September 12, 2013 Sweet Woods Forest Preserve & Lincoln Park with George and Marcy

We started our day by walking the dogs at Sweet Woods in Thornton.

a ground level view of the Roxie monster

time for drink from the creek that runs through here

nice slobber Roxie

Georgie doing his 'Best In Show' walk

my 'brown eyed girl', the Rox Lobster

new friends for old dogs

 

After checking in at the B&B in Wicker Park, we walked along the beach in Lincoln Park.

We stopped for NYC style pizza at Luigi's Café, then to a local bar in Lakeview on Clark Street called Jake's Pub. The bartender and the regulars were very friendly. We got to watch "Breaking Bad" with the bartender as he was catching up on recent episodes.

Then we walked down to Stanley's Kitchen and Tap for a few more beers and an early dinner for me because I have a hockey game tonight.

 

September 11, 2013 George & Marcy Visit and The September Social Club Gathering

The Lansing Firefighters Memorial with flags at half mast for 9/11.

Marcy & George walking the dogs around Lansing.

Then we were off to Gary, Indiana and the beautiful Marquette Park...

...for a walk along the beach.

Then we stopped at the recently remodeled Aquatorium.

The picture above was taken from the second floor.

They really have fixed up the entire park including all the buildings.

The Pavilion looks fantastic but we couldn't get inside because they were cleaning the floors.

We ate lunch at Bass Pro Shop's Outdoor World in Portage, IN. Here's a picture of Marcy about to get diddled by a fish.

Then we stopped at the Indiana Dunes State Park. George wanted to see it because our parents took us to this beach when we were kids. It hasn't changed in the 30 years since he has been here...except he finally brought a girl to the beach.

Skipping stones on Lake Michigan

Relaxing on the beach

Then we had dinner with the Social Club at Café Borgia.

Thanks to everyone who came out to see my brother and Marcy.

Here's me with Chrissy & the flower girl from our wedding, Cindy.

September 1, 2013 Two French Dogs, One Texan, One Puerto Rican, Central Beach, The Alamo, Frankfort Fall Festival and a Mexican BBQ

We started our day at the fog shrouded Central Beach.

 

Two old girls walking the beach.

Karen & Ken, the Puerto Rican & the Texan.

Some fine drift wood art on the beach

This butterfly was probably trying to stay warm on a chilly morning.

 

 

Two French dogs with a part Lithuanian, part Romanian, part German, part Polish girl...Chrissy, Roxie & Oslo after a dip in the lake.

Now here's where the day takes a very strange turn. We found this broken stone marker with Alamo 1894 1/2 carved into it. Ken decided to show his pride for his home state of Texas by posing with the Alamo marker that somehow washed up on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Another view of the driftwood artwork.

Another view of Ken.

Oslo shaking what his mama gave him.

Our polar bear, Oslo

Karen & Ken hoping not to fall into a sinkhole. The next beach over is Mount Baldy which has been closed for months after a young boy almost died in a sinkhole on the dunes. All the dunes at Central Beach also had "Area Closed" signs on them too.

We stopped at a used car lot on Route 12 with an interesting sales pitch. Each car had the name of it's country's leader the year it was made.

Ken wanted to buy this Rolls Royce, it was the first one he's seen that he could afford.

Easily the nicest station on the South Shore Line.

 

After the dunes we headed to Frankfort for the Fall Festival which included a huge craft fair, food and beer.

Here's Karen sporting her new hat that she just bought.

After the Frankfort Fall Festival we headed to what Ken called a Mexican BBQ. It turns out that while working in Detroit, he became friends with Noel Garcia from Chicago. Noel invited him to his family BBQ when Ken said he was going to visit us in Chicago. We might have been strangers when we arrived but six hours, many beers, some incredible Mexican food and a few tequila shots later...we were family. This was truly one of my favorite nights of the year. A big thank you for an amazing night to the Garcia family and friends.