I'm home

Jeanne and Jay got off about 8:15 am and I got a text from Jeanne that they got home about 8:35 pm.  A long day for her.

I hung around at Don and Margie's.  Don came home during his lunch break and drove me to the airport.  I still had plenty of time to have my Chicago hot dog and Chicago cheesecake plus a glass of wine.

I landed around 7 pm and got on the MAX to head home.  Some kid was playing the ukulele and singing.  Puff the Magic Dragon and This Land is Your Land.  He did a little creative wording.  Part way home the MAX seem to have some troubles sou we had to transfer to another train.  Giselle got me home.  That was nice.  Got home to a mess of a street.  I was hoping that the repaving would be finished by the time I got home but no such luck. George's plane was delayed (he was delayed on his way to Chicago also) so he may not be home until 11 pm.

Graduation Day - Sunday May 18

Couldn't resist.  One more mailbox

The crowds at graduation. It was a perfect day.

Martin's section the engineers.

The valedictorian was from the Architecture degree.  It was funny.  All of them did something unusual with their caps.  I took pictures of many of them.  The one below is the one the valedictorian made.

Fun

Many attempts with picture taking.  So they had the big graduation for everyone at 9 am.  Great speakers.  But it was 2 hours.  

We gathered after the big ceremony and the we had lunch.  Some of us had lunches that were provided and some of us had made sandwiches.

After lunch we went to another building for the small graduation where they actually handed out the diplomas.  

Martin Walker Singer

Then we went back to the house.  WE had a meal of Mediterranean food that they had ordered delivered. Then Jeanne, Nathan and I headed off back to Chicago to take Nathan to the airport.  Then we went to Don and Margie's.  I will spend the night here before flying home tomorrow.  

Not sure what this is.  A little chocolate cake with some mushroom shaped icing or something.  No one wanted to eat it.  I had a small piece of cheesecake.

Saturday

My praline french toast was a hit

We all went on a walk.

then we went to Notre Dame for lunch

I did not get a picture of the cafeteria.  What a zoo.  It was all you can eat but so many choices of different types of food.  I guess the students get tired of it but it seemed good to me.

Georges's brother, Rob and our nephew and his girlfriend, Robbie and Charisee joined us for lunch.  Then we went to a chocolate factory for a tour of the factory.

We had to all wear hair nets and George and Nathan had to wear beard nets as well.

I was not overly impressed with the factory.  The free sample was oood.  

We got to dip our our chocolate spoons.

On the way back to the house we had to stop at a toy store to get more parts to the Settler's game so more people could play.  The power is out in part of the city.  They are expecting to have it fixed by Monday.  So the store we went into was dark.  They handed out flashlights.  All the traffc signals are out.  Not bothering Notre Dame.

A fun game of Settlers with 6 people.

We had a dinner of left-overs and sandwiches.

Guinesss

The house from across the lake.

We played a big group card game.with 9 of us.  That was fun.  We topped the evening out with brownies and ice cream.

Friday, May 16

There was a nice sitting area upstairs in front of our room and Jeanne's room.  I sat there with my morning coffee and worked on the computer until Jeanne got up.  We shifted chairs around so actually there are sine comfortable chairs there now.

We chatted until she finished her coffee before we went on a walk.   Brrrrr.  36 degrees!!! What a contrast from NC.  It was also sprinkling so we did not walk far.

same design mail box that we saw in NC

We did not see any nudist.  I guess 36 degrees was discouraging for them.

/Another mailbox

Simple breakfast of cereal.  Pretty much what we have had all week.  Dorothy had brought some food.  We played some card games and relaxed and talked.  Soon it was time for lunch.  Dorothy had brought a curried cauliflower stew and broccoli salad.  After lunch Jeanne and I went grocery shopping.  Tried to plan for meals.  We got has far as tomorrow breakfast.

Got home and played more games.  Jeanne has gotten a chance to play Settler's of Catan so she is happy.  George Singer arrived in the after noon.

Dorothy and Ed went to pick up Martin and bring him here for a short visit before they went out.  While they were playing Settlers I got dinner going.  An entirely vegetarian meal: roasted carrots, Kale and butternut squash and corn on the cob.  I can see that we did not buy enough wine so tomorrow I am sure that we will be back grocery shopping.   Browines and ice cream for dessert.

Really fell down on the job.  I only got a picture of the carrots.

Got everything ready for the Praline French Toast for tomorrow.  

Having fun.

From lake shore to lake shore

Jeanne made dinner Wednesday night.  Sweet and Sour meatballs with broccoli, corn and salad.  Another very good meal.  I have been eating way too well.

Yesterday was a long travel day.  Up at 5 am to get going to the airport.  On the drive to the airport all of our phones started chiming with a weather alert - possible tornado warning!! Luckily it did not turn into anything.  Our flight took off on schedule and we arrived in Chicago 20 minutes early.  We went to Jay's brother's home to hang out.  We had to wait until Nathan arrived.  He was scheduled to arrive at 5:30 pm but his flight was delayed an hour.  We had a nice lunch with Trudy (a college friend of ours).  We went to the Stone Eagle Tavern which was a very interesting restaurant plus it had good food.

They had a lot of antiques around.  The thing on the right is an old barber shop scissor and comb sterilizer.  

'

While at Don and Margie's we took a side trip to Italy :-) I had to buy a sweatshirt.  I had not packed appropriately for the range of temperatures.

Interesting sculpture near the airport

After picking up Nathan at the airport we drove to my nephew, Robbie's apartment.  They had ordered pizza. George and Madeline had arrived earlier and had gone directly to Robbie and Charisee's place.

Delicious deep dish pizza

After dinner we headed out to go to South Bend.  Drove along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago then headed into Indiana.  We had a brief loop in to Michigan and then back into Indiana.  I am glad that we had my GPS.  This house would have been impossible to find in the dark.  This is an interesting house.  It supposed to sleep 16.  It is by a lake called Chain-of-Lakes.  The lake we left in NC was called High Rock Lake.  We left weather in the 80s with 80% humidity and woke up to 36 degrees here.  

This is George and my room.  It also has a small sitting area off to the side.

This is the view out behind the house.  We did not see it until the morning.