Whirlwind Weekend

Well, we were back at it this weekend. Friday we drove to Davenport, Saturday we drove to Cedar Rapids and then back to Iowa City, and then on Sunday we headed back to Chicago.

Saturday was a "Fruit-a-palooza" party for Mallory's 7th birthday. 16 seven-year-old girls showed up for the party and I was assigned as the Bounce House bouncer - I was to only let three girls in at a time and have them rotate and take turns. Let me just say that this was a learning experience for me. I learned that I am no match for 16 screaming young girls. They ran all over me and showed no mercy. Sara offered no help, but instead took pleasure (and pictures) in watching me duck and take cover. It was a lot of fun, despite the tragic Bounce House Horror (as it will be called from now on), and I think Mallory had a great time.

After the party, Sara and I drove back to Iowa City and the home of Chris, Emily, and Ava Barwacz (another one of our "Blogs of Note" friends). We enjoyed a great night of food, drink, conversation, laughter, more drink, and brownies. The meatloaf was amazing.

Sunday we got up early and headed back to Chicago as we had tickets to the Penguins vs. Blackhawks hockey game. It was exciting with the Blackhawks winning in a shoot out. Sara and I then stayed after the game and were able to meet up with Ban Bylsma, the head coach of the Penguins. Dan is a distant relative (2nd cousin). It was also fun to catch up with his mom, Nancy.  We spent some time talking and catching up and then Dan and the Penguins had to leave.

Another busy weekend for us but a lot of fun. Now it's time to enjoy just being home for a while.

Visiting the Riveras

This past weekend Sara and I took a weekend trip to Melbourne, FL to visit our friends Gabby and Ben and their 4 month-old baby girl, Camdyn (they have one of the "Blogs of Note" on the right hand side of our blog if you want to take a look). It was a great weekend and we can't thank the Riveras enough for their hospitality. The trip did have it's interesting moments though...

We both took Friday off from work and got an early morning flight down to Florida (waking up at 3:45am to make a 6am flight) so that we had some extra time in the sun. Delta had other plans for us, however, and we ended up spending most of the day in the Cincinnati airport after our flight was delayed by 5 hours, which was awesome because airports have fun things like chairs and stuff (you'll notice a few airport pictures because I was bored). We used the $6 vouchers Delta gave us for lunch (to apologize for the delayed flight). Given the typical cost of airport food is just slightly more than $6 we weren't all that happy, but we made the most of it and we actually had a pretty fun lunch. Sara then took a nap on the floor near our gate while I read and we finally made it to Florida by 5:30pm.

Saturday morning I woke up early and made it out to the beach to enjoy the sunrise and take some pictures. It was really windy and cold on the beach but the view made up for it. I hope the pictures do it justice. The one regret I have is that I didn't ask to take a picture of an old grizzled cop that had stopped by on his rounds. He had an awesome mustache and big mirrored aviator sunglasses and with the early morning sun reflecting off them...well, he would have been a great subject. But I was too shy to ask him and now I regret it. So lesson learned. I'll ask next time.

Later Saturday, after attempting to eat an "insane burrito," we all went to the Kennedy Space Center. It was a lot of fun with the highlight being the IMAX 3D movie of the space station. It was also kind of sad, though, as NASA is shutting down the space program and there are only three more shuttle launches left (the next one is Feb 24th).

Sunday brought more flight surprises as Delta informed me that my schedule had changed and now I would be spending the night in Cincinnati and not getting back to Chicago until Monday morning. After talking with an agent I was able to get switched to an AA flight and was home by 10pm. Sara, on the other hand, stayed in Orlando for a work conference until Wednesday where she got to enjoy seeing the sun a bit longer.

The trip was too short but fun nonetheless. Thanks, Riveras!

Chicago Auto Show

I went to the Chicago Auto Show with my friend, Francis. I thought I would share some of the pictures.

Travel Map

We've added a map to the right hand side of the blog. The countries/states in blue are where we've been as a couple and those in green are where we want to go. You should be able to zoom in on the map and move around to get a better view.

We may not make it to all the places in green but we can dream.

** Update - I've added a larger view of the travel map below to make it easier to view and zoom in on (we'll keep the smaller map on the right hand side of the blog as well) -

Art Institute

These are from last week...just getting them on the blog today. The Art Institute is always a great time.



Hopefully we'll have some pictures from snowmageddon soon as well (some great thunder snowing last night). Check out this article and picture on the Tribune's page - Lake Shore Drive Nightmare

Tart-tastic

Sara enjoys her HGTV. While I could watch the same ESPN highlights over and over she can do the same with HGTV shows - House Hunters, Holmes on Homes, Designed to Sell, etc. Recently we've branched out to the Cooking Channel and there we came across a great salmon recipe that was paired with an apple and pear tart for desert. The tart looked really easy to make on the show and looked even more delicious. So last weekend we decided to give it a go. It turned out amazing and the pictures actually do it justice. It can be hard to get food to look appetizing in pictures but these turned out.

It's a Date

This past week I took Sara on a competitive date at Southport Lanes and Billiards. This was some serious old-school bowling. They had "pinboys" who manually cleaned up and set the pens after each bowl which prompted a warning, "If you see legs don't bowl!" Tipping the pinboys was fun - you just roll up the bills, stuff them in one of the finger holes, and roll the ball down the gutter. I wish I could tip like that for dinner too. The old-school bowling also meant we had to keep our own score. We had no idea how to keep score and had to ask the girl bowling next to us. Considering Sara kept score and she beat me I'm not sure it was done correctly. She made sure to get a picture of the beat-down anyway. We then played a game of billiards where I prevailed, unfortunately there is no picture record of that victory.



After the games we enjoyed their food which normally I wouldn't go into detail about, but I was in heaven. I had The Caliente - a burger with chorizo, jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, and a fried egg on top with a pretzel bun. Unbelievable. I'm a little disappointed I didn't get a picture of it but I was too busy enjoying it. I'm pretty sure I dreamt about it last night.

Walking Around Chicago

Since the Colts are out of the playoffs I took some time and walked around Chicago last Sunday.