Today was Hannah and Jotirs big day.. We had the morning to hang out and explore Chicago..   Diane and I headed out for a walk to meet our friend Jane and meet her grandson Asher..   Jane, Asher, jane’s daughter Alex and son-in-law Josh all live in VT..  and we had to come all the way  to CHI to see them.. !

Diane , Jane and I set off for a walk around the city. Its full of great public art.. a

and some not so great.. 

Around 2 we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.. (which for me meant a nap !)  
We Uber’ed out to the wedding venue which was a really nice space.. I think it was an old office/warehouse.. but it had been renovated to make it a really beautiful party venue

Amazingly, we were some of the first to arrive 

they had ploroid-ish cameras around.. and were collecting photos for a book. Here’s our contribution

After some mingling and champagne, we all went outside for the wedding

The wedding was short and sweet..(with no pictures allowed)
 One of Jotir’s close friends officiated and did a great job..   Hannah and Jotir exchanged vows they’d written themselves.. and they were  really beautiful and had the fun and playful spirit that both of them have. 

And like that.. they were Mr and Mrs Short !

Afterward’s  There was time for lots of  family and friend pics

Then inside for a wonderful sit down meal. 

Before dinner came the first dances.. 

Then a really warm thanks and welcome from Hannah and Jotir

The food was amazing !  

All through dinner, slide shows of Hannah and Jotirs family were running.. They are both such smiley people !

Then came some nice speeches.. First was Hannahs dad Lou

Then Hannah’s mom Kathy

Then Jotir’s mom Suzette

Then Jotir’s best man

Android of honor

Then Lou pulled a great surprise. He’d found this movie of Hannah dancing as a 10 year old.. She hasn’t changed at all !

The DJ picked up the song and Hannah led everyone to the dance floor.. and we didn’t stop dancing till the party was over !

All of the VT crowd picked the same time .. about 10:30 to head home.. It was nice seeing everyone.

Great  day..
Congratulations Hannah and Jotir. !

you are a wonderful pair !

Nite all, nite sam
-me

Today we headed out to Chicago for our good friends Hannah and Jotirs wedding. The trip got off to a nice start when we ran into our friends Kyle and Hunter in the airport !

Flights were good and we got to Chicago in early afternoon. First order of business was to try some Chicago deep dish pizza. We wound a place and it did not disappoint ! 

It reminded me of the John Stewart rant on Chicago vs NYC pizza 

Next order of business was a sunset boat cruise with Hannah , jot and all their family and friends. We found the boat.. The welcome sign was funny..   it wasn’t a Short cruise.. Jotir’s last name is ‘Short’ 🙂 

As we waited to board Hannah and Jotir  greeted everyone. They looked SOOOO happy !

We caught site of Lou and Kathy , Hannahs parents and our close friends on the boat getting ready

Then we set sail (does one ‘set sail’ in a motorized river boat ?)   It was a beautiful evening..  Hot.. with a nice lake breeze.. He headed out into th broad lake while we all mingled caught up with old friends and made new ones. 

Here’s Hannah with her brother August.. one of Max’s best friends when they were kids. 

It was great meeting Jotirs family.. They’d come in from all over. Suzette , Jotirs  mom  is so great.. really fun and funny. She and her close family now live in Miami (I think) . Jotirs uncles and aunts were super fun too.. some lived in Florida, some in St Croix,, 

Lou made a nice welcome.. set a great tone

Here’s Tony..  Jotir’s grandfather  had come in from Trinidad for the wedding. . he was the center of attention in any group because he was so nice, funny and wise. 

We loved the Chicago skyline.. amazing architecture

well.. not all of it 

It was great seeing all of Hannahs friends together.. amnion these women we haven’t seen since middle school or high school. 

It was getting dark as we pulled back in to dock

great day.. looking forward to tomorrow !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Fun treat today.. our sister in law Denise , our niece Elizabeth, our grand neice and nephew Emma and Mason, and Emma’s friend ‘Liv came in from New Hampshire to stay at our house during Mason’s soccer tournament.… turns out we’re gonna be gone from early tomorrow morning on, but at least we got to play with them today.… 

Today was actually Denise’s birthday so we had big burger, dinner and cake  and ice cream.. yum

A big weather front had come through mid afternoon with torrential rains.. the nice thing is that the front broke the heat and  dropped the temperature about 20 degrees ! We took advantage of the nice weather and headed down to the river after dinner.… Mason brought along a fishing pole. Though it happened after Diana and I and Denise had gone back to the house. He actually caught and released a 10 inch trout. !

It’s great hanging out with all these folks. Elizabeth is such a great mom and the kids are really fun.… They’re going to be staying here though. We’re leaving early tomorrow morning for Hannah’s wedding in Chicago.…

Glad we got to see them!

nite all, nite sam

-me

Another super hot day.. I think it hit 99 at work.    Friend bilL (he says ‘Capital L bill’) came by with popsicles !

Cool surprise tonight . A few months ago Diane came across these genetically engineered petunias that were designed to glow in the dark !

We’d heard that it was pretty subtle.. but tonight this happened !  Nothing subtle about it !

Here’s what they look like in normal light

and here’s what they look like at night !

even though they are called firefly petunias, they actually don’t have anything related to fireflies in them. Scientists were able to splice in some DNA from a type of mushroom, which actually makes them glow.

Very cool… But at the same time a little scary

As Gabe says.. “what could possibly go wrong” ?!

nite all, nite sam

-me