Finally!

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to finally catch up with Swatchy blogging!

My sister Celeste (above, on the left) is the proud owner of Swatchy here, who has been to China among other places with her on her many voyages. Celeste and I relocated from east coast to west this past May, when I brought Swatchy along on the 11 day cross-country trip to get to Portland, Oregon. This was my first time on a road trip like this, and away from the east coast at all! The above photo is the hand-off, Celeste on the left (she is pregnant with twins and ended up having to make the trip via plane), me (Laurie) in the middle, my friend Phil on the right.

For the first three days of driving my photos were pretty boring, you won't miss those, right? We made our way from Cape Cod, Massachusetts (where my parents live) to Adrian, Michigan (where Phil's parents live)... but it was raining and we didn't stop much. So, I'll skip all that and hop right into Chicago, our first major destination.

Phil had been to Chicago quite often, having grown up in Michigan, but for me this was the city that marked having left familiar territory. I really loved it, though the weather was raw and cold. Swatchy had a good time, too, though we had to rush a bit through the city. Here we are at Millennium Park. Behind Swatchy and below: the Jay Pritzker Pavillion, designed by the architect Frank Gehry.

Warming up over coffee and dinner:

Above is the Lurie Garden, designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel. Below, sadly, we didn't have time to take the train... there's always next time...


The Chicago Tribune building is very beautiful, with all of these strange adornments :

Wow, so much to see in Chicago! Next time we will visit the Art Institute and go further into the city, but for a couple hours in the afternoon Phil and Swatchy and I enjoyed getting to know a new and beautiful city. Sorry for such big photos, I'll get better about that in my next post. ;)