Chicago Part 2

We slept in a bit on Sunday morning, but awoke to the sounds of breakfast being made. Sandra is excellent at making breakfast, so we were in for a treat. She made the standard monkey bread, which was wonderful, eggs, bacon, and sausage.

After our huge breakfast we decided we should head back out on the lake for some fishing. We all piled into the boat and went out to Sandra's fishing spot, where we were guaranteed to catch a fish or two. Sarah was the first to catch a fish, about 14" and 7 or 8 lbs. It took me a while, but I also caught a little smaller fish. He sure felt really heaving when I was reeling him in though. Allison was not so lucky and didn't catch a fish, something about the pregnancy hormones scaring the fish away...

Sarah and I got our photos taken with our fish so we can grace the wall of fish in the basement. Now we just need to get the photos from Sandra (hint, hint).

After we were done fishing Sarah and I said our goodbyes and headed back into the city to go to my sisters house. We did get slowed down by traffic, so it took us a little longer than we had hoped to get to Dana and Paul's house. Luckily they live right off the interstate so their house was easy to find. You certainly wouldn't know that they live right off the interstate though, there is no noise from the busy road and their tree lined street looks like something out of a story book. I didn't know these neighborhoods existed so close to the city!

It was great to see Dana and Paul and their new house. I had seen pictures, but it looked even better in person. The house is older, but has great details in the woodwork, built ins, windows, and just the rooms in general are very open letting in lots of light. Unfortunately, Charlie, their cat was not so excited to see me and hid most of the time I was there.

Not too long after I arrived we all started getting ready to head out for an afternoon and evening at Rivinia. If you don't know, Rivinia is a huge outdoor amphitheatre and space where concerts are held all summer long. It is right next to/in the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Everyone that goes to these concerts packs up food, drinks, tables (fun fact, most of the people had the same Rivinia table from Crate and Barrel, the table was named for the place!) chairs and blankets. The gates opened at 5pm and by the time we got in at 5:30 we could hardly find a place to set our camp up. And it was HOT and sunny and we didn't find a spot under a tree. But it wasn't actually as bad out as I thought it would be. It was fun just to sit and people watch and catch up with everyone. We had an excellent assortment of food, Dana brought cheese and crackers, and brownies. we also had taco dip, hummus and veggies, turkey and cheese wraps, Popeyes chicken, corn and mashed potatoes and lots of wine and beer.

Paul, Dana and Holly trying to beat the heat!

Sting started promptly at 7:30 and sounded great. He was playing with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and while we couldn't see him (seriously, this place is huge!) the sound was great since we were close to speakers. The sun had also started to set, so we could enjoy being outside a little more.

We didn't have a problem leaving Rivinia and traffic was light.

Monday morning Dana went in late to work so she would walk me to the train. We had a pretty relaxed morning having breakfast and me getting packed up.

My flight home was also uneventful. We left on time and I arrived into Knoxville a few minutes early! Nina was wonderful and picked me up from the airport since Dave was at a golf tournament in Nashville. It was great to see Dylan when I picked him up from daycare on Monday, I had certainly missed him!

Chicago Part 1

Luckily I had an uneventful flight from Knoxville to Chicago. Sarah picked me up at O'Hare. It was great to see her after way too long. Our friend Beth works very close to O'Hare, so we stopped by to see her before we went to lunch. I haven't seen Beth in even longer than I'd seen Sarah, so just a few minutes of saying hi was nice (even if it was at a funeral home...).

After visiting with Beth for a little bit Sarah and I headed back to her neighborhood (Lincoln Square) to have lunch and catch up. Lunch was excellent, we both had salads and a glass of wine and caught up on friends and family gossip. We headed off to do some shopping after lunch at all of the cute stores and galleries in the area. Our first stop was a general store that has unique cards and gifts. I found a few birthday cards and a "Goodnight Chicago" book for Dylan. We also hit up a few clothing stores (a teal sleeveless shirt and over sized ring for me!) and a gallery that features Chicago artists (where a "Midwest is Best" t-shirt may also have been purchased).

When we finished shopping we headed back to Sarah's apartment to wrap presents for Allison's baby shower on Saturday and get ready for dinner.


Dinner was at a very cute place a short cab ride from Sarah's, Magnolia Cafe. They have an excellent menu of appetizers, drinks, salads and entrees. Unfortunately they were sold out of the beef short ribs, but we were not disappointed with the Crab Cake appetizer,
Sarah's Delmonico Steak, Au gratin potatoes,


and my braised pork shoulder with fingering potatoes.

Saturday morning had us up a little earlier than we would have liked to head to Indiana to visit our friend Sandra. After a quick trip to Starbucks we were on our way! There was a little traffic on the drive, but it didn't slow us down too much. When we got to Sandra's we started getting a few of the dishes we were having for dinner prepped, while lunch was also being made. (We are excellent multi-taskers!) Allison arrived just as we were getting ready for lunch and after a long drive from Iowa.

After a great lunch we suited up and headed out on the lake. We spent the afternoon lounging on rafts in the lake and catching up. And no, I did not leave my raft all afternoon, I had people handing me food and beer. What more can you ask for from your friends? :)

We all pitched in to get dinner ready, and we had a feast. While we were getting dinner ready Beth arrived. She had to work all day Saturday, but made the hour drive out to Indiana to hang out with us for the evening. We dined on asparagus with prosciutto and Parmesan, fingerling potato salad with green beans and bacon, chicken, pepper, tomato and mushroom kabobs, and cucumber salad. Everything was excellent. After dinner was all headed downstairs to the festively decorated basement for Allison's baby shower!

And Allison opened her gifts!
It was a great day spend with great friends!

Look for Chicago Part 2 tomorrow!

Two-fer Tuesday

The Chicago re-cap will be posted later today or tonight!

Dana and I at Rivinia.

Sandra, Beth, Allison, Sarah and I.

Chicago friends and family

I leave for Chicago tomorrow and can't wait! It will be great to see friends I haven't seen in a while and also my sister and her husband. We have a big weekend planned, dinner on Friday night and a show at Second City with one of my best and oldest (and by oldest I mean I've known her for over 15 years, she would certainly correct me on this since I am 7 months older than she is) friends Sarah. Saturday Sarah and I are heading to Indiana to meet up with our friend Sandra, another high school friend to go boating and catch up. Allison (yet another high school friend) will also be driving from Iowa to Indiana to meet up with us for a mini-baby shower that Sandra is throwing for her. And after work our friend Beth is also coming to Sandra's for Allison's shower (Beth is yet another high school friend).
(ASIDE, there are 8 of us that have been friends since high school and we are now living all over the country, CA, FL, TN, IL and IA, so it's rather difficult for us all to get together, but amazingly after 15 years of living in different parts of the country we are still friends!)
Sunday I am heading over to see my sister Dana and her husband Paul (and cat Charlie) in their new house in Irving Park. They moved back to the states from London last October and we did see them at Christmas, but it will be fun to see their new house and neighborhood. Sunday evening has us heading to the Sting concert at Ravinia, an outdoor concert venue in Chicago.
And Monday I fly back to K-town. I know it's going to be a whirlwind of a trip, which will be good. It will keep my mind of leaving Dylan for the first time overnight. I know his daddy will take very good care of him so I shouldn't have anything to worry about. Right?