Hello blog!

It has been a week of celebration beginning with Brookfield Zoo's 75th birthday party last Wednesday.  The zoo was having a cultural day so in true Scottish style we gave out some delicious scones and had dressing up for kids, a few adults and the occasional monkey.  After they made their own felt sporrans we were on hand with an abundance of tartan looking fabric and safety pins to make high quality kilts and shawls.  It took many attempts to explaining exactly what a kilt (as opposed to a skirt) and a sporran (as opposed to a handbag were) but luckily society volunteer Tom was on hand in full Scottish regalia.   There was also bag piping and Scottish country dancing which went down a treat. 

As part of the celebrations the zoo had yummy birthday cake on offer which must have helped draw in the masses as by mid-afternoon we had long run out of scones, fabric and sporrans.   After clearing up (a rain shower and a lots of glue meant the place looked like it should be burnt down) there was just time for a quick look around the zoo.  The monkey house, dinosaur enclosure and polar bears were awesome but we couldn’t seem to find the penguins...

In the office I've been working on the Kilted Class Golf Tournament which is a big fundraiser for the Society held in September.  My mission has been phoning around board members, introducing myself and asking for their support playing, sponsoring or volunteering at the tournament.  The board were really encouraging and approachable, responses have been good and it's been really fun chatting!  In between calls I’ve been working on numbers, registrations and payments for the Leadership Conference which is getting awfully close.  Work hard, play hard seems to sum up the last week. 

I was really excited about the opportunity to be in America for the 4th of July and watching an amazing firework display light up the city skyline for over 20 minutes on Friday night was a definite highlight of the trip so far.   We had a brilliant view over the lake of the red, white, blue (and for some reason) green extravaganza.  The city was jumping and being part of such a huge crowd (over a million) was strange but amazing. 

Headed out to the suburbs for the fourth and spent the dizzily afternoon at Cantigny gardens which used to form part of General McCormick's estate.  They have acres of beautiful gardens, an awesome collection of army tanks parked on the grass and a war museum which it seemed apt to visit on the 4th of July.  It was then on to Coldstone's for some top notch ice cream before heading to a party in the evening with a huge bonfire and even more fireworks. Top. 

My Dad was out in Vegas for a wedding on the 4th of July and managed to make it up to Chicago for a few days from Sunday until very early this morning.   It was brilliant to see him and we got up to lots of fun touristy things staring out with a very educational boat tour, followed by a trip to the Science and Industry Museum.  The Museum has a captured German u-boat which was really interesting and a commercial sized airplane that you can board hanging from the ceiling- getting the exhibits into the museum was a whole feat in itself…  We also ate a lots of yummy food, had drinks up the Hancock building, saw the blue men on stage (very weird but awesome), hung out on the lake and rented bikes- my dad only fell off once but not one to do things by halves it was a pretty good fall, hehe!

A handful of people have been surprised we don't celebrate Independence Day in Scotland.  This comment has made me laugh but after a brilliant weekend and seeing how merry everyone was, I’m starting to think celebrating the 4^th of July might not be such a bad idea...