Belated b-day dinner

B wanted to wait till L was home to go out for his birthday dinner so we went tonight. He chose Edwardo's, where we had a large half sausage/half cheese deep-dish pizza.

It was a scorcher today and the heat is supposed to continue into next week. This was the temperature when we were driving home.

$2?

I did L's laundry from her trip and found 200 yen in the washer. Sounds like a lot but it's roughly $2. I'm thinking that's all she brought home.

And I took an early walk this morning before the temperatures heated up. This pretty cardinal was right in my path and today's a year since mom died. Coincidence?

Late June flowers

Coneflowers ...

hostas are blooming ...

and lilies in our garden.

And these have been blooming for about a month by our garage.

And she's home

Andy and I were back at O'Hare this morning, this time picking up L from her Japan trip. Her flight was early! We told her that her flight surely passed Mayu's flight in the sky. L said she was probably asleep. She missed two of the three meals on the plane.

She brought me a fan, a cat magnet (the black one is for Aunt Allison), a phone carrying case and a hair srunchie. If I can't get my hair cut as short as I want it, I guess I can pull it back a little.

Some of the toe socks she brought back. I think these were presents from her host family. She got a lot of gifts from her host family. She also met up with Takako in Tokyo. She said Takako cried when they parted. Aww.

She said this utaka was Andy's Father's Day present. It has pants too he can lounge around in.

Our living room has exploded with Japanese souvenirs!

L's friend, N, brought over flowers this afternoon to welcome her home.

'The Cher Show'

Allison and I went to the world premiere of "The Cher Show" tonight at the Oriental Theater.

We both enjoyed the costumes most. I thought the show was a little long, but it covered her entire career so far which is what, 50 years?

Ready for the show to begin!

Mayu leaves

We left at 6 a.m. to get Mayu to O'Hare on time. She flies to Dallas, then onto Tokyo. Such a sad good-bye.

B came along; E had to get ready for work.

When I got around to changing the sheets on her bed I found the entire room covered with Post-it Notes.

They were everywhere.

I wonder how long it took her to write all these. She wrote about nearly everything we had done together as a family.

She even left some on the bathroom mirror.

Some of my favorites.

Mayu's last day

Mayu spent the morning doing laundry and packing, taking a little time out to have a cup of coffee and give August a big, long hug. He's been warming up to her in this last month, hopping up on her chair to be petted. She met friends at a local restaurant for breakfast; B went early. She was surprised to see a whole gathering of friends rather than the one she made plans with. B stopped home to grab some game controllers this afternoon, then went to a friend's house where Mayu's farewell was continuing.

We had tacos for dinner as Mayu requested for her last homecooked American meal.

Andy had his first day of volunteering at the women's tournament at Kemper Lakes today. He was gone before I even got out of bed. Had to wait till he came home for a picture of him in his snazzy uniform.

Dinner and gifts for Mayu

We decided to take Mayu out one last time before she leaves Wednesday. We went to Palmer Place in LaGrange and got to sit in the balcony which I don't think we've done before. We're usually in this beer garden.

The food is OK and the service can be questionable (though it was good tonight) so the biggest draw is being able to sit outside and eat dinner. We figured for Mayu to truly experience summer in Chicago she had to dine al fresco at least once. And it was a beautiful night almost 80 degrees and an almost full moon to be sitting outside. We asked Mayu what touristy things she liked the most and she said the architectural tour and shopping on Michigan Avenue.

I asked the waitress to take a group picture before we left.

When we left to go to the restaurant, I stayed in the house a while longer to set out our parting gifts for Mayu. I was thinking of taking them to the restaurant but didn't want everyone crying in public. I also thought of taking them to the airport to give her Wednesday but thought it would be better to give her time to pack them.

I found this on etsy and thought it was too cute not to get for her. We put a card from L on that gift. I told her not to read the card because I knew it would make us all cry.

We were both tearing up by this point so she looked through the other gifts but didn't take the ribbon off the album to look through it. I think she'll do that when she's alone and I'm glad she spared us the tears. After opening her gifts she and B went to a friend's house to hang out. The next two days are going to be rough and sad.

I got this album late last year and have been taking pictures of her American adventures since. I hope she wasn't bothered by all the photos but I wanted to give her a nice souvenir of her time with us. We did a smaller one with 60 pictures for Takako and she said it is her "treasure." This one holds 200 photos and I came close to filling it. I think there were seven pictures left to fill. It was a lot of fun to make for her. A few of the pages:

I really like how this inside front cover turned out. Our card to her is in the top left corner.

And this is the inside back cover with L's picture. The flower stickers and washi tape are a theme throughout the album.

Andy looks it over before I wrapped it up.

The church gave Mayu this plate for her participation in all the youth activities. The story is that while cleaning out one of the rooms at the church, they came across a box full of plates. Not sure why they were made or when they were given out but the church has been giving them to people as they leave or retire. It's kind of guady and kind of big. Wondering if she'll find room in her bag for this or leave it with us. And on the back it warns, decorative use only, which is a little scary.

And I wanted to send a note to her parents so I put it on some Lindt chocolates ...

... and didn't want to forget her brother so we made him a gift bag of various American candies.

Date night

B and I did a little shopping this morning (he even got two new shirts!) and afterward decided to grab lunch at Buona Beef. Thanks to his rewards points and a birthday gift, we got the meal for $3.28. Sweet!

With B asleep on the sofa (he had a sleepover with college friends in Naperville last night - no sleep, really) and the girls at Whirleyball with the youth group, Andy and I went downtown for a Mexican dinner at Su Casa.

It was Pride Weekend so the people watching was really fun. Mayu had been at the Pride Parade earlier in the day with friends.

Love being in Chicago on a summer night.

River tour

We couldn't let Mayu leave Chicago without an architectural tour on the Chicago River so we did that this morning. E came along. Here's Andy and Mayu at the very start of the tour.

Had to get a picture of E in her Illini jacket in front of some U of I building. Not sure what it is.

It had rained a lot lately so the water was really high in the river and the boat got really close to the bottom of the bridges. They kept warning us not to stand up, don't touch the bridge and don't have your mouth open when you're under a bridge and looking up. Ewww.

Such a pretty city.

And to make things a little more interesting, the bridges were being raised and lowered today to allow for boats to get into the lake. The only comment I remember the tour guide saying about Trump Tower was about its "huge" letters. They were (and are) quite the controversy.

Me and Andy.

Nice picture of me with E.

After the tour, Andy drove to Long Grove for his volunteer training at an upcoming golf tournament. He also worked the first shift of doughnuts (3 a.m. start time) so he's had a full day. He got home just in time for us to drive to church for our friends' surprise anniversary party.

Their college son decorated the parlor. It looked really nice. We came home when Mayu couldn't get the back door open. She had gone to dinner with friends.

And I woke up to this picture of L saying goodbye to her Japanese host family. This was Saturday. Sunday they leave for Tokyo.

A bit from sensei about the farewell:

We got to talk to all of the host families and thanked them. Everyone one so emotional. All of the parents said that two weeks was too short and we should make it a longer stay. They are all very attached to our students. Some of them said that they were not coming to the airport :). There are many others who are not coming back, but we will do our best to bring back about 30 kids. When you see your child at O'Hare, he/she might look completely different, maybe Asian looking. But don't worry. You will get used to this change pretty quickly. Remember, we told you that your children have changed tremendously from this experience. Their physical appearance might just be one of the changes. ... Students did great emotional goodbye speeches to the families. They all had difficulty communicating at times and it is not like they were able to have deep conversation, but they laughed together, ate together and they existed in the same space for two weeks and it created a strong bond. As they get better at Japanese, they can talk more and more things and they can get to know each other more. So we hope that the students will keep in touch with their families. This is not a goodbye, this is just a beginning!