Home Sweet Home

We made it home with a very smooth travel day yesterday, arriving back in Orange County around four-ish. Midnight was extremely glad to see us and has completely re-adjusted to having us back home. He was well cared for while we were gone and got a TON of exercise daily. The dog/house sitters seemed to do a really good job and they enjoyed it.

We got straight into normal life, as I was in charge of a dinner potluck at the dance studio last night for their spirit rally for the upcoming competition. Jacob was dancing and participating in the rally and Michela helped me. Marlon and Harrison went to get a few last minute camp items. We were pretty tired by bedtime last night! :)

Today we saw Harrison off to camp. 2 weeks in the San Bernardino mountains with the JCC (Jewish Community Center) camp. He was very excited about it and looking forward to it, but I think a little bit apprehensive. The only time he's been away from home for more than a night was when he went to outdoor ed with the 6th grade earlier this year and that was only 4 days!

I'm sure he'll have a fantastic time, though!

Jacob and Michela are doing different day camps this week. (they didn't want to go to the sleepaway camp, although they could have.) Jacob is doing dance camp (bet you couldn't have figured that one out!) and Michela is doing a softball camp. They'll both have fun.

I'll spend the week getting back to the swing of things and getting organized for the many, many things I have going on. First I need to get laundry done, get suitcases unpacked, and stock up the house with groceries. (We walked with Midnight to our nearby shopping center today for brunch and took my mom out to dinner, but tomorrow we start eating at home again!) Then, I have many important projects that will take my attention: work tops the list, pursuing writing the book that I want to write, starting to really get down to the nitty gritty of planning Harrison's Bar Mitzvah, several household projects, and focusing on health (looking into some medically supervised and more extreme weight loss programs, getting back into my regular swimming routine and starting a new walking routine, more healthy cooking for everyone, etc.) All that PLUS our normal everyday busy life - oh my.

It will take me a bit of time to download the pictures from our trip (all 256 of them!) Actually, I'll download them all to Kodak easyshare and email them to whoever wants to see all of them, but I'll only be posted a sample of them because it would take forever to put them all here and you don't want to see them all anyway!!

I did a brief summary of th0se last few days. Here are more details:

Wed: We went to the Shedd Aquarium. As with all the museums we went to in Chicago, I was very impressed with how nicely the exhibits were done. We saw dolphins, beluga whales, lizards, cool sea horses and many different kinds of fish and marine animals. Harrison and Michela both mentioned that might be interested in working with dolphins, whales, sharks, etc. by studying marine biology. We saw a couple of really fun 4D shows too and had a great lunch in the restaurant overlooking Lake Michigan. In the evening was the UCI reception at the hotel, which Marlon was the "host" of. The kids came in for food (really delicious appetizers that were enough to make dinner) and then they got bored and went back to the room to watch tv. I knew many of the alums, students and other faculty, so I enjoyed an adult evening with everyone. Then I took the kids to the pool, which was surprisingly crowded at 10 p.m.!

Thursday: We skipped the museums that day and had more of a low key day. We ordered room service for breakfast and relaxed in the room watching a tv movie, reading and playing. Then we met my mom's cousin Dorey (who is 97 and going strong) for lunch in the hotel restaurant. marlon joined us for a bit between sessions. We had a nice visit and a nice lunch too. When she left, the kids and I walked around on Michigan Avenue and did some shopping. We had fun in the Hershey chocolate store and looked at all the shops in the Water Tower mall. The kids bought souvenirs and tshirts at Accent Chicago and we bought a few boxes of Frango mints. You can't leave Chicago without buying them because they are a trademark and so yummy. The kids believed me when I said they check your bags at the airport to make sure you bought some! :)

Friday: Marlon finished his conference at 10, so he joined us for the day. We took the free trolley to Navy Pier, where we rode the 150 high ferris wheel and the kids went on this huge swing ride thing. We had a great lunch. We people watched and the kids thought it was really gross that this 50 something year old couple was totally and completely making out in public. Marlon and I thought it was a bit strange too! Then we went on the trolley back to our hotel, where we caught a bus straightaway to take us to the Planetarium, which was another amazing museum. The interactive exhibits were great fun and we saw 3 really good shows that taught us a lot about the solor system, planets, stars, etc. We were lucky because it was open til 10 this particular friday. We took the bus back about 9:15 and had dinner across the street from our hotel at a trendy restaurant called Bandera that had the best hamburgers ever.

Then we went back to the room, packed up and went to sleep.

That's it - our whole trip in a nutshell (well, not so nutshell-ish since I gave a lot of details.) I hope you enjoyed reading the various posts about our adventures. Feel free to comment! Pictures will come soon - probably a few a day for awhile.