4th of July is Yvonne’s favorite time to return home to Glencoe, IL—a quaint suburb on Chicago’s North Shore. We returned last night from a week-long stay with her family and had a fantastic time. This trip represented Cali’s first long road trip and she handled the 12 hours in the car like a real champ. The SUV became our portable home, as we not only brought along our dog, but also took our bikes, golf clubs, scooter, tennis rackets, soccer balls and just about everything else familiar to us. We enjoyed checking out Taste of Chicago, Millennium Park, playing golf, and riding our bikes to the Botanical Gardens, along the Greenbay trail, and the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The kids enjoyed the beach and swimming in the lake, which is a short walk from Yvonne’s house. Glencoe is a very hip town—sophisticated yet tasteful, where kids tend to go to the park and ride bikes without parents fearing for their safety. It’s a town where small businesses still thrive, whether it be the local pharmacy, supermarket, or the Little Red Hen—where you can buy everything from pizza, chicken, ribs or ice cream (binge eating at it’s finest). Yia Yia’s house is on the edge of town, which makes for a nice stroll each day to pick up hot coffee and fresh bagels. As always, we took in the town’s 4th of July parade and went down to the beach at night for the fireworks display. We had a great time visiting with Yvonne’s family (the Greek Mafia as I lovingly call them). Greeks like to eat, and certainly this vacation was no exception. It’s now time for big daddy to burn some calories on the mountain bike. 
