Home Again

Wren Living In Our Gourd

6:26

Well, we are back at the lake after a fun weekend in Chicago, visiting with Evie's side of the family.  Right now, it's 7:00, clouding up as if it's going to rain and 53º.  Needless to say, it's overcast and the wind has picked up appreciably since I woke up at 6:30.  I did get in a half hour paddle, windy and choppy on way out but calm on the way back, with few waterfowl.

Kayak Morning

 Yesterday we were up early in Oak Park and decided to just face the Chicago traffic, leaving at 6:45.  And miracles do happen as we literally made it through the city and were on our way to Indiana within 25 minutes.  Traffic was worse the night before at 9:30 when we were coming home from the Cubs game.  There's not a lot to say, then, about the next long eight hours.  The traffic was light through Chicago, then Indiana and Ohio, with only a couple of stops for something to eat or coffee.
We were on toll roads most of the way from Indiana to Cleveland where we finally got off #80 and drove through light traffic in downtown Cleveland.  Our last stop was at the Ohio border where gas is forty cents cheaper a gallon than in New York or Pennsylvania.

A Sunny Chautauqua Welcome

We were home at 4:00, eight hours after we left Oak Park as the GPS predicted.  It could not have been a nicer Spring day when we arrived, blue skies and lake, trees budding, lawn a healthy green and a warm 72º.  Like always, it feels good to be home.  We were tired but happy, quickly put things away and relaxed for an hour.  Around 5:00 for some reason, despite our being tired, we went outside, fired up our two lawn mowers and cut the grass.  Evie loved it, her first grass cutting in months.  We relaxed with a glass of wine on the front porch for the first time this spring, admiring our lawn, smelling the freshly cut grass.

Dusk

We had not thought much about dinner so Evie fried up some potatoes, poured eggs over them, and we had a tasty frittata to go with salad and a bagel, just right.  It felt strange to be back in our TV room, having dinner, watching another Colbert and Jeopardy.  It was if we had never been on a road trip to Chicago.  We both were tired and went up to bed early for us, at 10:00.