Relaxing in Moline, IL–judy’s .02 

Hi, everyone!  Relaxing by the pool and finally starting to feel like myself again after an absolutely gorgeous and wonderfully exhausting Csipke Tabor, a little annual nirvana of Hungarian friends, folk music, and folk dance near Brooklyn, Michigan.  I’m starting to get caught up on sleep and energy after having stayed up until 2-4am most nights for a week, and dancing and singing all day to boot.  Even my aching knees are almost back to normal.

The pics below are in reverse order–I’ll fix everything later from a larger screen and with an internet connection

​​
Chicago was great, as Noel reported.  Very fun city just to walk around in. The architecture is amazing:  such a contrast between the old buildings and the new architecture, beautiful parks, flowers, and monuments, great food, and crazy drivers and pedestrians.  (Yes, crazier than the ones in NYC.  And New York pizza is still the best.) We walked down to the beach at Lake Michigan, right in the city, which was completely weird for us.  It feels just like an ocean, with sand, birds, etc., but of course, without the stickiness of salt water. Sophie especially was blown away by the fresh water.
We stayed at the beautiful James Hotel in the middle of the city, which was quite a treat after being at camp all week.
Another highlight of our visit was the amazing and incomparable Art Institute of Chicago. I have a minor in Art History, and it was amazing seeing so many original works of art that I had studied about over 30 yrs ago.

Now we are staying in an absolutely sweet place (Stoney Creek Hotel) in Moline, and we plan to leave soon across Iowa, heading to Omaha for dining, making music, and hanging with friends tonight.  I hope there will be fireworks somewhere to start celebrating Sophie’s 18th bday (7/4).  After that, we head for the Badlands in SD!