De Jonghe Hotel

Sunday before bed, Peter called me Julie McCoy- the cruise director of the Love Boat. The tour continued on Monday. The four of us walked the Bloomingdale Trail- Chicago’s future answer to the High Line in NYC. We journeyed into the crotch for record and used book shopping, and ate lunch in the backyard patio at Handle Bar. That afternoon we made our way up North to the waterfall in Ronan Park, and to a film. I stopped for a frozen treat at Tastee Freez, willfully forgetting my sister’s veganism- I stopped for more frozen treats at Trader Joe’s.

The visit was colored by art and firsts- it was the first time Kate and Peter rode bikes and visited a museum together. I guess it’s also pretty rare that they watch art films- we saw two: Lena Dunham’s 2010 first feature film, Tiny Furniture, about a college grad returning to her Manhattan mother’s house to live and find her way, and, Quill, The Life of a Guard Dog, the 2004 Japanese film directed by Yôichi Sai, about a golden labrador’s life, working and playing.