Greetings from Oregon! Here are some maps to help orient readers. First, showing Oregon in the pacific northwestern part of the US. Right now we are at the blue dot on the Pacific. And this zoom in of the state of Oregon shows Portland, where we landed, south to Eugene, and west to Florence (the blue dot). We flew in to Portland and stayed there 2 days. Some highlights included lots of good food (middle Eastern, sushi, rice bowls) and coffee in this coffee-crazy town. We ate at both restaurants and food carts, which are everywhere in the city. The…

As many of you know, I upped my triathlon game this year by signing up for the next longer distance offered, having done the shorter super sprint twice. This seemed very doable all winter and even early in the summer but I have to admit I was having serious doubts in the last two weeks! The weather was forecast to be very hot, humid and sunny, and that was a bit daunting. But in the end my support crew (thanks John and Sarah!), miles’s bike which weighs a fraction of my bike and made the bike portion super easy, and…

We have a reader-submitted video to share this week – James and Issac at the scooter park at Millennium Park in Dublin. This Millennium Park is way better than ours for scootering! Very daring speeds and moves, Issac and James! [wpvideo E1sO6bDi]

This weekend I had a chance to drive out about two hours west of Chicago to Stockton, Illinois, an area on the Wisconsin/Iowa border, near Galena, where my bicycle group was doing a 75 mile long ride through the “Driftless” region, an area of the midwest that was not flattened by glaciers, so as a result, is very, very hilly!  Here’s a picture of the route we took, as well an overview of the hilliness of the region, overall 6,500 feet of elevation, with most of the roads being loose gravel rather than paved. To say it was a little…

Augusta has been under construction lately, so I have been cycling down Hubbard to get to the lake. There’s a stretch with very cool murals on the railroad embankment – it was all part of a mural project that covers several blocks. And as promised, here are some photos of our meals made with the vegetables from the farmer’s market as seen in last week’s post. This pasta and tomato dish is called “Tomato Party,” and it was quite a party indeed. Looking forward to trying that one later in the month when tomatoes are even more in season! Here…

John and I had a lovely weekend in Miller Beach, Indiana. Miles stayed here with Speedy and Roux and went to music festival Lollapalooza, and Liam was in town visiting Kat. We spent some very enjoyable evenings and mornings on Mike and Andrea’s back deck. Their house is built on a dune, so while you walk straight in from the front, the back is up quite high. Miller Beach has a lot of really lovely modern houses (see previous post about Hoosier Homes) and also a lot of beach themed touches. It’s really nice – great chill vacation feel to…

Continuing with the theme of fun visits, Maddie came to stay last weekend while Debbie and Jeff went out for a night of Blue Man Group and dinner at Beatrix, then stayed at a hotel downtown. We went to Smith Park on Saturday – always fun to be back at the local playground again! Here’s Maddie busy at building a house out of Magna Blocks. That weekend, the Pitchfork Music Festival was on in nearby Union Park, and John and I went out for a quick show while Miles and Maddie had some cousin time watching Finding Dory and reading…

Cindy here typing with input from our pizza-eating James and cake ball-munching Issac! We’re going to depart from chronological posting to catch up on some photos that we wanted to share. Last week, John and I took Isabelle, Issac and James to the Museum of Science and Industry, while Paul and Phyllis met Pual’s friend Johnny Mac and his wife. At the MSI, we spent some time in the storms exhibit. “It was thrilling!” said Issac. “It was the stormest and enormest!” said James. “Interactive!” added Isabelle. James really likes swim goggles, so we were sure to point out these…

Welcome readers, it is us Isabelle Issac and James writing todays blog entry !!!! Saturday a very eventful day started out with James loosing a wobbley baby tooth just before breakfast   later that day Isabelle finished off decorating a cake for the party that evening. The ‘mermaid cake’ as we have called it is supposed to be an interpereratation of an under the sea theme with the blue icing as the water the sprinkles as mermaids which we all decided after the decorating process had finished   Then at around 11:30  Isabelle and Issac along with our parents headed…

The Brennans celebrated their first 4th of July stateside with some traditional activities, including a morning swim, burgers al fresco, fireworks, then to really have a Midwest flavor, a sudden thunderstorm! They started off the day at Humboldt Park with a ride on our new swan boats and then some splashing at the beach. Chicago’s only inland beach was a big hit! Meanwhile I went swimming at the lake, John went to yoga and miles slept in. We reconvened in the afternoon for some burgers, corn and salad in the back yard. The meal was delicious and we all survived…