Staycation 2009

It's hard to believe summer is almost over. Hillary is gearing up to go back to work and I'm doing the same, but to a lesser degree. I took a week off work for a mini-vacay. Instead of the typical vacation spots of Florida or California, we decided to stay home, save some money, and see family and friends. Our "staycation" started off with a visit with our friends Bart and Nicole in Oswego, Illinois. We then headed over to Plainfield, to see Hillary's mom. Hillary's sister Kacie was in town from North Carolina. Here is Josie with her aunt Kaitlin and Kacie jumping on the trampoline playing "ring around the rosie."

Josie wanted to sit in the boat - a kayak built by her pop-pop.

Hillary's brother Marty, and sister-in-law, Megan came in from Chicago. Here are the siblings sans Allison who is in California. I love how their dog wanted to be included in the picture.


Josie with her aunt Kacie.


We spent the night at Marty and Megan's place in the heart of downtown Chicago. They have a beautiful corner pad on the 26th floor that overlooks the city skyline and Lake Michigan. It was awesome to sit on the balcony and look out at the lights at night. (Click on the picture below to make it bigger; you can also play the low-quality video)






Josie kept asking to go for a walk on the balcony. She loved looking down to see lines of cabs, cars and buses loading the streets.

Here is a shot of Lake Michigan between the buildings.

We walked to the lake from Marty and Megan's place, which was only blocks away. The lakefront was crowded with people for the Air and Water Show. One million people were expected to pack in to watch it.

It was a pretty hot day. We stayed for about an hour, but we did see some cool planes and jets.

Josie, like most of us, was sweating from the extreme heat.

We went back inside to cool off. We had a home-cooked lunch and Josie took a nap. After it all, and the afternoon rain storm, Josie and I took a walk to a roof-top pool.

If you look closely you can see Josie and I on the chairs.


We all had a wonderful fun-filled weekend in Illinois and can't wait to go back!