Quick Thoughts on a Trip

On Friday August 30 Lynda and I drove to Chicago to spend the Labor Day weekend with our son, Charles, and his partner. I come away from that trip with several observations that I wanted to share.

Of course, no one is interested in reading a travel log. The roads we went on, the ease of driving the bypass around St. Louis, the surprisingly light traffic, the bad traffic jam as we approached Chicago, etc. Those are all memorable from my perspective, but you've already read more about that than you probably care to.

So let me just give a few bulleted items of other types of observations. I may come back and flesh some of these out in future posts.

• The University of Chicago is an amazing institution. Since both our son and his partner work there, we spent some time on campus and saw a number of new buildings, buildings under construction, and development plans. I could write much about this, and may.
• There's something to be said about a big city. There's so much to do in Chicago, so many interesting sights to see and places to go. We really never got out of the Hyde Park and Woodlawn neighborhoods, yet it seemed like our time was fully occupied, our bodies worked, and our minds engaged.
• The Lake Michigan shore is nicely developed for recreation. I'm sure the tax dollars flowed heavily, but it seems to be a great amenity.
• Sherlock Holmes was an amazing creation of Arthur Conan Doyle. I know: You're reading this and that seems to come out of the blue. We watched the two seasons of the BBC show as well as the 2009 Robert Downey Jr. movie. I haven't read much of Doyle—just four of the Holmes short stories, I think—though I've picked up a complete two-volume set of the Homes canon. I really need to work this into my reading schedule, as well as finish the Doyle letters book I'm reading.

That's if for now. As I said, I hope to come back and flesh this out over the next several posts.