Holiday Update #1 – Our Weekend in Chicago

The furkids are nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of T-Bones dance through their heads.

No, we haven’t dropped off the face of the Earth, but Ken and I have, like Ditka and Sox here, settled in to some quiet comfy winter-time here and somehow the blog got left behind.

So I’ll do a few summary updates here….

In early December, we had a wonderful long weekend in Chicago, visiting Trevor’s other family, the Sobut’s.  Amy Sobut has a beautiful home in Palos Park.

 

 

During the weekend we made a visit to the Science and Industry Museum

 Trevor, Ken and Leah studying the man-made tornado

  Trevor and Leah at center of  World Christmas Tree exhibit

Ken and Leah studying an exhibit

We enjoyed several nice Chicago-based restaurants out in the suburbs including Portillo’s/Barnelli’s, Flat Top, and Bella Cafe which is operated by one of Amy Sobut’s good friends. 

Leah’s grandma treated us to the meal at the cafe and our visit with Grandma Sobut was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  She is a tiny, feisty 94-year-old who still lives on her own, is an avid read (like the Wall Street Journal, that is) and is very interesting to talk to.  In size and intellect she reminded me of Hetty (Linda Hunt) on NCIS but I’m betting she was quite the little fox in her day as well! This is on tough tiny lady, having survived her husband and all 3 of her sons, all of whom passed in the last 10 years.

We also got to spend time with our ‘#3 son’ Luke Henke, and his wife, Lindsay.  They live downtown in a little apartment in the Lincoln Park area. 

Leah and Trev drove us downtown to visit them and then we took them all out to dinner at a neighborhood pub, Wilde’s.  If I were going to have to live in the city, their’s is the kind of neighborhood I could enjoy.  Pretty much everything they can be found in small neighborhood shops in walking distance.  In fact, they both use public transit and don’t even own a car.  It is more like the lifestyle I saw in Europe than it is like living in smalltown Quincy.

 

On Sunday, Amy Sobut invited us all to kick back and watch football at her place.  She had a wonderful lasagna dinner topped off later in the evening with a variety of ice creams from the corner ice cream parlor, The Plush Horse.  Apparently King has a thing for their ice cream since he was really wanting Amy to share with him.

It was a really nice weekend and we’re homing that we’ll get to return the Sobut hospitality and have them join us for a weekend in Quincy. 

Hugs, C