Winter is coming (but you wouldn't know it in Florida)

We spent last week in sunny Florida, which is especially amazing since the clocks have now changed here and we have about five solid months of darkness headed our way. Memories of our week in the sun will have to get us through.

I started the trip with a stop in Chicago, visiting my nearest and dearest for one night. Thanks to everyone for a great little birthday dinner! Thanks to my sister for picking me up and providing me with Portillos! Thanks to my nephew for all of the hugs and kisses he packed in! Thanks to Giordano's for making pizza!!!

The next day was Dave and Deb's wedding, the real impetus for our trip. Ceremony right on the beach, excellent food, good music, and a great bunch of people. They are a beautiful couple and we are so glad we could make it in!

The rest of the trip was spent with the Hamiltons/Lapps in a mansion on the beach: not too bad! The house we were meant to have for our week in the sun wasn't available, so we got upgraded to an insanely large substitute - Andrew and I got to stay in our own wing of the house! We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool, swimming, taking the sea kayaks out, and I won a pretty great game of Uno one night. One day, Jon rode a jetlev for an hour. It was pretty cool:

On Tuesday, Eric, Mom & Dad, and Andrew & I spent the day in Key West. After an exciting drive down in the pouring rain (during which we had a brief brush with the local law enforcement...), we got there and had some amazing Cuban food at a little cafe. We hopped on a trolley and explored town a bit: we saw Hemingway's house, the little White House, the US Naval Air Station, a house that Calvin Klein once owned, a very tall lighthouse, and for some odd reason, a lot of roosters wandering the streets. We were also the farthest south we could be in the U.S. and the closest to Cuba.

Jon rented a boat on Wednesday, and Andrew, Eric, Jon, and I went out for a ride and some snorkeling. We ran into a small snag on the way out to sea when we lost power for a few minutes - our trusty mechanics got us on our way again in no time, though. Snorkeling was fun for a little while, despite the fear of jellyfish and the copious amounts of salt water I ingested. I was feeling a bit rough by the time I got back into the boat, and I ended up feeding the fish some of the pumpkin muffins I had eaten for breakfast not too long before. We headed home soon after...

All in all, it was a really excellent trip home. I got to see both of my families, enjoy some warmth and sunlight, and celebrate with friends on such a wonderful day in their lives.

More pictures on flickr (there are a lot of jetlev photos!).

p.s. Here's the view from the mansion. It was AMAZING!

And Bob's yer Uncle!

Lucky for us, Uncle Bob had a conference in Dublin last weekend and had the time for a quick jaunt up the coast to see us in Belfast. We picked him up at the train station on Saturday morning, and after a short stop at Starbucks for a PSL we were on our way. We started with a tour of Queen's, and after a few hours, a 1.2 mile walk, some complaints from my stomach, and being turned away at Mourne's, we settled on Deane's Love Fish for lunch. It was amazing. After our late lunch / early dinner, we headed over to Belfast Castle for a hike up Cave Hill before we lost the light. We got a bit turned around on the way down, but a very helpful local pointed us in the right direction and then even drove us back into town!

 

We spent Sunday taking a long walk along the coast. We made it all the way to Helen's Bay on foot before getting the train back to Bangor for dinner at the Salty Dog. One new thing we discovered was an old WWII military fort along the way. It was built to defend the lough from enemies, and there's now a small museum there with a few remnants.

One of the best discoveries at the fort was these pamphlets, which have quite a few useful tips for how the locals should deal with Americans:

 

 

We capped off a wonderful weekend with a night of pinochle. I started off the evening with a bang, but in the end we had all won excellent games. It was an early morning on Monday to see UB off, back to Dublin and then homeward bound.

  

Check out all of the rest of our photos on flickr here.

Donegal

We were in Ireland two weeks ago with some friends (Ruth, Adam, Aisling, & Richard). Donegal seems to be everyone's favorite little weekend getaway spot. Everyone we know keeps telling us we have to go to Donegal. Now we've gone and I think we can agree it's a pretty great place for a quick holiday.

Ruth's mother has a rental house that was free for the weekend, so we got to enjoy a weekend on the north coast before the weather turned. We lucked out big time, as I think it broke seventy degrees! Also, there was no rain, which was great because we spent an idyllic Saturday at the beach. We relaxed in the sun, made a fire and ate hot dogs, and Andrew and I introduced everyone to s'mores, which were terrible. No graham crackers or Hershey's chocolate here, and the marshmallows were small and weird. Oh well, they didn't know the difference and it was such a nice afternoon I didn't care.

Believe it or not: Andrew found a few things to climb.

Needless to say, it was a great weekend. There are more photos on flickr, which you should definitely check out because Donegal is GORGEOUS.

A good day for a picnic

Actually, it was a good weekend for a picnic. Friday-Sunday (29-31 August), Andrew and I ventured down south to a big music festival: Electric Picnic. A friend of ours, Beatrice, has a cousin in a band that was playing, so she invited us along with her and her partner Tom for the weekend. Here's Tom. (He borrowed my hat because it was a bit chilly. It's a bit chilly now because summer is definitely over.)

Bea and Tom got a camper for us to stay in, and we are eternally grateful. Most people were camping and it looked disgusting. We had to walk through the campsites to get in and out of the festival, and it looked like a garbage dump. It smelled even worse.

Despite the gross campers, it was a really fun weekend. I got separated from everyone on Friday night, which was a bit scary in a crowd of 40,000 people, but I kept my cool and was reunited an hour later. I've learned my lesson that Andrew and I should probably tether ourselves to one another.

There was good food (I found a churro stand and indulged twice), and really amazing music. Jenny Lewis was excellent, Paulo Nutini was great live, Andrew loved Metronomy, and we both agreed that Beck was the best. His set was class, but I would have watched his concert on mute if I had to, because the dancing was excellent and he can really rock a hat.

All in all, we had a great time. Andrew especially.

We capped the relatively crazy weekend by catching a bus to Dublin immediately after Beck ended at 11pm. From there, we caught another bus up to Belfast at 1am, arriving at 3:30am. Our long journey ended with a cab ride back to Bangor, walking in the door at 4am. The worst part of this weekend came when I realized I accidentally booked our cat-sitter for the wrong weekend. The cats were alone for almost three full days - I'm the worst!

supermoon

We had a supermoon last Sunday, 10 August. It was super. You can't tell how super it is from this picture, but man oh man was it super.

Also, we've been having a pretty super summer. A lot of great (sea)food. Just a wee snippet of what we've been eating.

Finally, we can't tell you how super it is to have non-stop sunlight. It never even gets totally dark here in the height of summer. Also, we get some SUPER sunsets SUPER late at night. It's now August and it already feels a bit like "winter is coming" as it's getting colder (pretty quickly) and darker earlier (pretty quickly) - although it's almost 10pm in mid-August and it's still not totally dark yet. Super!

As always, there are way more photos on flickr.

In the summertime... (Part III: Chicago, the suburbs)

We left the city on Sunday and headed straight out to Lake Zurich. Elizabeth was on the platform waiting with open arms and it was a welcome sight and an extra welcome hug. I do miss my sister. My boy is two (!) as of 1 June and the celebration was postponed a month for our visit (I don't think he minded or even knew, so that's okay). It's amazing what technology can do - he knows us and loves us even though we're 4,000 miles away most of the time. The party was a smashing success and the birthday cake was excellent.



And everyone was feeling festive (well, I was):

 

After a great morning at the Chicago Botanic Garden with Elizabeth and Charlie, we got a visit with some friends from U-C on Tuesday. Rita kindly offered to host a long-overdue mini-reunion and it was tops to see Ben, Rita, Liz, Tom, Lillianne, Flora, Paul, Jess, and Jason, and to meet Little Andrew and Thomas.

 

On Wednesday, we finally got to see Kara and Brian's place, and then a belated Father's Day dinner. And then on to Orland. Elizabeth, Andrew, and I took Charlie to the OP pool on Thursday, where I proceeded to feel a bit sick due to the overwhelming amount of sun I took in: my body has fully acclimated to clouds and it simply doesn't know what to do with sunlight. It's a sworn enemy at this point.

Friday 4 July was the Kennedy family picnic and 4th of July extravaganza. The hotdog wagon was out in full-force and I got my second tamale of the trip!!! Also, a short bit of relaxing in the sun.

There is no way I could have fit every wonderful thing we did into this, as it was a super packed two weeks, so extra photos are on flickr if you're interested.

Saturday: homeward bound. (Not for Andrew, though - a week in Cambridge first.) Sunday: actual arrival home for Melissa. The cats sure did miss us. 

A quick jaunt down to Dublin for the day on Tuesday to meet with an old friend. Well worth the day and interesting to plug into the world of English literature academia.

In the summertime... (Part II: Chicago, the city)

Arriving in Chicago on Friday 27 June, we checked in to our hotel and I met Marisa for the afternoon: manicure and pedicure in preparation for the wedding the next day (the real impetus for our trip home (the wedding, not the mani/pedi)). We met up with the boys for an amazing Mexican dinner (the thing I was most looking forward to on our trip home, as I obviously can't get it anywhere nearby, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the whole island is Mexican-food-free). Andrew just reminded me that we found a lonely ten-dollar bill poking out of the jukebox next to our table, which was just waiting to defer the costs of our dinner: score!

Saturday was a whirlwind, as weddings often are: Marisa + Dave! It's been a long time coming, but these two are the best and there was never any doubt we'd come home to celebrate with them. I wouldn't/couldn't have missed it for the world. This was really the thing I had most been looking forward to on this trip (sorry, Mexican food!). Marisa was the most gorgeous bride I've ever seen, truly. And Dave looked class, too. These two looked like celebrities walking out at the reception.

And boy was the reception amazing. Great music, a night of dancing, excellent food (they even had the Tamale Spaceship come to feed everyone delicious tamales near the end of the night), and an opportunity to catch up with some very old friends. I gave a small speech, and I could never have said everything that should be said to these two - they're two of the best people I know and I really wish them only happiness for ever and ever. And I know they'll have it. It was a fantastic day all around.

Onward and upward (or more accurately, outward...) to the 'burbs and my all-time favorite boy: he's two!