My little sister, Brianne, celebrated her 12th birthday on September 20th. We were outside most of the day, and the farmers were harvesting the crops. And I must say that I miss seeing this (but I don't miss the dust!)
Here's Brianne blowing out her candles. As my gift to Brianne, I decided to take her to Chicago with me for a girl's night. She had never been to Chicago before, and I wish I could've captured the look on her face when I told her that she was coming with me. Absolutely priceless, and one that I'll never forget :)
We didn't get to Chicago until late, but after we checked into the hotel, we headed straight out for some shopping. First stop was The Gap (it was a little chillier than I planned for and wanted to get a sweater), and then to Water Tower Place for some dinner. After that, we did some more shopping. Here's Bri sitting near the Water Tower.
Little girl in the BIG city!!!
We walked down to the river because I thought she's want to see that. She kept making fun of me because I don't like walking over the bridge, but she quickly realized how much it vibrates when cars are driving over it!
After we were done shopping, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a snack and then back to the hotel room. Bri's here playing with my iPad.
The next morning, we got up and had breakfast, headed to Village Pantry to grab some snacks, checked out of the hotel and headed to Soldier's field. I was participating in the Chicago Nephcure walk (and also photographing it). Here's Bri with her new friend Gina. Gina also suffers from FSGS, same disease as me, but this girl has more personality than her little body can handle! :)
After the walk was over, I took Brianne to get the best taco she'll ever have in her life. I used to live above this Mexican joint called Taco Burrito Place #3 (no idea where #1 and #2 are) but it is THE BEST TACO AND NACHOS I'VE EVER HAD, and I'd been jonesin' for one for a long time, so it was perfect in every way.
Then we headed back south to take Brianne home. After I dropped her off, I decided to take a little drive through the country. There are a bazillion windmills that have gone up right near my parent's house, and I wanted to take some photos of them, plus the light was INCREDIBLE! This picture below was taken on a country road right north of my parents house. I used to go on this road every day on my bus route to school.
It's a little freaky standing underneath these things, but they are very quiet...
Last day and I was a bit sad. I didn't want to leave. I felt "alive" in Chicago, like there were all of these possibilities right around the corner. And the funny thing about all of these possibilities is that they made the days seem longer...weird, I know, but they did. The days blow by in a blur here at home...I wouldn't mind if time slowed down a little so we could enjoy things more as a family. I'm gonna have to figure out a way to make that happen :) We wanted to wake up early so we didn't have to rush. We knew we wanted to be back home no later than 5:30 that evening so we could pick up Murphy from doggie day care, and we also knew that there were some things that we wanted to do before we left the city, so we hit it early. And we didn't have to wake her up...she just popped her head over the pack-n-play and was ready to go. She just wakes up cute. Izzy became quite the little city girl during our short stay. She had the elevator thing completely figured out by day 2, but it took me till day 5 to record it. She would stand in front of the elevator door and wait for it to open, then walk to the back corner and turn around. Then, when the door would open, she'd march right out. The last 2 days, though, she seemed a little freaked out by the threshold of the elevator, so we had to walk her over it.
I really wanted to take some photos in a small part right outside of one of the entrances to the zoo on Tuesday, but we didn't think it was a good idea to push it any further with Izzy, so we decided to play a little "catch-up" before we hit the road home on Friday and headed back up to Lincoln Park. We drove around a while with no success in finding a parking spot, so we decided to drive by the apartments I used to live in when I lived in Chicago and photograph them, and here they are... This was the first apartment I lived in....doesn't look like much, does it? Well, you'd be right. Due to the job I had with Dean Foods, I was on the road during most of the apartment search, and my old roommate/ex-boyfriend (at the time) found this place and thought it was up to par. Note the "ex" on the boyfriend...the only thing this place had going for it was wood floors and a cool view of the city from the kitchen, but that's about it. My apartment was the one on the 3rd floor. Except for this. Taco & Burrito Place #3. THE BEST CHICKEN TACO YOU WILL EVER EAT (sober or not-so-much). I REALLY wanted a taco on this trip, but it was just to early to partake of the yummy goodness...save it for next time. Here is apartment #2. I LOVED this apartment....hardwood floors, built-ins everywhere, patio in back. It doesn't look like much either, but it was a true gem of an apartment. This was my last place in Chicago. It wasn't bad...I had a parking space (FINALLY, but it cost me an arm and a leg), and it had a GREAT location. This is what I remember when I think about wanting to walk out my front door in any direction and be able to find a great place to eat and some shopping. This was it. Okay, enough reminiscing about that...We headed back over to the zoo, but still no luck with parking, so we bit the bullet and paid for the zoo parking. The zoo may be free, but they get you in the parking lot $17!!! Freakin' ridiculous, but people like us will pay it :) So, we walked through the zoo, but our timing was good enough to catch the seal feeding. We got to the park I love, and hung out for awhile. This is just a cool shot of some asian grasses. We went over to the fountain in the park, and there was a little girl Izzy's age there that had the same hairstyle as Izzy and a pink balloon that she was kind enough to let Izzy play with. We were all wondering if they were communicating with the ponytail antennaes sticking out of their head! :) I put out a blanket hoping that we could just hang out for a bit.. but it didn't last long. She wanted to roam, until she found this bench. Then she wanted nothing more than to sit on it. She even convinced her pappa that it was the most wonderful place to be... Then we headed back to the fountain. While we were there, there was this woman walking her dog in the fountain. She was yappin on her phone the entire time, but went around us so the dog could continue walking....cute puppy! Here we are checking out a squirrel that was running around in the trees. Nice view from the zoo parking lot (except for a little bit of haze) And then we headed out of the city :( We stopped in Merrilville to get gas and something to eat. I went in to get an ice cream cone, and this is what I had in my seat when I came back...a little MONKEY! I had posted on Facebook last week about someone having a meltdown and decible levels that were causing permanent damage...make sure you're volume is at an appropriate level for this:
NOT FUN. But here she was just minutes later:
And this is my most favorite video that I took the entire trip....kinda think you'll figure out why...
Day 4 - nothing planned, so we went touristy. Our destination: Joacim had never been to the Sears Tower. Yes, I KNOW it's now been renamed the Willis Tower, but seriously, who's hairbrained idea was that???? As with other things for me, I shall continue to call it the name I know (need I say Deer Creek or Hoosier Dome???) These are some cool murals in the visitor's center prior to hitting the express elevator... Ahhhhhh....one of my favorite views... Izzyboo liked it too! We let her walk around a lot up there, but she became quite the little escape artist. Here's Joacim retreiving her. They've put these new glass walk-outs in the observation deck, and they are SCARY!!! I mean, it's 103 floors....straight down...look at Joacim's expression! Even he's freaked out!
I have to tell you that I was terrified shooting this video...freaking terrified. I have an incredible fear of heights but it normally doesn't bother me when I'm enclosed. However, this was a COMPLETELY different experience.
We were able to get a great self-portrait though!! She is absolutely edible, isn't she????? After our visit, we decided to walk around and find something to eat. We swung by the Octoberfest that was going on downtown, but it was really crowded. At this point, we were famished...luckily, Izzy was still in good spirits... FINALLY, we found a deli to eat. You'd think it would've been easier! That evening, we headed out to Joacim's and my favorite restaurant. It's called Cafe-Ba-Ba-Reeba, and it's in my old stompin' grounds. I had been looking forward to this meal for 3 years. Unfortunately, Izzy had other ideas. This ended up being the meal that I have dreaded since the day she was born. We were the only ones in there with a small child, and I felt like we became the ones everyone despised because she was screaming like a howler monkey! There wasn't anything I could do to make her happy, except for hold her (which made it really hard to eat tapas). I was able to shove all the good food in, but I think we'll find a sitter for Izzy the next time we go....or wait till she's 15 and can be better behaved :) Once we left the restaurant, she was back to her sweet self again....soooooooo snuggly and darn cute!
One last nighttime cityscape photo.... I miss this town...
