Our Friends Live in a Barn

Last weekend, we got the pleasure of spending a few days with Eric's good college friends Jonathan and Debby Richards, and their very cute little boy Josiah. They live north of Chicago in a barn. It's a nice barn, calling the old addage "Were you raised in a barn?" into great suspicion. Here's a picture of their barn. Note the ultra cool reading nook above the kitchen table, accessible only by ladder. How cool is that!

We had a lovely relaxed time listening to Josiah's infectious laugh. We also visited the Oriental Institute at the U of Chicago, which was recommended to us by our other friends, the Basteseses. Despite the name, it doesn't really have any artifacts from the orient, but has a bunch of stuff from Ur (like the city Abraham was from), Assyria, the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and the early Hebrew kingdoms. Very cool.

Oh yeah, and Jonathan took us to the super organic coffee shop where he makes masterpieces of art out of froth, espresso, and chocolate syrup. The straws are made of corn starch, and Rachel decided that she would make a bold attempt to chew the thing until it dissolved into its constituent parts. She chewed for a very long time, but it kind of just looked like a straw chewed for a very long time.