Pickin' Blueberries!

Like Juan Valdez and his coffee beans, we took our burro (the Subaru) up into the mountains to load it up with blueberries which make awful coffee but a great topping for your morning cereal and can be used in at least a dozen recipes according to a book we purchased at the farm pictured above. I had never picked fruit off the vine before this so it was quite an experience to dodge the bees and wasps that also compete for the berries. Still, you can tell from the bucket above how delicious they are and so good to just pop into your mouth as a tasty treat. We left with two full buckets and came home to make blueberry hamburgers. Blueberry hamburgers? that's right. Take a hamburger patty and put bluberries in the center and grill until done. We also had blueberry pancakes with NH maple syrup which should probably be illegal it's so good. (I also bought a strawberry rhubarb pie while we were there which has nothing to do with blueberries, or this story really, but I thought you might like to know it's my favorite pie if you ever happen to entertain us in your home.) Erin went back to pick another bucket less than a week later since we were already running out. Apples are in season next month so we'll have more picking adventure pics up soon.

(Click on each of these pics to see the enlarged version.)

The Boutons in Chi-Town

We're sorry about the recent lack of posts, but we had a terrible time trying to get Verizon (one of the worst companies ever) to bring our Internet back up after our recent move, but here we are again and we have a backlog of good stuff to share. Erin left Morgan and I in Dublin to go visit relatives in Florida and Oregon, and we eventually met up in my my Mother's new home, Chicago, in early August to celebrate her birthday. She's been asking us when she would make the blog so here's her debut on Granite State Strangers!

It wouldn't be a visit to Chicago with Mom unless we visited her "church", Marshall Field's, to do some shopping. (I know it's Macy's now according to reality, but I don't call the Ice Palace the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, either.)

Here is Mom in her glory at the jewelry counter. :)

We bought tickets to "Wicked" for Mom's birthday present and the pic above and several below are of our evening out at the theater. It was our second time seeing the show in Chicago since Mom and Dick bought us tickets as a honeymoon present a little over a year ago.

This is a wonderful shot of Mom and Dick outside of his school, Columbia College. Dick is in charge of their incredible music department, and we've had the great pleasure of seeing some of his amazing faculty and students perform in that very building. Dick is a great guy and an even greater host when we're in town because he kindly puts up with hearing Mom and I tell the same family stories over and over.

Ok. Chicago is a great city and it boasts some of the most amazing museums, food, music, entertainment, and shopping in the world. Still, Chicago is host to one of the worst dolphin shows I've ever seen in my life. You can see the Shedd Aquarium in the background of the above picture where we witnessed this travesty. Did you know that dolphins won't save drowning humans? Did you know dolphins can hold their breath longer than we can? Those are just a few of the amazing factoids we picked up while sitting on an uncomfortable stone bench watching dolphins literally swim from one end of a tank to the other. Did you know dolphins can swim faster than Olympic swimmers? It's true! We witnessed it. I know Mayor Daley is busy putting flowers on every street corner, but he needs to get down to the aquarium and teach those dolphins to jump through a hoop or bounce a ball on their nose and they might get the show up to the level of the '76 Marineland dolphin show in Miami.

Here I sit broken hearted after seeing the worst dolphin show ever... :)

After a successful summer at the Dublin Lake Club, I figure I'm ready to run this place next! I can never get over how beautiful the waterfront is in Chicago or how blue the water is.

This is the beautiful walkway to Mom and Dick's place (their house is on the left and up a couple doors)...

...and this is Mom's adorable bunny that she loves even though it tries to eat her flowers. :)

Erin really wanted to see Wrigley Field, so we took the train out there on game day to see what all the excitement was about. I won't say it's as cool as the Green Monster, but it is still pretty cool. Still, I couldn't get that excited about wearing a cub on my t-shirt. Red socks are much more manly! Go Sox! (And not the faded white ones.)
This is the guy that Will Ferrell impersonated on SNL. (End of history lesson.) :)