The Best Place on Earth...

In my world,

the best time is now.

The best place is here.

Home, that is.

Travel is exciting.

But I have to say,

my favorite part is coming home.

Our days in Chicago were filled with fun....

serendipitous moments,

scrumptious meals (yes, Linda, I ate Chicago pizza for you!)

sleeping in,

and tons of walking.

We did all the touristy things

and saw all the touristy sights....

yep, that's me up in that shiny thing....self portrait!

We took an architectural tour by boat.

We visited the Chicago Botanical Gardens.

Oh I could tell you the story of how I thought Hubbs was

walking beside me down the street,

so I grabbed what I thought was his hand

and uttered something in his ear,

only to find out.....

it wasn't him.

And the man that I accosted was quite embarrassed!

We walked and talked and laughed....

escaping daily responsibility for 4 days.

And at the end of it all,

we could not wait to get home!

The dogs were excited to see us....

although they had been quite happy in the company

of Hubbs' father.

The animals on the farm?

Well, Moonbeam uttered  "Oh, you." in his

typical Eeyore-esque voice.

The chickens were ecstatic and came running....

as if they had even noticed we were gone!

Even the turkeys were mildly curious...

the goats?.....well, they barely missed a beat

and kept right on munching hay.

The animals had all been well cared for by our neighbors

Jim and Kathy

with a little help from Jenn and baby Tyler.

Oh, we're not in Oz anymore are we?

Goodness, there's no place like home!!!

PS:  One of our serendipitous moments 

came at breakfast time on the first morning.

We ran across the street to the Corner Bakery

 on the corner of Michigan and Whacker Aves...

only to find that they were filming  the movie "Transformers 3"

right outside the bakery.

We had a front-row seat for filming...

Here are a few pictures I took of the scene.....

Yep, that's the star Shia LaBeouf

standing beside his car, the Transformer "Bumblebee".

and the director...

and lots of action...

A little added bonus to our morning....and great fun!