Sunsets in Chicago

We get some beautiful sunsets here in Chicago. This is the view from our front porch.

Yannie's Birthday Weekend

Yannie's mother came to visit over Yannie's birthday weekend. To kick off the weekend, we went to USA vs. Canada and Mexico vs. Guadalupe soccer games at Soldier Field. USA and Mexico won their respective games, so they will be playing each other at the next round of the CONCACAF playoffs. The exit from the stadium was pretty crazy. Most of the crowd was Mexican as American's, for the most part, don't follow soccer. They were chanting obscene chants about beating the US team at the next game (USA ended up winning in the end!!).

Most of the weekend we spent eating and watching more soccer on tv. . .
For Yannie's birthday dinner, we went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in little Italy, Francesca's on Taylor.

The Cicadas

We drove to Devon and Caldwell where the North Branch trail begins in Chicago. The trail leads north through Skokie and ends at the botanical gardens north of the city. It's about a 17 mile ride up there (34 miles round trip!), so we were quite sore afterwards, but saw some cool things. It's a beautiful ride through the forest preserve and was nicely shaded by the tall trees.












One of the most interesting parts of the trip was the cicadas. Every 17 years they dig their way out of the ground and mate. While we had both seen the various annual cicadas that arrive each summer, we were't prepared for the massive quantities that hatched this cycle. They were everywhere, and soooo loud! The sound is absolutely deafening and as we left the louder areas, I felt as though I had just left a rock concert. My ears are still recovering! It's as though a million little bugs got together and every one is screaming at the top of it's lungs. Click HERE for an interesting article on the levels of noise these tiny creatures can make.

First they molt and leave their skins all over the trees, grass, ground, everywhere. You'll see one and then realize that everywhere you look there are more and more and more.

Here are some of the molted skins in a tree.

The often landed on us as we rode.

Barely hanging on.

Yannie pulling one out of a tree

After miles of riding and numerous stops to check out the cicadas, we made it to the Chicago botanical gardens.

On the ride home, we treated ourselves to some slurpy's to cool off after the long bike trip.

Bike riding in the city

With the bikes fixed, we decided to take advantage of the great weather this weekend. We went for a long, leisurely, ride around the city and had the chance to see some parts we'd never seen before.

An old rising drawbridge

We make our way through Chinatown and saw this interesting view of the Chinese style buildings with the Sear's tower in the background.

US Cellular field where the White Sox play

Parks on the south side have some great views of the city skyline.

And, we have a little chance to relax by the lake.

Chain of Lakes State Park

We finally got a bike rack for the car and Yannie fixed up the bikes, so we headed north to Chain of Lakes state park for a ride.












The park was smaller than we expected and there weren't many lakes, but it was beautiful weather, a tease of summer to come, and some good riding trails.