Fun in Chicago and Ohio

I'm at the Dayton Airport now and I must say it's been a great weekend. On Saturday, we went to the Taste of Chicago and took a 6 person bike/vehicle onto the Chicago shoreline bike path. Besides my brother-in-law pedaling like a mad man, cutting people off left and right, it was a lot of fun. After we returned the bike, my sister noticed that her husband's fly was unzipped. It was particularly funny since we'd been riding this bike, attracting a lot of attention, all the while with his fly down! Upon hearing of her dad's faux pas, my oldest niece turns to her dad, in a completely nonchalant tone and said: "Dad, you better not let the animals out of the barn!" I think we all peed ourselves just a little bit.

We spent our last morning in Chicago by taking the elevator to the 94th floor of the John Hancock Building. The views, as you can see from the pictures, were pretty unbelievable.

Back in Ohio, I was using the family computer and looked at the Google search history. It was entertaining to say the least. Recent searches included:
Pictures of Justin Beiber
Cute pictures of puppies and kittens
Pictures of fairies that you can find on the Internet

You get the idea.

One of my nieces was so cute and funny. She was telling me how the master bathroom's shower has 8 showerheads (crazy, I know!). She went on to tell me I should shower in it after her and her sisters take a shower... And she'd even let me take a shower alone! Oh my!

Chicago's Shedd Aquarium

First of all, I want to upload a picture of the really state of the art Chicago O'Hare Airport - isn't it perty?!


On the way to the aquarium, we stopped into the Taste of Chicago food festival. With temperatures nearing 100 degrees, no one was that tempted to eat in our group! On to Shedd Aquarium to see how best to survive this heat - underwater.

What a week!

Heading into 4th of July weekend and I'm a bit of an emotional mess...but THAT is besides the point! I had a relaxing work week with very little to no activity. I guess people were too busy testing out their bbqs in preparation for Independence Day. Taking advantage of the slower times was not difficult. I (of course) went to Chelsea Piers (again) to hit some golf balls. This isn't perfect form, but I'm getting better!



Going into a different mode now, my question of the day is: What is there other than love? We know we have to live a long life, or hope to at least, live a long life with a partner that we love dearly. Beyond that, what else do we know about this mystery person? When I was in college, my brother used to call me the ultimate idealist. I never saw it as a flaw, or as something that would ever change within me. At that point in my life, there was nothing more than love. Now - I'm not sure. There has to be more - mutual respect, family, goals, paths, dreams, achievements, faults, failings... there has to be so much more. And the fact that all of these aspects can come together and become part of one person is scary and confusing to me. It's going to be a thoughtful and hopefully clarifying weekend.