Bike trip with friends

On Tuesday, we went on a bike trip with friends Candis and Greg...

We met near Maple Park, Illinois to start on the Great Western Trail about 9 miles from Sycamore, Illinois. This picture was at a stop about halfway to Sycamore to get drink some water and take some pictures...

... a little bit of the bicycles in this picture -- it almost looks as if we are on a green screen with a fake background!

A view of one of the farms that we passed by as well as one of our bikes (just to prove that we were really biking, not just wearing helmets on a hike cuz were were afraid of falling! You never can tell with seniors!).

We made it to Sycamore and took a picture at the town sign.

We had planned to get a late breakfast at the Parkway Restaurant in Sycamore, but instead...

...we stopped for lunch at a new restaurant very near the place where the trail ends in Sycamore. It was very good though (we thought) a little pricey (however, we're finding almost everywhere we go out to eat seems a little pricey, so maybe we need to re-set our expectations to what the new reality is!).

We made it back to our cars, for the most part, safely (one small problem but thankfully no bleeding or broken bones). It was a fun ride with our friends!

An interesting car in Illinois

I had an appointment for labs on Monday morning, and saw an interesting car...

It had "Grandpa's Ice Cream Wagon" on the front fender, which I thought that I might find on an internet search, but so far, I haven't found it! (Note that you can see Portillo's Hot Dogs location just beyond the car.)

Happy Birthday, Thatcher!

We celebrated Thatcher's birthday on Sunday...

Granddaughter Addi was enjoying a new audience!

Grandson Thatcher ready to open presents

Grandson Blaise watching

Thatcher opening presents

Ready for cake -- listening to Happy Birthday being sung

"Get all the candles blown out!"

Yummy cake!

Thatcher got a set of 3 light sabers -- teaching a young Jedi Addi!

More Jedi training!

"Is this how I should hold it?"

"Ah, now I see what I need to do!"

Fun times with family!

A very busy Saturday - part 3

Continuing Saturday (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-very-busy-saturday-part-1.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-very-busy-saturday-part-2.html)... we drove through Carl's childhood neighborhood in Elmhurst...

... his childhood home was second from the corner...

... there it is -- he noted that the front living room window is now a bow window...

... in the front, Carl noted that the awning over the front door is the same as when they lived there.

The driveway was the same as when they lived there -- doesn't look like it has been updated or possibly even maintained (sealed) for many years!

From Elmhurst, we drove over to Windsor Park to visit Carl's Mom... we found her in the common area of her area of the home, watching (or napping in front of) TV. We brought her back to her room to be able to chat with her...

Carl and his Mom in her room

Mom and Carl chatting

Mom was enjoying her visit with Carl

I was texting on my phone with one of Carl's cousins and she asked me to send her a picture of Verna, so Mom posed for a picture and I sent it to Jenice.

While we were visiting with Mom, Carl called to order a pizza from Gianorio's, so once we left Windsor, we would head to Gianorio's to pick up our dinner. We took Mom to the dining room on her hall, and then left to pick up our pizza at Gianorio's...

Outside Gianorio's -- one of the family's favorite pizza restaurants.

After picking up our dinner, we headed to a park to eat...

We stopped at a neighborhood park and enjoyed our Gianorio's sausage pizza.

It was a busy day, but we enjoyed doing all our endeavors for the day! 

A very busy Saturday - part 2

Continuing from our drive past Carl and Sue's first apartment complex (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-very-busy-saturday-part-1.html), we headed to Russell's Barbeque...

The building looked freshly painted, and there were a number of cars in the lot...

Carl remembers coming to Russell's with his dad and mom -- he was surprised that the line was not extending outside the doors as it would have been when he was a kid...

The front of the building

Menu of BBQ items -- we got a Roast Beef and a Smoked BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich along with French Fries...

Then we cut them both in half so we could each try both. Carl liked both equally, but I think I slightly preferred the pulled pork (maybe because it was also smoked).

Then we drove to Oakbrook Center -- the largest outdoor shopping mall in the world when it opened in 1962, and still the second largest mall in the Chicago area.

Carl remembered the open areas between the stores having plantings and flowers and fountains...

We found some plantings, but not as many fountains as he recalled.

Flower arch photo op

Some of the plantings...

There were a few fountains in this area, but not as many nor as impressive as he recalled.

As we were walking through, we saw a store named "Hotel Chocolat" (https://www.hotelchocolat.com/) -- as chocolate lovers, we couldn't pass by without checking it out...

They had a young lady with a tray containing one of their specialty chocolates for us to sample -- it was quite decadent (though too many other flavors in the sample for my taste -- I like **chocolate**!!!).

They had a "Chocolate Love Match" survey that you could take in the store . I completed it and found that my "chocolate love match" is...

Yep, that sounds right!

If you want to find your chocolate love match too, it can be found here: https://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/love-match-quiz.html, but you do need to give them a first name and an email address to get your results (though they don't send anything to your email, so maybe you can just give a fake email!).

Carl chatted with the young lady going around with the tray of chocolates -- he told her that he has been retired over 10 years and nothing has tempted him to return to work until he saw her job. She said that a side benefit is that they can have all the chocolates that want to eat! Now I'm worried that Carl is going to want to go back to work! But, I figure that the company would only employ him for a few days before they found out that he was costing them more in chocolates consumed than the job is worth!!!

A very busy Saturday - part 1

We did a lot of different things on Saturday -- I'll split it into different posts so I don't overwhelm you with all the different pictures and locations.

We started the day going to watch grandson Thatcher's soccer game -- it was the team's first game of the season...

Grandson Thatcher with his equipment preparing -- they had had to wait for the previous game to finish.

Grandson Thatcher

Thatcher's team won, with Thatcher scoring the last of their three goals.b 

When we left the soccer game, we were on our way to visit places of Carl's memories... we took a drive through the first apartment complex where he and Sue had lived after they married...

Outside of one of the buildings

The building that they lived in is across the green...

A better view of the building that they lived in -- their apartment was on the third floor.

Carl shared some remembrances of living there -- they were looking for an apartment that had a rent of $195 or less per month (this was 1976)... this particular apartment rented for $250/month, but they decided that they would try to stretch to do that, but only for a year, they committed to each other that they wouldn't pay that high rent for more than a year. The rental office was very happy that they wanted the apartment as the buildings were new and they had all but the one apartment rented -- Sue and Carl didn't want the apartment until October, but they committed that they wanted it in August. They didn't need to pay rent until October, but the rental office said that they could move furniture in before October, they just couldn't stay overnight there. Carl and Sue appreciated getting to put things into the apartment, and spent time in the apartment setting things up, and even getting together with friends before they officially moved in. After they moved in, Sue had won a hibachi grill at work, and they used that on the balcony to make hot dogs and hamburgers - it was just big enough to cook meat for two. Because they were early in their working careers (and it was an inflationary time period), their salaries went up quickly, so managing the higher rent was not a problem. Carl said that, after they had moved out, as part of his job with the phone company, he had to return to the apartment complex -- he stopped by the rental office to get into the building, and shared that he had previously lived there -- they asked his name, and commented that Carl and Sue had left the apartment the cleanest they had ever seen. He said to me that the office may not have known about the black light painting that they and friends had done on the walls of the living room (using paint that only showed colors when lit with a black light). While they were living there, they purchased the lot in Winfield where their house would be built, and contracted to have the house (at least the shell) constructed. They also paid off their truck loan. After living there a year, they moved from the apartment into their new home, and continued the construction effort on their own.

A visit to Fisher Nuts

One of the places we enjoy going while in Elgin is the Fisher Nuts Factory Store. I've posted before about us going there (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2021/09/a-visit-to-fisher-nuts-store.html, https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/09/visit-with-friends.html). When the wind is right, when we are walking around the campground we can smell chocolate from the factory (it is only a couple of miles away), and the factory store has a lot of products that we enjoy. Most of all, we enjoy the Bargain Corner...

The list for the Bargain Corner is posted on Facebook -- it isn't always 100% complete -- sometimes we find even more bargains when we get there!

Entering the store

Lots of options!

Inside the store

They discontinued the samples during COVID, but now they are back -- so we can sample the different items that are available in the Bargain Corner.

The Bargain Corner is in the back of the store and the inventory changes, I guess, as they have oversupply of certain items.

This is one of the items in the Bargain Corner that we elected *not* to get... "Almonds, Olive Colored White Chocolate, Not Polished" -- they look kind of like olives, or weird eyeballs. I thought that they might be interesting for a Halloween party, but no, just no...

Their mission

They also have other items in the store -- I haven't actually compared to know whether their prices for regular merchandise is better than in other stores or not.

The bulk items used to be available for you to scoop out and fill your bag yourself (you can still see the scoops there), but now they are prepackaged in zipper bags.

Each month they have different specials in store too.

We get emails with their specials too -- and they usually have coupons for 10% and 15% off (depending on how much you purchase). We stock up on snacks that we can share with friends at happy hour during the winter months in Mesa!