What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Part the Second- with cute babies, bird and human

We spent the last few days with our oldest daughter and her family in Schaumburg, IL (west of Chicago). They have a 9 month  old baby boy. It was great to spend some time with them. We did a little shopping, went to a (rather lame) Fourth  of July carnival, tasted some wine, and had a nice little visit. We did manage to get out for bike rides every morning. Schaumburg (and the area) is very bike friendly, with trails and bike paths all over. We did several different trails.

The only down side was the heat. Temps were in the high 90's most days, and hit over 100 more than once. We got up early to do the bike rides, since I really did not want to be out there when the temps hit 92 at 10 AM. Lots of water, and reasonble rest breaks, and we managed to do several 10-12 mile rides, and two at 6 or so miles. Which  is good because-

We had dinner on Thursday night at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill in Chicago. John stayed home with the baby, since he is teething and is a bit on the cranky side, especially when he gets tired (the baby, not John!). It was a bit of a downer not having all of them with us, but it was really nice having dinner with Jill. It was really, really good! Jill had a tuna tartare that was like butter it was so fresh. My appetizer was smoked salmon- wow! For entrees, we chose from the trios menus- three diffferent samples of thier main dishes. I had the street food sampler- short ribs, duck, and goat cheese. Really delicious. Well worth it, all the way.

And now the picture tour:

Carter, busy doing baby things:

Carter with Grandpa:

 Along one of the rides in Schaumburg:

 Yes, there is a great blue heron waaaaaaay over there-

 A cormorant on the water:







On our last ride, we stopped for a rest and water break at a picnic pavillion. We were strafed by a flock of swallows, who flew around and around and into the pavillion, over and over:



And then we figured out why:

(It's a bit drk, but yes, a nest. There was one in every corner joist. This one originally had two little birds but I guess they were close to fledging because a moment later:)



We took the video and pics and left them alone. But they are cute!

Now we are in Ohio (I type this on Saturday, Jly 7). Dinner at one of Michael Symon's B-Spot burger places tonight. Yummy!!! Tomorrow, we head to Endicott, NY to spend a few days with the BaldMan's parents, then home on Tuesday. It has been a really nice couple weeks, and I have enjoyed all of it, but it will be good to be home.