Monday, August 17, 2009

Chicago Weekend

We just returned from a fun weekend with great friends in Chicago.  We stayed just 2 blocks away from Michigan Ave. which made it very easy to walk around downtown.  We walked to Millennium Park where outdoor aerobics were in session, so Chiori and I joined in for a while!  
We took a lot of pictures at "the bean" since none of us had seen it before.  

We spent most of Saturday at Shed Aquarium, which was a lot of fun!  
We, of course, had to take a trip to Portillos.  

We also did some shopping on Michigan Avenue, which was a must while we were there.  Our favorite store was the Hershey's store!
The craziest thing that happened while we were there was that I ran into my good friend, Renee, who lives in Chicago now.  We went down for breakfast at our hotel Sunday morning and she was there for a meeting with a group from her church.  She happened to be staying at the same hotel as us!  And she happened to be right by the breakfast area when we walked by!  After we saw each other, we also ended up running into her in the elevator 2 times that same afternoon.  It was pretty crazy.  We later went to this huge Japanese market called Mitsuwa, located north of the city and Renee met up with us there so that we could catch up a bit.  It was a lot of fun seeing her!
It was great to be able to go with Chiori, Yoshi, and Kano on their first trip to Chicago!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Smoky Mountains

At the end of June, Ed and I went on a trip to the Smoky Mountains (Maggie Valley area) with my family.  We had a great time.  Great views, great company, and a great place to stay.  Check out these photos from our trip!

My mom, Kelly, and I visited the Biltmore Estate in Ashville while the boys went fly fishing.  

This was the place we stayed.  We don't camp!  We enjoy the outdoors, then go relax and sleep in a place like this!!

We did a ton of hiking.
At the top of the mountain! We were tired and it was soooo cold up there!

My wonderful family!
Ed could not stop talking about boiled peanuts the whole week (pronounced "balled" peanuts in the south!) So we finally stopped to get him some while he and John were golfing.