Mildred and I met in 1988 at a volunteer project in Neu Wulmsdorf, a small town outside Hamburg. After the project finished, we hitchhiked around Germany, and spent a very memorable week – for both of us – in West Berlin, with a day visit to East Berlin. Mildred came to Chicago in 2023, which was really fun, and so on this trip it was amazing to meet up again but this time in Berlin, where she has lived for over 25 years. We were both very keen to visit the flat in Kreuzburg where we stayed in 1988. We…

Reporting from a very pleasant (so far!) couple of hours layover at Heathrow! On Monday, we had 9am tickets for a visit to the Reichstag dome, so we met up with Mildred at our local tram stop and took Berlin’s excellent train system there. It was a lovely misty morning, with nice late fall colors hanging on in the trees and in leaves on the ground. Berlin is so full of history, it’s hard to think I can do any of these topics justice. So in this case I’ll put in an iconic photo from the end of WW2, showing…

Prologue We flew to Berlin on different flights, due to my booking earlier to use frequent flier miles and John booking later once his work trip was 100% sure to go ahead. John arrived early Saturday and checked into our airbnb in Prenzlauer Berg, went for lunch and had some relaxing time. I arrived Saturday afternoon and Mildred met me at the airport. When I came out of the gate, she was helping a young man at the airport who asked her to film his reunion with his brother. After a while he found that his brother had entered through…

Maddie had a choir concert last week, with a very prominent solo earned through an audition! Here she is starting the song off with here with her solo. Amazing singing, Maddie! We had a great visit from Barry between his visit to Wisconsin and flying back to London! We also met up with Liam for dinner but didn’t manage to get a photo of the whole group. Next stop for us: Berlin!

We were down in Michigan this weekend, getting the house ready for winter, with the first freezing temperatures of the winter, but still nice enough for some lovely sunsets! Despite being busy we managed to find time to drive up to Grand Rapids, with our friends Karen and John, to visit the famous Meijer Gardens. The triggering event was a new Juame Plensa exhibit, who long time readers with remember from our visit to Antibes, Madrid, and Chicago’s Millennium park. But the gardens themselves were also fantastic, with an amazing sculpture garden, with some real world class artists and monumental…

After a lovely week in sawyer, we drove back to Chicago. John headed off on a business trip and I worked a few days while Paddy and Kathleen visited some of their favorite spots like the bean and added some new adventures like taking an architectural boat cruise and – very exclusive opportunity – a tour of Liam’s apartment! On Friday miles arrived first thing on an overnight flight from the west coast. I had a few days off starting then and John got back on Friday too. We had a lovely visit to the indoor and outdoor gardens at…

We had a lovely time in Michigan with friends Brian, Chantal and Emily. Lots of fun including sunset swims and fresh fruit! Emily has some very fashionable lounge wear! The wildfires in Canada have been making for some hazy skies especially visible at the horizon at sunset. The sun will appear as a very defined red dot and disappears before it hits the horizon. In early August, we overlapped a night with Annette, Dave, Nadia and Sylvie before they started their week vacation. We had a great time hanging out and visiting the beach with them, and then climbing this…

After our fun holiday weekend, John had some work back in Chicago and I stayed put for a few days. It was quiet and I worked a lot but also had some nice beach time! On Friday the Groves arrived by car and then John arrived by train. By morning Sarah arrived by train too, bringing the full Carpe swim group together! After picking Sarah up in new buffalo, we visited farmette, a very nice bakery, cafe, and produce farm/garden. After farmette we drove to the lavender farm for a repeat visit! Delightful again! We continued on to the round…

We just finished a pretty eventful and fun week back from vacation, it’s hard to believe we just got back from vacation a bit over a week ago! It’s also hard to believe how tall the false sunflowers in front of our house grew while we were away! On Monday John headed to Michigan to do some house sorting out activities for the following weekend. On Wednesday, Liam and Bronwyn took the train to Michigan in time for a sunset swim. On Thursday, I had a morning Dr appt then met Sarah for lunch (a three-peat, what a treat!) then…