We had some plans on Mother’s Day to go to an Amy Tan author event, but it was cancelled so we made up our own agenda for the day. Mary took the metra to union station in the morning and from there we walked along the river walk all the way to the lake. She’d never been on the river walk before and we always enjoy a chance to revisit it. After coming back home, we relaxed for a bit and then Liam and Bronwyn joined us for dinner. This mom got to pick the menu and that was easy…
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On Saturday evening we went to Miles’s friend Caroline’s graduation party. It was held in a meadery (very Portland!) and such a lovely event. She’s very musical and the crowd sang a lot of songs with and for her. The party lasted until about 1:30 am! After sleeping in the next morning we went on some job tours – first to Miles’s job at the book pub which is super nice and cosy. His coworkers and owner were excited to see him and meet me, very nice. Then we went to Zoe’s school, where she teaches preschool. The school is…
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We’d wanted to visit miles in Portland before he moves this summer, and while John wasn’t able to get away due to a lot of work travel coming up, I found a good set of flights and went myself. Miles was very nice to pick me up at the airport and we went to his place where I met Joanie the cat. Then we walked the 5 mins to a nearby Airbnb where I’m staying. He lives in a really lovely area called Irvington.
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It’s been a long time since we’ve posted, and some photos are piling up! A few weeks ago we went to an exhibit at the MCA by Nicole Eisenman. In the exhibit it was mentioned that she has a cat named Edie, which is the name of the black cat that Liam is fostering. Not sure if this is Edie in the painting below, but it reminded us of her! This trip to the MCA was part of a day organized around the 66 bus. We’d taken the bus to the MCA, then walked over to the lake, where the…
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After enjoying the long weekend, we were both back to work on Tuesday. Merida is very well suited to a working location. During the day staying inside working feels fine since it’s so hot and bright (it’s winter here, but for us very hot and bright!). Then after the sun goes down around 5:30 we go outside and enjoy the cooler temps. There’s so much activity outside in the evenings! This week our local park had its regularly scheduled Tuesday evening Merida symphony band playing with big crowds and dancing, then every other night has had other bands playing as…
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Backing up a bit to show a map of the area where we are staying and visiting in Yucatán state. We don’t need (or want!) a car for days spent in Merida, where the city center is very walkable. But we did rent a car for the 3 day weekend to do some day trips. The day we rented the car, we drove to Progreso, which I totally forgot to write about, possibly for good reason! Will touch on that in a later post. Yesterday we went to Izamal, you can see in the right most purple box below. Today…
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There’s a town in the state of Yucatán that is called the magical yellow city of Izamal, and we have tried to visit on previous stays in the area but never made it there. Today, really our third time trying in earnest, we spent the morning in Izamal. It really is quite a magical place, and even more vibrant and lively than we anticipated. Anybody can paint a city yellow, but Izamal is really charming. One of the first things we saw was a row of horses and carriages, many wearing hats. The main commercial street in the city has…
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We arrived in Merida a week ago and it’s really hard to know where the week went! Well maybe not that hard. We’ve done a lot of enjoying – enjoying walks around the city and seeing familiar and new things, enjoying frequent dips in the airbnb plunge pool, enjoying trying out some Spanish, enjoying the Yucatecan food, way of life, and warmth (both people and temperature!) We arrived at our beautiful airbnb around 5pm last Saturday, about a half an hour before sunset. After settling in, we went for a walk and dinner and ended up on Calle 47. There’s…
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The days between Christmas and New Year’s Day got a bit blurry, which actually feels kinda nice since the rest of the year can be pretty tied to weekdays vs weekends and all too easy to keep track of. So in summarizing the fun things we did, I’m not even sure if I’ve got these in the right order but also don’t really want to spoil the feel of the week by tracking it down too much. A real highlight of the week was when Maddie and I went to have pizza and see the movie Migration in Naperville. We…