"But It's a Dry Heat..."

Rick had the 4th of July off from work, so we decided to take the kids to Chicago to see some sights and check out the Field Museum.  We would never have planned a day outdoors in July in FL, that's just crazy talk.  But we're in the North, now!  It's not that hot!  The humidity is lower!  All of the seasons are now ours to enjoy!

Holy Flaming Heatwave, Batman!

Yeah, we dragged the kids all over downtown Chicago in record high temperatures. 102 without the heat index, tied for July 4, 1911.  Perhaps it wasn't the most stellar parenting, but by golly, they got a good dose of culture and exercise and Quality Family Time, whether they liked it or not.  ;)  And we took pictures.  You can click here to see all of them, but I'll give you some highlights.

Here are the boys outside of Ogilvie Transportation Center, their individual personalities firmly on display.  We're able to take the train in from Elburn, and it's just under 2.5 hours total travel time from our house.

Behold the big shiny buildings!

By the time we'd walked to Millennium Park, we were really feeling the heat, so we headed straight to the Crown Fountain for relief.

 





After a quick spritz, we went to ooh and ahh over the Cloud Gate sculpture.

 

We wandered around the park area for about 2 hours, checking out the amphitheater and the gardens, then we collapsed on a shaded bench, where a friendly passer-by offered to take our picture.

We're melting... meelllllllltiiiiiinnnng!

We had some trouble locating the subway station that would take us to the museum, but we stumbled into this nice little skyscraper/fountain/garden niche where the kids and I took a load off while Rick scouted to find it.

 

Eventually, we made it!  Here they are, inside the lovely air-conditioned Field Museum, newly-purchased Annual Family Membership stickers fresh off the press, standing in front of a T-Rex named Sue.

We explored the Genghis Khan exhibit, which Gabriel really enjoyed.  He's old enough now to read the plaques and look and ponder things, rather than just rushing through.  There were enough Mongolian sabres and whistling arrowheads and trebuchets and giant triple crossbows for launching 6-foot flaming spears to fuel his battle fantasies for weeks.  He also appreciates the philosophy and culture, though -- we learned that the Mongolians were the first people to use a bow on stringed instruments, which was relevant to his interests as a future fiddler.


Seth's choice was Underground Adventures, where you "shrink" to 1/100th of your size to explore soil science from a bug's-eye point of view.  I was really impressed with this exhibit -- soil science is not something I've ruminated much upon, and there's a lot to it.  This made it very accessible and thought-provoking on many different levels.


We had to rush through the Egyptian exhibit, because the museum closes at 5, but I hope we can go back when we have more time.  We just scratched the surface of what The Field has to offer.  Two hours of air-conditioned intellectual stimulation was a nice start, though.


Back out into the heat we trudged, and we took a moment to appreciate the lake-front view with its adjacent skyline.

Then we began our quest to experience authentic Chicago-style deep dish pizza.  On the way, we saw that Columbus Drive had been blocked off by police barricades.  "Perhaps they're preparing for a 4th of July parade, how nice!" we thought.  Then there was a synchronized double-take:

putting the "wave" back in "heat wave"

Yyyeah.  It was so hot, the pavement buckled.  Luckily, no one got hurt.  That's just nuts!


Our pizza quest ended at Lou Malnati's which turned out to be absolutely worth the walk.  The interior was cool and dim, the friendly waitress kept the ice water flowing, and the food was fantastic (and very reasonably priced).  Gabriel declared that the pizza was "indescribably delicious."

A Quest Fulfilled

By the time we got out of Lou's, the sun had begun to set, and it wasn't quite so miserable outside. We took a leisurely walk toward the Sears Willis Tower, enjoying statues and gardens and architecture along the way.  We finally got there, said, "yep, that's pretty tall," then dragged ourselves back to the train station.  It was dark when we pulled out, and the kids got to see a few stray fireworks out the window to complete the 4th of July experience.
We're planning another trip in 2 weeks for Seth's birthday.  We'll be spending the bulk of that excursion inside the Museum of Science and Industry.

I trust that it's air-conditioned.

It's Like They Know Me

Let's go fly a kite

As requested, here are some pictures from the kite flying.

"So, what have you been doing up there?"

Well, not a heck of a lot just yet.  Mostly unpacking boxes.

We got some kites for the boys, which was an exciting new experience.  Gainesville is in a natural declivity, so it gets almost no wind, ever.  Previous kite-flying attempts were sad disappointments.  We're up near The Windy City now, though, and we've taken to the field behind the elementary school (just 2 blocks from our home) a couple of times with spectacular results.  Rick took some pictures on his phone, so maybe he'll share them here (hi, honey!).

Rick and I had been planning for months to attend a Glen Hansard concert, and last weekend it occurred to me that I'd love something to wear that wasn't faded, stained, torn, and plain Worn Out like 99% of my wardrobe.  So I snuck over to DeKalb, intending to get JUST ONE outfit (okay, maybe two)... but I didn't reckon on the very flattering attentions of the staff at Maurices (darn and bless you, Darcy-the-salesclerk), and I came out with about nine.  I felt guilty about spending so much money, but Rick reminded me that Being Able to Replace Things That Are Worn Out is the whole reason we made this drastic move, after all, so I'm almost over it.  And my closet is beautiful.

So, Tuesday was the concert, and it was amazing.  Best date we've had in ages.  Hansard's music (see also: The Frames, Marketa Irglova, Swell Season) has a lot of meaning for us, having discovered it at a stressful time in our lives when we needed something to bond over.  Getting to see him live in Chicago felt kind of like a benediction for our new life up here.  We are well begun.  :)

Outside the Vic Theatre

The kids' first experience with an Unknown Babysitter couldn't have gone better.  The receptionist at Rick's job had volunteered (she's a sweetheart), and the next morning Gabriel asked me if we had any more concerts to attend, because he wanted her to come play again.  Apparently they jumped on the trampoline and shot hoops and made Play-Doh sculptures and caught fireflies.  Good times!

It's a Brand New Adventure!

Okay!  Since I never did a good job of updating this as a Homeschool Blog, I'm converting it to a catch-all journal for the whole family.  Welcome to our new life!

As you know by now, the Ford Family has relocated to North Central Illinois after living the last 20 years in North Central Florida.  Here's where I will share pictures and updates for family and friends to follow as they like.  I hate Facebook.  I tried it, I really did, and I won't delete my FB account, but I HATE IT.  If you wanna know what's going on with us, look here instead, and feel free to comment!  Comments are grand.  Ask me anything.

The background:

In April, Rick accepted a job with DEVNET, Inc. in Sycamore, and it has been fantastic for him.  Good pay, fun co-workers, t-shirts and jeans, and they like him, they really like him!

Finding housing was a less positive experience.  We had originally planned to purchase a house in Cortland, but after 2 months of angst and frustration, it all fell through at the last minute.  We were very fortunate to find a rental property in our price range that would accept pets as Plan B -- the only catch is that it's in Creston.

Where the heck is Creston, you ask?  Find Rochelle at the intersection of I-39 and I-88, then look about 6 miles east.  See that little smudge?  That's Creston!  Population 550.  Well, 554 now.

It's not bad.  Very quiet, which I like (a neighbor said there's a large concentration of Rochelle cops living here), and it's a short 5 miles to the Super WalMart in Rochelle, so food and shelter are all taken care of.  DeKalb is 11 miles to the east, and it's an easy drive along Lincoln Highway, quite scenic with cornfields and windmills and red barns with towering grain silos.  We are in the American Gothic Heartland, and it's pretty neat, being able to see for miles in all directions.

We're renting a... well, it's easiest to say "duplex," but it's really a quadplex.  3 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, living room, dinette, and kitchen downstairs, then you can go downstairs again to the basement.  The basement is roomy (if unfortunately damp in areas), and that's going to really help with storage for the year that we're here.  The plan is to sell our house in FL before we start looking for another one to purchase up here.  Here's what the dinette and family room looked like the day we moved in:

I'm making progress on the unpacking, but I'm not ready to show the "after" pictures yet.  Give me another week.  However, I will show you the pride of my basement:

Yeah, baby, that's a brand-new Samsung front-loading washer and matching dryer in Ocean Blue.  Behold their shiny energy efficiency.  In the nearly 17 years we've been married, I have never purchased laundry machines before, and I feel fancy as all heck.  When the cycles complete, they chime classical music instead of a loud, angry bzzzzzzzt!  It makes dragging the laundry up and down 2 flights of stairs totally worth it!  ;)

Khan Academy ♥

After hearing several friends rave about it, we finally sat down this morning to explore Khan Academy.

Holy cow.

The boys spent about 20 minutes each happily working on math problems that I would normally have to browbeat them into doing in their workbooks.  Then they started watching science videos.  A 10 minute session on Black Holes was followed rather randomly by Cell Anatomy, which led to the following question from Gabriel:

"Mom, why doesn't a chicken egg produce a nuclear explosion when you crack it open?"

o.O

"Uh... Well, a cell's nucleus and an atom's nucleus are two different things.  The word 'nucleus' just means-"

"OHHhhhh, okay, I get it, I get it, never mind!"

I have the strangest feeling that he might get it better than I do before long.

Right now they're laughing over how much fun it is to say, "endoplasmic reticulum."