small splash of water on the 3rd photo as the lake water hits the ice shelf! We also saw a tree that has really been nibbled at by a beaver (our guess…

John had a work event in Cancun in February and we decided that not only I should go and work remotely from the resort, we’d take a few additional days off and visit Merida, a colonial town in the Yucatán peninsula that we’d wanted to visit on our trip to the area 12 years ago. Highlights at the Cancun resort were the beach for walks and this 50 meter outdoor swimming pool for lap swims – tucked into a corner of the resort. There was a bar at the end, mandatory in Cancun swimming pools it seems! On to Merida!…

We’re getting a lot of snow today! The Weather Channel named the larger snowstorm “Landon” and local experts are explaining that Chicago will have two snowstorms today, one now and the other later today. Nice time to remember the BIG snowstorm cndkmen recorded on this day 11 years ago!

The next day in Athens we started with a morning walk up to the top of Mount Lycabettus, a limestone formation that is the highest point in central Athens. To get there, we followed streets through the neighborhoods of Kolonaki and Lycabettus, up stairs, and then up the trail that leads to the top. Like with any outing in Athens, we saw a lot of cats! The view at the top of Mount Lycabettus was really amazing. That’s the acropolis and Parthenon right in the middle green area. There’s a nice small church at the top of Lycabettus too. Later…

Back to Greece! After our hiking day, we returned to Makrinitsa for a night and had – this will be no surprise – another excellent meal. First though, there were a few photos of the de Chiciro bridge that I wanted to add. It’s really very cool the way the engineers built out a platform over the chasm then put a curved track on it. The view from our hotel in Makrinitsa at night, looking down on Volos, was really lovely. Now that we’re over a month back from the trip, I have to say Makrinitsa and Pelion in general…

John and I visited the Indiana Dunes today in a very dense fog and as always it was very much worth the trip! There were very few visitors, and no wind, no entrance fee. Visibility was so low that when we went over the skyway, only the bridge structure itself was visible! It was really a comfortable temperature though, as CNDKmen readers have heard before, with the right clothing on, it was super pleasant for a walk. We walked east along the beach to the far trail. We passed by quite a few round twig balls on the beach that…

You may all be wondering if we’re still hiking in Pelion … short answer is no but we’ll get back to some posts to finish the Greece and Ireland trip after this real-time post about celebrating Maddie’s 9th birthday earlier this month and Christmas yesterday. We went to Naperville to celebrate Maddie’s birthday a few weeks ago and had a lovely lasagna dinner with some cake afterwards. Here’s the whole crew, quite a full living room these days especially with Miles home from college and Nana and Grandpa living nearby! We played a game called Throw Throw Burrito, by the…