Last year, most of our work on the house in Sawyer was really about fixing basic things like the heating system and the chimney.But this year we got to work on some more fun things; jazzing up the look of the kitchen and getting some comfortable furniture for the living room (the previous owner, had used the house for Airbnb rentals, and so while the furniture was very durable, you would definitely get uncomfortable after a while, sitting in it!). The kitchen itself was really pretty minimal, just replacing the old dark green formica countertop with a white quartz one,…

A big highlight of the year was Isabelle‘s visit. She got a weekend off from work and we were so delighted she was able to visit! Obviously Isabelle had already been to Chicago a couple of times both with the whole Brennan group and with Katie, but it was really nice to be able to have some solo time with her and show her some of the sites that she may not have seen last time! One of our big regrets was, we didn’t take a photo when we met up with the Groves; Jeanne, Geoff, Ellen and Leslie, at…

We have some blog catching up to do! Here we go, starting in January of this year. It was a snowy winter, both in Chicago and Sawyer. As we experienced last winter, the woods and lake in Sawyer have a very different beauty in winter! Here’s John by the river trail.

On Tuesday evening (Dec 23) we had tickets to see the film It’s a Wonderful Life at the music box. We’ve done this Chicago tradition many times and it is a pure delight every time! We had empanadas at nearby Tango Sur after and chatted about the movie. We dropped Liam off at his place after and dropped Miles on Western where he was meeting Dylan – and we caught her to say hi on her way in too! On Christmas Eve, I baked chocolate cookies (no photos but they were very nice, with some big salt flakes and chocolate…

The time between Thanksgiving and Miles arriving for Christmas went very quickly! Miles had a week to spend here before heading to Austin, Texas, so we decided to go straight from picking him up at the airport to Sawyer. Coffee and breakfast sandwiches packed, it all went to plan and we were in Michigan around 8:30am! As you all are very aware, there are a couple of crowd favorites in Sawyer. First, the hot tub! Miles took it up a notch by setting up a table for coffee and a book. And we enjoyed another crowd favorite, the lake! Some…

Thanksgiving feels like a season if its own, particularly this year when it filled the time between out trip to Berlin and the start of December (also my start date for something new for me, teaching a metadata class!) We had a very fun and full season.

The last historic site we visited in Berlin was the site of the first Nazi labor camp, Sachenhausen, about 40 miles outside of Berlin. It was also the place where many of the methods of mass extermination were developed for the later death camps in Auschwitz and elsewhere. Needless to say it was a profoundly moving visit and other than the main entrance to the camp and the memorial, we did not take any photos of the camp itself. The clock on the watchtower below is painted on and shows the time of day that the camp was liberated by…

On Thursday, with John’s meetings finished, we took a day trip to the nearby town of Potsdam. Someone (Rick Steves?) noted that Potsdam is to Berlin like Versailles is to Paris. Seems reasonable and maybe now we need to visit Versailles too! We took the train and first ambled around the town of Potsdam before heading to the former Royal summer palace called Sans Souci. Let’s just enjoy the grandeur and salmon color of these buildings, rather than trying to identify each of them 😉 We also went to the Dutch part of town, where the architecture truly looked very…

We three visited some great saunas and swimming pools in Berlin, including Hotel Oderberg and Vabali. Mildred and I also took a day trip to the kiez of Charlottenburg to swim at the public pool there. Also near Charlottenburg, we visited the Memorial Church, which was very sensitively rebuilt after the war. The main church is stabilized and partially rebuilt, showing that damage was extensive while also giving a sense of the original shape of the building. Mosaics on the inside are intact and beautiful.