We spent the first several days in Chicago. Marcella found this wonderful hotel called The Dana and somehow got us a fantastic rate. So for about three days we walked, and I mean how! We walked all around downtown…from Michigan Avenue in the vicinity of the Water Tower to across the river and south. We walked all through The Art Institute including the newly opened Modern Wing. I can’t even begin to list all the fine things we saw there, but I think one of my favorite exhibitions was the Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper.

One day we took the El to the old neighborhoods that Marcella lived in back when she was a student and she showed me her old residences and the restaurants she used to eat at and so forth, and that was really nice. We had a great breakfast that day too at a place called Ann Sather where the cinammon roll was like the size of your head and delicious.

Later in the evening we took the Architecture Cruise on the Chicago River. I’ve posted a bunch of photos over at Flickr about this. I didn’t go through and name all of the buildings in the photos, but the most obvious ones are named, the rest, well…they are there just to complete the picture. I plan on posting some other photos soon from the beach portion of our trip which came a few days later.

There was lots of fine dining. I’m not going to list all of the restaurants, but there was plenty of good food, you can be sure.

About mid-week we drove out of Chicago and over to South Bend, Indiana to visit Marcella’s Grandma who has a really lovely view of the St. Joseph river. We spent a little family time there visiting with her Grandma and Uncle.

Then we traveled over to Miller Beach, Indiana where we had a little cottage with a gazebo and a path over the dunes and to the beach. This was the more relaxing part of the trip. We sat in the gazebo in the evening and watched the sun setting across Lake Michigan, and in the morning we would enjoy the nice breezes while drinking our coffee before the heat of the day moved in. I’ve got lots of photos from this part of the trip that I haven’t yet posted. Keep your eye out, maybe I can have some up later today, or certainly by the end of the weekend.

This is also the portion of the trip where we visited with Marcella’s sister and her nephews. I think Marcella was very happy to be able to visit with them. We were actually staying in the same neighborhood just a few blocks away and the boys were able to ride their bikes over and hang out with us on the patio one afternoon/evening and just have a good time catching up.

Marcella also had lots of nostalgic moments because Miller Beach is where she grew up, so this was a trip home for her.

Anyway, that sums up the main points of our vacation. Like I say, I hope to have some more pictures up over at Flickr soon.

The drive back wasn’t too bad, and we had our iPods loaded with lots of good music for driving. We were home by early Sunday evening, and then it was back to work on Monday.

Anyway, I went for a bike ride late morning with a buddy of mine at the office. Got in about 20 miles on the regular road bike. it was good to get out and ride with a friend. I really need to start getting back into the habit of riding regularly. I’d like to build up some decent base miles over the winter so that when spring rolls around I can start cranking up the mileage.

Later in the day Marcella and I took Dorian to the vet. It was just a regular checkup really, but Marcella was a little worried that he had been losing weight recently. After some tests however I think the results are good for the time being.

We are planning on taking a drive tomorrow up to Boone and Blowing Rock. We don’t really have a specific agenda, but just want to get out of town for the day and see a little scenery. Which reminds me, I need to take the camera.

Biltmore – 15

Originally uploaded by BasicB

I’ve put a block of photos out on Flickr from our visit on Friday to Asheville and the Biltmore House. Click on this photo to go there and view them.

Here’s a list of things seen and heard during the day:

• Prisoners working on the side of the interstate collecting trash. They were followed by a trailer carrying a porta-potty.
• A song by the band Man Man called “The Ballad of the Butter Beans”
• A hiker walking along I-40 with a backpack; he was 119 miles from Asheville
• A sign for the “Iredell” county-line. I find this name memorable for some reason. I think it is the fusing of the disparate words “Ire” and “Dell” into one word that attracts me.
• More prisoners
• Cows sleeping, or at least lying down, in a dirt field.
• A water tower with a little roof. (I sketched this quickly in my notepad)
• A trailer loaded with canoes
• A sign at exit 133 labeled “Attractions” with no attractions listed, just an empty field of blue
• A girl driving a Prius with a bouquet of yellow flowers sprouting from her dashboard
• Marcella said, “I always like a band that has a xylophone” while listening to some more of Man Man
• A junkyard full of cars on a dirt hillside, the cars were gleaming with dented and smashed chrome
• The Eastern Continental Divide
• Lots and lots of blooming, greening trees
• A great big house with some very cool rooms, such as…

• Library
• Banquet
• Halloween (yes, there is a room they call the Halloween room—awesome)
• Stone hallway in the basement
• Main hallway with the waist high bookshelves filled with cool books and the seemingly endless parade of engravings of people
• Observatory
• Indoor pool

• Many engravings by Albrecht Dürer
• Paintings by John Singer Sargent
• A chess set once owned by Napoleon
• Bicyclists on trails crisscrossing the landscape
• Blue Sky
• Five different wines tasted…

• Pinot Grigio (white)
• Century (white)
• Festival of Flowers (rosé)
• Pinot Noir (red) (my favorite of the five)
• Syrah (red)

• A sign for “Old Fort” which we promptly misread as “Old Fart.” This sign was above another one labeled simply “Bed and Breakfast.” So we giggled for a while about the prospect of staying the night at Old Fart’s B & B.
• An auto dealership amusingly and confusingly named “Rooster Bush”

Years ago I did visit The Breakers, which was the Vanderbilt family’s summer cottage up in Rhode Island. It was plenty impressive. I’m wondering how the Biltmore house stacks up after all the hype.

I think it should be a good day for me and Marcella, the weather is supposed to be in the low 80’s and sunshiney—a good day for a drive, and we’ve got plenty of music and podcasts loaded onto our iPods to listen to.

I’ll try and post a followup either later tonight or tomorrow morning.