Sorry for the brief hiatus from posting; things have been a little busier than normal. Here’s a recap of my summer vacation.

On August 18, I flew from Harrisburg to Roanoke (by way of Atlanta–pretty silly, huh?) to visit my family. My oldest sister moved there in 2000, my youngest sister moved there in 2005, and my parents moved there in 2006. I hung out for a couple days, before my parents, younger sister and I packed up a rented van and headed for Chicago.

On our way, we drove through Charleston, WV, Louisville, KY and Indianapolis, IN and saw some really cool stuff. One day, we stopped and visited Churchill Downs and the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, while another day we visited the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NCAA Hall of Champions. Finally, we arrived in Chicago and spent about five days there seeing sites, etc.

The first night, we went on a sunset boat tour of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. While on the tour, we saw some amazing architecture, including the Sears Tower, the Chicago Sun-Times building and more. Throughout our stay, we visited the Magnificent Mile, Superdawg (awesome hot dogs!), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry, Navy Pier, and toured Wrigley Field. We also had tickets to two White Sox/Red Sox games; the first night’s game was rained out, so we spent the entire next day at US Cellular Field watching a double-header.

On the way back to Roanoke, we didn’t stop and visit any sites, as my dad and sister didn’t have a lot of vacation time. I spent another day relaxing before I flew back to Harrisburg (this time through Cincinnati). Throughout the trip, I took a few hundred photos and I’ve posted some of the better/more interesting ones on Facebook if you’d like to check them out. The trip was a real blast, reminding me of my childhood when we went on trips like this pretty much every summer. There were a few things I wanted to do in Chicago that we didn’t have time for (primarily catching a Cubs game, but also some other interesting museums), so next summer I may take three or four days and see them.