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we decided we were up for one more trip before the little one came. so, we packed our bags and flew out to chicago to visit sarah and zach. they have a really nice apartment right in wrigleyville, with convenient access to not one, but two little shops that sell expensive things for babies. one of them was in the bottom floor of their building, allowing us to ensure that our flights were not the most expensive part of our trip.

here’s lillis thinking about some things she might buy.

here she and i are at lincoln park. in all my trips to chicago (including working there for 6 months) and all the times i’d been in lincoln park (the area), i’d never actually seen lincoln park zoon. we went there, though, to do a photo shoot with s and z’s kid amelia and her buddy eleanor. i actually didn’t go inside the zoo, but lillis did. she said their restrooms were very nice.

saturday day, we walked all over wrigleyville. past the stadium, down to the lake. we watched the sail boats and the water crashing against the retaining wall. the little pregnant girl was a trooper. we probably covered 4 or 5 miles but she still turned down the offer of a cab for the ride home. on saturday night we “just” went out to uncommon ground for dinner. they grow a lot of their own produce on the roof and do things organic. it was very good. just as fun for lillis, was our trip to dairy queen after.

on sunday we did a bit of baby shopping after we had eaten breakfast. then, we decided to go take the frank lloyd wright tour (something else that had been on my “list” for quite some time). the area in between downtown and Oak Park is probably not as nice as it was in frank’s day. you know you’re not in the best area when places are advertising that they have “human” hair.

here’s amelia out in front of frank’s place.

and dancing!

one more of the flw houses

and here are a couple of the pics from our photo shoot.

we had a great time visiting with good friends……and had just enough time at the tail end to get some deep dish pizza at Giordano’s near the airport. good times!

realized i never got around to posting anything from the penn state game, so here goes…..

so, jason and brian headed up to tuscaloosa where they met up with kent and patrick (owner of the bama cruiser). they headed up to dc (which i flew into) and picked up me, jeremy, and my buddy jeff there. we then headed northward and into big 10 country.

the floodwaters were high in PA as we came cruising in. here, their random statue of liberty in the middle of a river is almost swamped by the muddy, brown water.

a key feature of the rv is the ability to have a good time while you’re travelling. for us, that involved a 4-some at Augusta National.

when we rolled into state college, beaver stadium welcomed us like a friend. like a friend who was going to be so nice as to let us have free reign of their house. : )

i think we managed to work bacon into every meal. this is me grilling some breakfast

WOW. i totally forgot about that 78/79 sugar bowl game. i really thought penn state had won that one.

prior to the game kent already had his game face on. this is a look that says, i’m gonna appear on the tv broadcast tonight.

here we are just prior to heading in. the tide is ready to roll

the penn state band lines up in significantly more elaborate formations than does their offense.

here we are with the game firmly in hand. jeff had been intrigued by the number of digits on the nittany lion’s hands. apparently different lion schools have different numbers of “pads” on their paws. anyway, every time we heard the lion “roar” we gave the 5 clawed lion salute. abc appreciated it.

jeremy and me after the games’s end

kent and our gracious captain of the ss bama. the baddest rv in the land. drive safely fans!

we shot out to breckenridge for a quick weekend trip with lil’s family. 2.5 days was kind of short, but we got to do lots of fun stuff, and Lil finally got to see the little nephew (Graeme) who she had been dying to see (and Facebook stalking) for 6 months.

Jonathon had been a rafting guide with Noah’s Ark out there, and took us out on his river. It was a blast, although the water was freezing. I learned that lesson pretty well about 2 seconds after this picture. : )

lots of pretty flowers outside our house. the house was just above the topmost lodge on the mountain there. there were beautiful views all around. bright sun, lots of flowers, but snowcapped mountains standing behind. just gorgeous.

here is lil with graeme (in his chariot) and nola. we were out for a morning walk

one of the aforementioned gorgeous views.

and another. this is the house that was next door to us (at sunset)

graeme and i are both very handsome, we both have awesome shades, and both of our favorite parts about biking Vail Pass was that we started at the top and so i think i pedalled about 12 times during the 13 mile bike ride.

here are lil and i right before we set out

and here’s the whole group a few miles in.

ok, some pictures of the subject of lil’s adoration.

this was his first time having solid foods. he did not find it to be a pleasant experience

luckily, with nola’s help, they found an easy method of cleaning him : )

here are lil and her dad

and here are my two girls after a short hike to a waterfall

this is lil’s whole family just before we pulled out of breck

and one of me and the princess.

having only been to breck in the winter before, i was very impressed with summer there. just gorgeous, and the town is really neat and has so much going on. it wouldn’t be a bad place to spend a month : ) there’s a bunch more pics here if you care. thanks!