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Bob and I were able to spend a few gorgeous late-summer weather days in Chicago at Bob’s nephew and wife’s house both before and after their wedding.  They live in a great area of town — within a mile of the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory and Lake Michigan and about 2 miles from Wrigley Field.  They are also right off the brown line on the El and near lots of great restaurants and shopping.  We took advantage (within limit so) of our proximity to Whole Foods.  

In terms of sightseeing, we tried to see areas of town that we hadn’t explored much before and that were free cuz that’s how we roll these days.  One of the first places we visited was the Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory.  Both were free, very impressive, and pretty busy for a Friday afternoon.

 

After the wedding, we met up with my Aunt Dee who lives south of the loop .  It was a lovely Sunday afternoon, so we walked two hours from the Lincoln Park area to a neighborhood closer to the McCormick Center.  The walk gave us an opportunity to see a lot of different neighborhoods, and we were rewarded with a great meal at a tapas restaurant and an introduction to Mariano’s, a poor man’s Whole Foods, by my aunt.

 

One day we walked into downtown via the beautiful Lakefront Trail which was also my running route during our stay.

On Labor Day, the day after the wedding, my sister picked Bob and I in Naperville and took us to her new house in Rockford, IL.  We spent our time with her exploring the Rockford area as well as visiting other relatives in the area.

We spent a lovely half-day in Madison with my Aunt (and godmother) Terri who we had also visited in Seattle.

On Wednesday evening, Brenda took us to the Rockford Conservatory where we listened to a great local band and viewed a light installation by Bruce Munro.

On Thursday, we spent a great day at the very beautiful Starved RockState Oark outside of Utica, IL.  We definitely want to come back!



Bob and I flew from Florida to Chicago for some serious family time highlighted by our nephew, and Bob’s godson’s wedding.  It was a perfect weekend with Bob’s family.  The festivities began on Saturday with an afternoon Cubs game –and the Cubs won!

The wedding and reception were in Naperville, home of the bride and bride’s parents.  It’s a beautiful community.

Some photos from the rehearsal dinner, wedding, and reception —



I can’t believe we have been out of our Florda house sit for almost two weeks!  While we have been busy seeing family in Illinois and Wisconsin, we have checked in with our home owners to learn that they have survived Hurricane Irma with no damage to their home and no loss of electricity. We are still amazed at the devastation facing much of Texas and Florida (and the Caribbean) from Harvey and Irma (and, if you have seen their photo on Twitter, they seem like such a nice elderly couple!)

Some final photos from our stay in The Villages —

We managed to hit all 5 of the recreation centers with fitness facilities and perused and/or visited some of the Country Clubs.



Some other photos of our exploration of the community —

And one last tribute to two wonderful dogs —

Bob and I have been having a pretty laid-back time in The Villages with our two dogs.  We (as in Bob) are now golf-cart driving and parking pros.  We like that the golf cart is electric-powered and definitely enjoy golf cart traffic “jams” rather than car ones.  We have also bonded with our sweet dogs who enjoy treats, play time and/or walks,  and time at the dog park.

 

One of the advantages of golf cart riding is the ease of snapping photos en route of the beautiful local scenery.  See some “moving” pics below —

 

We have also spent some time checking out the various town squares and recreation centers.

 

We found a nature center to visit as well.  The Sharon Rose Weichens Preserve is a wildlife refuge in The Villages.



Bob and I are living the good life in The Villages, Florida, a retirement community about 45 miles northwest of Orlando.  It is an active area with over 36 golf courses, and we are learning how to tool around the area in the home owners golf cart.  We had a lovely transition with the owners on Thursday evening before they headed off Friday morning.  We are caring for their beautiful home and caring for their 2 great dogs — Reagan, a 9 year old Labrador Retriever, and Winter, a 3 year old Golden Retriever.  They are sweet, sweet dogs who love their ice cream and peanut butter treats.  Walks and chasing geckos is pretty okay too.

The Villages is a beautiful, active community with numerous recreation centers that offer a full slate of classes or groups in which to participate. We have guest passes from our home owners that allow us access, and we can access the fitness facilities for $5 per day.  In addition to the recreation centers and golf courses, there are also 3 town squares with dining and retail options, including nightly entertainment that begins at 5.  It also seems like there are more hours of the day designated as happy hours than times that are not!

After our lovely Charlottesville house sit, Bob and I rented a car to drive to West Virginia to visit our 47th state with just Montana, North Dakota, and Hawaii yet to visit.  We stayed in Lewisburg, WV, about a 2 hour drive from Charlottesville.  Lewisburg is a small town of about 4,000 located in Greenbrier County (Greenbrier is a popular name in these parts).  It has a cute historic downtown and lots of opportunities for hiking.

One of the best parts of our stay was a visit to Beartown State Park an ara of massive fragmented boulders and deep crevasses surrounded by almost rain forests-like vegetation.  It is a short hike along a boardwalk but really unique.  We even saw a bit of “wildlife.”

 

The Greenbrier River Trail is a 78 mile long trail that is a repurposed former railroad that follows the Greenbrier River.  The trail is used for hiking, biking, cross country skiing, and horse back riding.   There are a number of campsites and other lodging opportunities along the route.  Bob and I did an 8.2 mile out-and -back section starting at Horrock, not far from the Beartown State Park.

The morning of our second day in West Virginia, we spent walking around the very, gorgeous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs.  This historic landmark has been open since 1778.  Along with the many hotel amenities and natural beauty, the site also contains natural mineral springs which were the original draw for visitors.

Fun facts about the Resort:

If you follow golf, you may know that this is the home of the Greenbrier Classic which is played around the 4th of July every year.

While we were there, the Houston Texans were staying at the resort and holding their training camp.

From the resort, we drove into downtown White Sulphur Springs.  It was pretty small, but there was a nice memorial to the victims of last year’s flood and a store related to the DIY network show — Barnwood Builders.  We were not familiar with the show but had read articles about it in the local papers, as the six individuals on the show are from West Virginia.

On Sunday, Bob and I headed to the George Washington National Forest in nearby Nelson County to hike Crabtree Falls.  To get there, we drove part of the gorgeous Blue Ridge Parkway.  This road is apparently America’s longest linear park, though free to drive on (at least in Virginia).  The road is 469 miles long, runs through North Carolina and Virginia, and connects the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks.  We barely scratched the surface but did stop at a couple of overlooks for some photo ops.

 

Crabtree Falls is one of the tallest sets of waterfalls in the US east of the Mississippi River.  it seems to be as the place where hikers go to get in the water (disobeying multiple posted signs) with less than good resulted.  We enjoyed the hike on a gorgeous 70 degree day!  



Our last two hikes in Virgnia have been in very popular spots so have been much more crowded than our usual haunts.  Both the Natural Bridge State Park and Crabtree Falls (separate post) were impressive though very different.  The Natural Bridge State Park is a little over an hour drive from Charlottesville in Natural Bridge, VA.  The town and state park are named for the natural stone bridge that everyone comes to see and which has ties to 2 former presidents. Thomas Jefferson purchased 157 acres of land, including the Natural Bridge, from King George in 1774.  See below for the 2nd president associated with the site.

The $8/person entry fee gives you access to a main trail which takes you under the bridge, through a replica of a Monacan Indian village, into a saltpeter cave, and ends at a falls.  The state park also has a couple of other trails that you can currently hike for free.  Also in the town of Natural Bridge, to take advantage of the tourist traffic, is a hotel, caverns, a zoo, and some kind of amusement park.

After walking the popular trail, Bob and I drove up the road a bit to walk the much quieter Monacan Trail. As is more typical for us, we had the 3.3 mile trail to ourselves.

After our hike, we had a look through the Visitor Center gift shop and them walked under the street to the Natural Bridge Historic Hotel and Conference Center.  A space for people to come and stay after visiting the site has been in existence on the property since Jefferson built a guest cabin there shortly after buying the land.   While it is a beautiful hotel, we saw photos of the lovely original wooden structure built on the current location (built in1890) with wrap-around porches that burned down in 1963 (cause unknown).

On our way out of town, we stopped at the local amusement park for a quick photo op with a big head.



Bob and I welcomed our family home from Mexico Monday night before heading off for West Virginia for a short break before our next house sit.  We will miss our menagerie of pets, some of whom are captured below. 

The following are some photos of other places we visited during our stay.  One of the most unique may have been the Waltons Museum in Schuyler, VA, home of Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of the television series.  The series was based on the Hamner family.  You can pay to tour the museum ($8) and separately to tour his family home (which appears to be for sale).  We just visited the museum.

Other sites in the area that we visited included some of the many, many wineries, distilleries, and breweries in the area .  We never did get to any of the hard cideries.



Cheers to Charlottesville!