I'm On My Way Home Through Chicago...

A little photo recap.

A lil photo of me and Antler encouraging one another to build better lives.

Uncle & Aunt in Midland on a fancy bridge

the fancy bridge

The next photos are from Ohio, where Dove lives. We visited her family's land and dreamed & planned how she could utilize the land.  It's a beautiful place and has tons of potential to be a productive landbase to live off of.  

The girls created a hide out, which was awesome.  I love childlike spirit & creativity.
Wake up! View the world like a child!

Sweet sweet Moony, the older trail dog.

The land is part plains and part forest, with 2 springs.  2 SPRINGS! That's awesome.

Tappa tappa tappa, little woodpecker.

Dustin & Sunny

Dustin & Erin are Dove's housemates and they are so wonderful.
I was pumped to get to know them more and see how they are gardening, keeping chickens, and making decisions.

Shoot. I forget what these mushrooms are called, but we found them on the property and geeked out over mushroom identification when we got back to their house.

Found this fox skull next to a tree stump.  Yeah we took it home.

beautifully odd skunk cabbage.

The spring house.

This is no doubt the coolest truck I've run into. It's run off of veggie oil and has been built out in the back with a bed and lots of storage space.  The best roadtripping vehicle ever.

This is from inside, on the way home.

From Ohio, I made the trek over to NYC to stay with Lark for a few days.  I have to say, it was a bit jarring to drive into the big city.  So familiar, but so different from the open country I have been relishing in for the past few months.  Lark & I had solid catch-up time and watched "Guns, Germs, and Steel" (its on Netflix and you should totally watch it if you haven't already).  I started reading the book by Jared Diamond when I was in Albuquerque because of my conversation with my Uncle about why the Europeans had the ability to conquer so many places around the world.  What made them different from the other humans and other civilizations?  I don't totally agree with the conclusion that Diamond pulls, mostly because it ends up making modern Western civilization seem like it's the best way that all humans should exist, but I really appreciated the research that goes into this book & documentary.  

We took a day trip to Bear Mountain National Park, which was beautiful. New York state is glorious.

sisters forever.

This rock formation is so classic of NY. It is stunning at all times of year and I'm glad for land preserves like this one.

This sweet carousel was inside the below building.  I never though carousels were particularly "fun" to ride, but they sure are intricately decorated and fun to look at!

Classic.  Her dad would be so proud. We drove to a tiny town near Bear Mtn and ate at Andy's, a tiny restaurant that supposedly had been there since 1903.  Food was delicious and hot chocolate was a must.

This is a shot of the hawks above Bear Mtn. 

We were delighted to use a gift certificate Lark had been given to a sweet spot on the West Side.  The food was great. Dell Anime, I believe was the name.  A lovely romantic dinner for 2 lovely ladies. Afterwards, we met up with some friends for drinks around the corner. A perfect evening.