All posts by Jeff B.

rootsPersona App Added

September 22, 2014 Jeff B.

A plug-in called rootsPersona has been installed on this site. The application allows GEDCOM files from our Blumenthal’s of Chicago site on Ancestry Dot Com to appear in WordPress pages. Each individual can have a page, but with over 500 names in our tree that’s probably overdoing it.

Our objective is still the same: finding out more about our ancestors and locating long lost cousins, second or higher. So instead of adding 500+ pages we are showing only the ancestors of the site owners with a few descendants thrown in.

Jeff’s Page

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Joan’s Page

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Living in the City

The Electric Boat Ride

August 17, 2014 Jeff B.

Leaving the Dock

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Captain Don takes us out of the slip and into the Chicago River while Joan M and Lily smile with great anticipation.

When my friend Don mentioned he had a Groupon for an electric boat ride, I thought he was talking about a submarine. Instead, he rented a two hour slot from the Chicago Electric Boat Company at Marina City. With other friends and a supply of food and beverages we took a tour of the Chicago River North and South branches.

Bicycling, Living in the City

Feast of the Assumption – 2014

August 15, 2014 Jeff B.

We had so much fun last year that we couldn’t pass up another chance to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption at St. Jerome’s at 2801 S. Princeton. The trick is to get enough miles in at the beginning of the ride to feel like you have earned some of the things to eat and drink at the Fest. Our route took us from DuSable Harbor to the South Shore Cultural Center, a trip of approximately 10 miles and a halfway point.

On the return side we cut across the University of Chicago to the Lorado Taft Fountain of Time. This is one of my favorite sculptures and a nice way to transverse the University of Chicago before heading either to Hyde Park or head north via Drexel Boulevard.

Arriving at St. Jerome’s you are immediately faced with a quandary: eat or drink first. It’s easy to pass the fried dough on the way to decide what to eat, be it a kabob, lamb, and/or a dinner plate. The pizza, hot dogs, etc. are nothing special, although they do look good. We finally made our decision of Heineken’s, kabobs, lamb, and fried dough and a shady table.

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Yes, we’ll do it again next year. Hopefully the weather will be as picture perfect.

Living in the City

The River Walk

August 12, 2014 Jeff B.

When I was growing up in Chicago, the River was something to joke about. As with most bodies of water near cities, especially those whose growth was rapid, water is often seen as a place to dump waste. Out of sight, out of mind, and someone else’s problem. Chicago was one of those cities, with one difference. Around the turn of the 19th Century the value of Lake Michigan as a clean source of drinking water became a matter of public concern after several typhoid outbreaks. The solution was to reverse the flow of the Chicago River by building the Ship and Sanitary Canal. The Lake was now protected while the waste went down the River, much to the complaints of all the downstream communities.

Thanks to the River Walk development project, it’s now a different story. As an aside, my spouse Joan was Chair of the Union League Club of Chicago sub-committee on the River Walk, and directed the Club’s support of this Civic project.

Today there is a River Walk from the Lakefront to State Street, and a project to extend it even further west. It’s also one of the major attractions for recreation and tourism with architectural cruises, kayak rentals, and boating — yes, fishing!

Travels

National Mustard Day – 2014

August 6, 2014 Jeff B.

Years ago on a trip to Wisconsin, Joan and I stopped off at the Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb. When Joan’s Alma Mater, San Jose University was scheduled to play the Wisconsin Badgers, we signed up for the trip to the game and made reservations at the Marriott Hotel in Middleton, a small town just west of Madison. We were surprised to see that the Mustard Museum had relocated to Middleton. The game was somewhat of a bust, even though I got to be on the field as a photographer, but the stay in Middleton was a delight. We now make it a standard habit to always plan a stop when going through the area.

This year we made Middleton a destination to take advantage of the Annual National Mustard Day celebration, and to escape the crowds at Lollapalooza in Chicago right next to our condo. Here are some pictures that tell the story, not only of Mustard Day, but our trip that also included Capital Brewery and a couple of knitting stores.

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