Chicago - Savoy, Illinois First Stop

I left a sunny Seattle on June 1st, 2009 and headed straight to Chicago. I was greeted with cloudy skies and light rain (totally felt like home!). Took the train directly to Joanna's place and I waited for her to come home from Europe. Her place in downtown Chicago is AWESOME! We spent a few hours catching up until it was time for bed. She is again off to a couple of conferences in the upcoming week while I am taking the bus or train to Champagne, Illinois to be with my cousin and his family the next morning. I woke up late -- totally had to catch up from missed sleeping time for having an amazing weekend (My bro got married on May 30th -http://lightphoria.com and check out Amy and Joseph ). If you know of any special events AND of course there's a lot, let me just tell you that Siang is an amazing photographer to capture all those memorable memories in your life. I recommend him without any reservations.

I finally was able to find the Greyhound station and took the bus leaving 3pm and arrived safely at 6pm in Champagne. My cousin, Cocoy and his family picked me up. So great to see all of them for it had been years. His wife Raquel, and their two children Aidan (8) and Noah (almost 3) were in the van waiting. Their smiling faces greeted me as we headed to their immaculate home in Savoy. Noah is the first photo I am posting. This is his first trip to the mall following his diagnosis of leukemia this past December. He is truly a darling. You will never know that he is still undergoing weekly chemo treatment (we are off to the hospital tomorrow) because he bounces all over the place. We watched the movie "Robot" in the van as we headed out to the mall to help me find some hiking pants. The one I brought is too small and I want to eat as much food as I can this week since Noah's mom is such a great cook. She just made me chicken adobo for lunch! The mall adventure was a success, and now I am all ready for the upcoming Peru trek on Monday. We watched the ending of Robot all the way home as Noah drifted off to sleep and for me taking it all in the moral of the story --- " It doesn't matter what we are all made of, we are all going to shine " -this is indeed so true.