42
|
The Perfect Weekend
THE NORTH SHORE WEEKEND
11/24-11/25/12
Laura and John Merlo opened their eponymous restaurant on Roger Williams Avenue in Highland Park this fall.
photography by j.geil
For Laura and John THE CHILDREN MAKE IT SPECIAL
When the corn’s in, the kids love to run through the corn fields. They love to fish in the pond.”
O
n a Friday in the summer we’ll pick up the kids (Dylan, 4, and Jack, 3) at camp around 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. in Glencoe. We’ll have friends over to barbecue and play Frisbee in the backyard that evening. With little kids, we focus our weekend around the house as much as possible. On Saturday morning we walk past Starbucks in Glencoe and go down to the beach. We’ll spend a few hours there — play in the sand, go in the water. The kids will end up as beachbum babies covered with sand. We tire them out at the beach. Saturday afternoon, John may go to the gym and when he gets back, I’ll go to yoga. The kids will nap. It’s so nice to
grab quiet time. We work hard at the restaurant (Merlo’s in Highland Park). That night we’ll take the kids to Ron of Japan. They’ll throw pennies in the pond. On Sunday morning we’ll take them to Country Kitchen in Highland Park. Then we may put them in the car and go to the family farm in New Buffalo, Michigan. We have fruit trees, grow vegetables. When the corn’s in, the kids love to run through the corn fields. They love to fish in the pond. They get as many blue gill as they can. Laura and John Merlo, as told to David Sweet