We are just back from a couple of days in Chicago, where we were constantly fed by his parents and met up with a number of Marc’s high school friends at his reunion weekend.

The downtown Millennium Park has free performances throughout summer so on Friday we went to catch “Gloria”, Debussy's “La Demoiselle Elue” and Ravel’s “Bolero”. Our favorite was definitely “Bolero”, which mesmerizes with its repeated rhythms and melody, each time getting increasingly intense and faster as more and more instruments join in the cacophony. What great fun!

Marc’s mom and dad fed us well the whole time we were in Chicago, having ordered New England farmed oysters and mussels, as well as some crab claws. It was a good thing Marc worked hard Sunday morning, running 26.2 miles in 2:35 along Lakeshore drive as part of his marathon training. His dad got up early too and biked with him the whole way. Considering that we had spent Saturday evening drinking with his high school friends at the reunion, had a late night, and that Marc hadn’t eaten anything before heading out for his 6:30am run, he did really well. Shuwen tried to make up for all the food by running some and participating in yoga sessions Marc’s mother taught on Friday and Monday.

The weather was beautiful during the few days we were in Chicago, with manageably cool mornings that allowed for relatively comfortable runs. We went to the beach on Sunday for a cookout with some of Marc’s high school friends, which was a perfect day for that, so not surprisingly it got rather crowded after a while. Shuwen had never been to a freshwater beach before, so that was strange but a wonderful experience since one don’t have to deal with salt-crusted stuff afterwards. There were a number of sail boats out taking advantage of the great weather and breeze going across the lake.

Uncle Phil came over for dinner Sunday evening, and the five of us got to play two round of Petanque outside together. Mom was a monster out there, which resulted in her & Marc having a resounding 10-1 win against Dad and Phil.

We were greeted by a few ripe tomatoes, peppers and squashes from our garden upon our return. Shuwen was just glad the plants survived the NC summer heat during our brief absence, so these were bonuses!

~ Shuwen & Marc