Mr. Flanagan has arrived!

The weekend of July 19th heralded the arrival of the infamous James Flanagan, creator of the word Blürg, and best man for the impending nuptials. Sadly we did not document our first night with James, but we will tell you it was filled with succulent mussels, fantastic beer, a rousing game of mini-golf (which Blair won by the way) and many games of Hoopla on Blair's deck, certainly waking the neighbors. Day two we spent the late afternoon attempting to see Lang Lang, a piano virtuoso at Ravinia only to have our plans thwarted by lack of parking (Blair was not pleased about this). Proving ourselves to be adaptable (well sort of in Blair's case) we instead payed a visit to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, which are actually located in Glencoe but let's not fight with semantics. It ended up being a lovely evening as the gardens are stunning and the weather was cooperative. Here are some photos of the day! More can be found at

http://picasaweb.google.com/jurgenhooper/JamesVisit

Blair calms down when she enters a beautiful garden
James heeds the advice: For your safety please do not climb on the fountain
Blair does not: Rock on!
Not. A. Good. Picture. At. All
Take two, much better!
James and Jürgen take time to "sense" the tree in the sensory garden.
An arty photo through the arches. So deep.
The esplinade. Kinda pretty if you ask me.
Look Ma, a catfish, can I touch it?

After our trip to the gardens, we drove back to Blair's abode and played more hoopla. Everyone needs to know about this game.