Chicago = Grandchildren & Picnics

We spent a few days in Chicago visiting the grandchildren and our son & daughter-in-law.

One negative about living in FL is that we are further away from the grandchildren.

We try to visit them once a quarter.

 The weather was perfect when we were there in September.

Three out of the five days I was there we had picnic lunches!

Picnic lunch 'one" was at the Field Museum.

We went on "free" day which was a bonus!

They have a great children's play area.

Lunch was in a nice shady spot next to Lake Michigan.

Picnic "two" was near our son's place of employment.

We walked a couple of miles from the apartment to our son's gallery.

Then we walked a couple of blocks to the park!

After we ate lunch our son had to go back to work.

We stayed at the park & the grandchildren had a blast playing.

Picnic "three" was by the river after church on Sunday.

We stopped in at Trader Joes & bought lunch fixins.

Since it was Labor Day weekend there was a lot of river traffic to watch.

After lunch & people watching we packed up & continued to walk along the river.

As we made our way towards one of the train stations we passed by Millennium Park.

The grandchildren knew the routine at the Lurie Garden where there was a shallow stream.

They promptly sat down & started removing shoes & socks so they could go wading.

Evidently they had done this before!!

I didn't dare take my shoes & socks off 

because I wouldn't have wanted to put them back on.

We still had to walk/ride home!!

Everyone was exhaustd by the time we got home,

but we had such a good time.

 

Home Maintenance

One afternoon while standing at the kitchen counter, I was rudely surprised when  . . .

part of the lanai ceiling collapsed. 

When that happened I quickly checked the garage ceiling & the front porch ceiling.

The garage ceiling was fine, but the porch ceiling had a crack in it. 

Now we had to clean up the mess and find someone that could do drywall repair 

in a timely manner because we were planning another visit to see the precious grandchildren.

 

I pulled out "The Highlander" our trusty neighborhood paper

where there are always ads for service providers.

There were some great ads for drywall contractors,

so I started making phone calls to schedule estimates. 

 

After we settled on the contractor we found out he had done work for the realtor that had helped us find this house & that he was a member of BNI (Business Networking International). 

I felt confident that we had made a good choice!

 

The repair work took 1 1/2 days & 

they did an excellent job!!

 

I had been in the process of getting estimates for 

new gutters & downspouts before the lanai ceiling collapsed.

I chose a contractor for the gutter job & they came the day after the ceilings were repaired.

 

I had also been wanting to get the electrical panel upgraded.

The electrician came after the gutters were installed.

We got all that done in three days with two days to spare before

leaving to visit the grandchildren!

 

Hopefully there won't be any more improvement/repair projects for awhile.

 

 

Hiking Home Base

Our home base in Fairfiled, CO while we hiked was here at A Riverside Inn Hotel.

Restaurants of Fairfield - 

down the road at the local bowling alley/restaurant

 Right next door -

we did not sample the ice cream.

One afternoon we walked to downtown Fairfield.

There were a lot of touristy shops, 

but they did have a nice park with a scenic overlook to the river.

 Our rental car after days of driving to trail heads.

The view on our last morning in Fairfield, CO.