Harry's Visit in June!

We had a lovely, much anticipated visit from my brother Harry in June, and he came and went far too quickly. He spent a week with us, then was off to Hawaii for 10 days, and then came back for 3 or 4 days.

Lots of fun was had - I kept my work schedule to a minimum while he was here so that we could enjoy the time together. Some of the highlights included going spending some time in downtown Chicago (he also spent a day there by himself, going on an open deck bus tour); brunching at Walker Bros Original Pancake House (rated one of the best places for breakfast on the north shore of Chicago, and one of our favourite spots); lunching at Tapas Barcelona (again, a fave eatery of mine in Evanston); dinner out with friends Drew and Dana at Cafe Bar Bar Reeba (yet another Spanish joint); lunch at Andies, a lovely Mediterranean restaurant not too far from us; and various other yummy places. Yes, we did make it to the Cheesecake Factory, and to Coldstone Creamery on a couple of occasions!
But we didn't only EAT during his visit :). Eric took a couple of Fridays off and one day we visited the Lincoln Park Zoo (Harry came all the way from Africa to gawk at lions), and another we took a day trip out to Shipshewana (Amish country).

This was a very interesting day, and Eric's folks were lovely enough to drive out from Detroit to spend the day with us, as it was kind of a halfway point between Chicago and D-town. It was the first time I've been to Amish country myself - prior to this the closest encounter I've had with Amish people was film class in the 12 grade when we had to watch "Witness" over and over and over again.

We had lunch in a cute little diner frequented by local Amish people, checked out an Amish furniture shop and chatted with the staff there, and also visited Menno-Hof, an anabaptist history museum. Fascinating - and I came away with an even deeper appreciation for the Mennonite story.

Another huge highlight of the trip was Harry treating us all to tickets to see the Broadway musical Wicked! This was the second time I've seen it, and it truly is a magical show. No pun intended. I could watch it over and over again - thanks Harry for such a wonderful evening! Even Eric came away having enjoyed it immensely, and he's not really a musical kinda guy.

It was also very special for us to have Harry come to Living Water a couple of Sundays, and to introduce him to many of our friends here. One evening we also had a little party at our place so he could mingle more with our friends (and I made a yummy strawberry rhubarb crisp, and spinach dip with produce from our first CSA delivery!)

Ah, and my recap of Harry's time with us wouldn't be complete without including the fact that we had HOURS and HOURS of fun playing Settlers of Catan!

All in all it was a great trip, certainly from our perspective, and we really enjoyed spending quality time with my big brother. Harry, we hope you come back soon!