IL-MI-OH-PA-NY

Yes, I do plan to get through as many states as possible in this post. I need to catch up! Monday in Evanston was very relaxed; we made the excellent decision to go to Blind Faith Cafe for lunch and then we did some shopping so we could make dinner for our kind hosts. I'm really happy that we got to see them and reconnect, and it looks like we'll get to see them fairly often in the future since Lynn's family is in Washington State. The evening finished off with the arrival of two of Joe's nieces, neither of whom I had seen in about 13 years...more tunes were played and songs were sung and we reluctantly got ourselves ready to leave in the morning.

We drove to Traverse City, MI on Tuesday and spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights there. I haven't been back to Michigan since I left in 1996 - I lived at Interlochen Arts Academy for a year as a dorm counselor - and I was very happy to be back, even for a couple of days. I was actually hoping to get up to the U.P. but Traverse City was far enough out of the way that we decided to leave it at that. We did some hiking on Old Mission Peninsula, which divides Grand Traverse Bay, and out at Sleeping Bear Dunes; the weather was cool and cloudy with a few showers but nothing too overwhelming. 

And then we ate. If you happen to find yourself in that part of Michigan, I would like to highly recommend the following: Poppycock's, The Cook's House, and Serenity Tea Shop. Traverse City isn't very large but they are really on top of things as far as vegetarian food goes. Just like almost everywhere else we've been so far, we are already making plans to go back for a longer visit. Do we actually know how we're going to manage all this traveling? No, of course not...

Thursday found us driving through Michigan and Ohio on the way to Pittsburgh, where William's family lives. We'll be back there in August for 3-4 weeks so this was just a quick stop to see parents and siblings, catch up on email, and do some laundry. The highlight of our weekend was the making of vegan cupcakes on Sunday afternoon, with a recipe taken from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. They. Were. Amazing. If my in-laws agree, I shall post the picture of all of them lunging for the cupcakes right after we brought them out. 

Monday, July 6th, we drove to Paradox Lake in the Adirondacks to stay with Michael Jones, Miriam Kaplan, and Miriam's family during their annual family vacation. Michael and Miriam were our hosts for our first few days of being homeless and it was terrific to see them again after a month of traveling and catch up on what's been going on in California. We spent a quiet couple of days in the woods...with the mosquitoes...and I got in a bit of hiking and photography on Tuesday afternoon. There were lovely thunderstorms and billiards and a few rousing games of Carcassonne. We are continually amazed at the kindness of people who have extended their hospitality to us and we are very much looking forward to getting ourselves settled and having the opportunity to welcome guests to our home. But not just yet - there's still a good bit of traveling to be done.