Chicago with Grammy Gayle

This post focuses on one special weekend in August. We met Grammy Gayle in Chicago for a weekend of fun and frivolity in the Windy City. The post is chock full of pictures. However, we should note that there are two events that were not captured on film but are worth mentioning. Number one, we got a flat tire toward the end of the six hour drive up. After great debate about how to use the jack we agreed that this was one of the reasons why we pay for AAA service. To make us feel even better about this, the man who arrived to help got out of his truck and said something along the lines of, "beside the flat tire, what's the problem?" Translation - "You don't know how to work a jack? Seriously?" Oh well. Fortunately he overlooked our mechanical disability when Callie grinned at him from inside the car. Better yet, the fact that our spare was flat validated our decision to call AAA and not just do it ourselves.

The second event not captured on film was Lollapalooza, the three day rock festival extravaganza that just happened to be going on in the park right across the street from our hotel that weekend. Luckily, everything shut down at 10pm. However, Callie was soothed to sleep on Friday night by Depeche Mode and on Saturday night by Tool. A bit different than normal. But enough about that - on with the blog!


As you can imagine, a Lucas/Bowes weekend is filled to the rim with activities. This particular weekend was no exception. We started bright and early on Saturday morning with a trip to the Shedd Aquarium. Gayle made a great choice with the hotel and we only had to walk ten minutes to get there. In fact, we ended up walking everywhere during our short stay. Oh yeah, and this is a cute picture of Callie next to an emperor penguin statue.


Callie also got up close and personal with a sea turtle. She enjoyed it so much that when her turn on the turtle was over she was incredibly upset. We are obviously still working on the concept of sharing, but it is tough when you have to share the sea turtle.



Believe it or not this is Callie's third aquarium, so she is not going to be won over by a sub par display of sea life. We are happy to report that Callie gives the Shedd Aquarium two thumbs up. The highlights were the dolphin training show, the touch pools, and the interactive penguin exhibit.


However, the showstoppers for Callie as well as the rest of us were the Beluga whales. It was amazing and we could have watched them all day. If you look closely in this picture you can see part of one of the whales as it swam by.


We left the aquarium, got a bite to eat, and headed back to the hotel. It was in the low 90s in Chicago, so we needed a brief break from the outdoors. We showed our bracelets to the doorman to let him know we weren't random Lollapalooza folks looking to party in the hotel, and headed up to our room.


We would love to share that we took a nice little nap at this point, but napping was not on Callie's agenda. Instead it was pool time. Apparently Callie wanted to try out some of the swimming moves she had seen on display at the aquarium. Here she pulls off the looking cute move quite well. It was fun to show off Callie's love for the water to Grammy.


After pool time we headed downtown to catch our ferry for a Chicago River/Lake Michigan tour. We were too busy looking at the amazing architecture and experiencing the Chicago River lock to take any blogworthy photos.


After the tour we headed to Geno's East for dinner where we saw the guy who plays "Matt Parkman" in Heroes. It was pretty cool - and even cooler the next day when he threw out the first pitch at the White Sox game. After dinner we walked back to the hotel. Callie was determined to walk the entire way without spending any time in her stroller. It's amazing how determined she is when she puts her mind to something. No joke, she walked at least twelve city blocks before we convinced her to get in the stroller.

She was willing to take a break or two if the paparazzi requested a photo, however. Below we have a fine picture of Callie and Grammy Gayle resting for a bit near Grant Park.



Callie really enjoyed the time she got to spend with Grammy Gayle. And Grammy Gayle loves the fact that Callie is always up for an adventure.


We also managed another stop for a family photo on the bridge over the Chicago River. If we really wanted to, John could now launch into an educational discussion of how this is near the site of Fort Dearborn and its relationship to early American relations with Indians in the region. But we won't. You'll have to buy the book. (Actually, John has not written a book that covers that event. But when he does, then you'll have to buy it.)


At first glance, this is another cute picture of Callie sitting in a plant. However, it really is a picture of Callie near the site of one of the best breakfasts John has had in a while. It is no secret that John loves breakfast, and the one downfall of Lexington is that we have not found a solid place that does breakfast right. On Sunday morning we found a reason to move to Chicago. The place is called Yolk, and it is located on South Michigan Avenue. The food portions are hefty, the omelettes have clever names, and there are options for all. We recommend it.

After our late breakfast we took yet another stroll. This time we enjoyed the wonderful flower gardens on display in Grant Park. It's amazing how lavish and plentiful the gardens were throughout the city. But the ones right near our hotel were some of the best we saw. Which of course meant it was time for some pictures. The only thing that could match the flowers was a photo of three generations of Lucas women. Wouldn't you agree?




But before we could begin our drive back to Lexington, there was one more stop. Just a short drive to South Chicago brought us to the home of the Chicago White Sox. It was another hot day, but our seats were in the shade before the end of the first inning. And in 97 degree weather the shade made a big difference.


Of course the weather made the ice cold water and the snow cones even more appealing. Callie enjoyed her reduced syrup snow cone custom made at the request of her mother. She also enjoyed a stadium hot dog as well as her Grammy's frozen lemonade. And as is evident in this picture, like any good fan she enjoyed the seventh inning stretch.

It goes without saying that this was a fun and eventful weekend. We all hope that it will be the first of many stops on our cities of America tour. Next year it could be Atlanta, Nashville, St. Louis, or Cincinnati. You just never know.

We are taking a break from travel for a week or two, but we head to Cape Cod on Labor Day weekend, so the fun never truly ends. What will be ending, however, is Callie's free ride. She turns two in October and thus has to pay for a plane ticket. So don't be surprised if she shows up at your door looking for odd jobs to help raise money to travel with her parents. And you think we're kidding...

More Outdoor Summer Fun

It's hard to believe that summer is over halfway done. In fact, three weeks from tomorrow John starts teaching at EKU for the fall semester. Crazy. We are happy to report that we are taking full advantage of all that Lexington has to offer. In fact, although we don't have pictures for you, yesterday we spent the afternoon at the Kentucky Horse Park Indoor Arena watching male and female competitors in the Kentucky Cup Horse Vaulting competition. This is one of many events that will be part of the World Equestrian Games that Lexington will be hosting next year. Go to youtube and check out some video of horse vaulting. It is something to watch, that's for sure.

But let's get to the pictures we do have. We'll start with one of our favorite activities, hanging out at the local park. Here we have an artistic rendering of John and Callie on the jungle gym.




Every time we go to the park it seems that Callie gets more daring and wants to climb more of the obstacles/equipment they have there. It's a lot of fun for us to watch.


We thought Callie was pretty cool because she loved the slides. Well now she just wants to climb up everything and hang on the monkeybars. It is difficult to keep up with her and at times we have to be careful about our driving route so we don't tease her by driving by the playground and not stopping.



Over the past two weeks we also have been going to one of the local pools for Callie's swim lessons. To be honest, it really is just about hanging out in the water. In other words, she hasn't mastered the butterfly stroke quite yet, but is getting a bit more comfortable dunking her head under the water.

Her instructor, Miss Becca, actually helped us feel comfortable dunking Callie's head under the water. This video is Callie's first of hopefully many underwater experiences.




Fortunately she never got upset after her underwater dunkings. But she did tend to spend more time on the stairs of the pool than playing around in the deep end. It's good to see that she enjoys the water. Surfing can't be far away.


We don't spend all of our time outside, of course. And when we are indoors the fun only continues. Callie is getting better at dressing herself, but she doesn't always want to wear her clothes. She clunks around the house in our flip-flops, and sometimes aims a bit higher. Here she is with a pair of John's shorts looking even cuter than normal.




Another outdoor activity that we found was the park of all parks. Evan's Orchard is our go to orchard for pumpkins in the fall. They have a massive playground that includes huge slides, a buried tire obstacle course, swings, and so much more.


It's definitely a family friendly place and they have cater to people with kids. Callie loves it, and we spent about an hour and a half checking out every corner of the play area. They not only had real sunflowers there, but they also had a place to turn your child into one. Not too shabby.

So, you can see this blog post has a little bit of an artistic flair to it. We are trying to get fancy with our monthly updates. What you don't see in the below picture are all of the make-up artists and lighting people involved in getting a perfect shot. It's well worth the result.



We must admit that we never realized how much fun we would have hanging out at parks and just taking in the summer. Summer certainly has become more active now that Callie is a part of our lives. And we still feel like we never get to half the places or do half the things want to.


Our last picture shows Callie next to the wonderful stretch of wildflowers maintained by the folks at Evan's Orchard. One of the best things about taking in the summer with Callie is that we tend to appreciate the smallest things that we would not have noticed before. This is a perfect example of that.

Well, summer may be hitting the homestretch but there's lot's more to come in the months ahead. We head to Chicago this weekend and return to New England in about a month. Our camera is ready and so is Callie.