Lots of summer fun happening here! I went out for a cycle and run in humboldt Park after work yesterday and it was really beautiful. Sorry chance the snapper is missing it! A few weeks ago John and I went to one evening of the pitchfork music festival in union park. It was temporarily evacuated due to a storm so we headed to a brewery area nearby until they reopened. Hoping to go back to that area this summer, the breweries along Hubbard are really nice! Above, new mural along California by Augusta, the Isley Brothers, cta cooling buses and…

July has been quite eventful, and I still have more photos to post! First, happy birthday to our end of July bday club members, Debbie (July 24) and Liam and kathleen (July 26). We went out to dinner to celebrate with Liam and Kat, also celebrating kat’s excellent LSAT results, and Father’s Day since John was away in June. My friend from high school Kelly Cook was in town last weekend too and we had a good time out at soho house on Friday and then on a city jaunt including water taxi, grant and millennium park on Sunday. She…

This is our backyard, rather than Miller Beach, but a nice pic of Dylan, Miles, John and Liam. OK, on to Miller! Also in July, we spent a weekend with Mike and Andrea in Miller Beach. The weather was perfect and we had a great time there swimming in the lake, hanging out at their house, and exploring the local area. Visiting the turkeys at Chellberg Farm. And other fancy poultry! Wayfinding with poetry Not sure if I’ve shown photos of Mike and Andrea’s house, but here it is. It’s super cute and surprisingly large inside! And available for several…

Hello! Sorry for the long break between KC part 1 and 2. Our last couple of days we continued to have nice visits, eat good food, and take in the KC cultural scene. Miles joined us on Friday night and we went for breakfast at Gratitude Cafe and then visited a favorite place, the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Here we are outside the modern wing, by the Andy Goldsworthy sculpture Walking Wall. Skeptics may agree with John that it looks an awful lot like a wall in the west of Ireland, but this one is art. It’s moving all…

As I think all readers know, we went to Kansas City over the 4th of July weekend. The holiday was on a Thursday this year, so we took Wednesday and Friday off to make it a nice long weekend. Hint to Democratic candidates for 2020 – this voter would support a move to make the 4th of July a Monday holiday. We can just call it “Independence Day” and not worry about the actual date! Miles came in for just the Friday night through Sunday morning part, since camp was open and he had to work on Friday. See, candidates,…

More time and space shifts! This post will cover last weekend, the day after I bought a jean jacket in the previous post. I wanted to give plenty of space to my fun weekend in Naperville with Maddie, Debbie and Jeff! Maddie and I went to the Morton Arboretum, where they have an exhibit of wildlife made of legos. What a win win! Here’s Maddie with a bumble bee. And Maddie took this one of me with the bee. The Children’s Garden is made of several play areas, this one with tree-related jokes. And I think because of the lego…

Buckle up, readers, I am about to blow the time / space continuum wide open. This post starts the week of Miles’s graduation but instead of going to France and Italy with John, it will follow the Chicago storyline. The evening before John headed off to Cannes, we went out to dinner at a restaurant that we really enjoy, Elske. Elske is “contemporary Danish” and is also where we celebrated my birthday last year. This time our celebration was 30 years since we met! When we asked the server for a wine recommendation, she asked if we would like a…

I was very excited to visit my first ever Italian city, and Milan did not disappoint, lot’s of old tenement style buildings, children everywhere and outdoor eating: This is the building that my friends, Matthew and Patricio live, its tiny but adorable! The city is full of beautiful churches, some completely over the top, and others quiet serene: Some amazing architecture: But the most surprising was how well they do burial plots in Italy: But the highlight of Milan was the bicycle ride myself, Matthew and Patrizia took, about 8 miles outside of Milan, along the canals, into the countryside,…

On the way to visit my friends in Milan, I stopped off in Alassio, Italy, where my colleague Cary Pierce and her husband have a holiday home that’s been in their family for generations. Its were all the busy folks from Milan go to during the summer to escape the heat. On the train there, I spotted an very Italian version of Miles! Very similar, except I suspect he’s more into expensive hair product and timepieces than Miles! This is the view from Cary and Alberto’s patio: Its also the home of focaccia, pesto and olive oil, three of my…

As industry conferences go, its hard to beat having one in the South of France, so this years trip was lots of fun as usual. There were the usual celebrity sightings., Here’s Star Rainn, the star of the American version of “The Office” Here’s Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, interviewing one of my co-workers Vita Harris (second from right). Vita was pretty terrified at the prospect of being interviewed by Sheryl, but she did great. Yes, it was on a beach! I wasn’t interviewed by a celebrity or on a beach, but I was invited to a panel held…