Chicago Trip -- Part 1


Nothing like visiting one of the country's coolest cities without having a wedding to attend

Marc and I finally did it -- we took a trip that wasn't centered around a family occasion or a wedding! Not that we don't love those trips, but once in a while it is nice to decide on our own where we want to spend our precious free time!



We picked Chicago for a few reasons. One is that we have some old friends there -- Marc's childhood buddy Ed lives there with his wife Connie, and ex-Austinites Tim and Laura Clyne live there with their two adorable kids (and one on the way!), Another reason is that, while Marc got his share of Chicago while dating a U. Chicago Law School student, I had actually NEVER visited the windy city and had been hoping to experience it for years. The final straw was that the Zimmermans, who spent a good part of their lives there (Jen was born and raised there, in fact), were willing to take us and Jeff & Cori on the "insider's tour" of the city -- our favorite kind of visit.

Our first evening and the following morning were spent with the Clynes in their beautiful home in Brookfield. We got to eat fish & chips at their neighborhood Irish pub, play the night away with munchkins Sadie and Jessie, and even woke up to homemade pancakes and waffles chock full of berries AND M&Ms... yum!

Here are Tim, Laura & Jessie posing post-fish & chips but pre-pancakes. It's shocking that the camera was able to capture Jessie as more than a streak -- that little girl never stands still!



Here, Sadie, Jessie and I practice our gymnastics. Maybe this is why when I asked Sadie to guess how old I was, she said 16:


After spending lots of quality time with the Clynes, Laura drove us to Chicago's Hyde Park to meet up with Ed & Connie Swenson. We were able to celebrate the fact that Dr. Ed just got his PhD in archeology and landed a cool position researching at the Field Museum, while Connie continues to work her way up in the development group at U. Chicago. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we didn't get to spend the whole day with them, but our couple of hours together were a blast. The last time we saw them was at our wedding, so it was nice to finally sit down and catch up. Here's Marc with old buddy Ed, looking like a normal guy instead of the pulsating brain that he is (in our conversation, he managed to use words like "ethnomusicalogical" in ways that sounded perfectly natural):


Here are all four of us gorging on Caribbean food in a cute little Hyde Park restaurant for lunch:


The Hyde Park visit ended with Ed giving us a little driving tour of Chicago before dropping us off at the Lincoln Park Zoo, where we met up with the Zimmermans, Jeff & Cori:

Posted: Sat - May 29, 2004 at 12:45 AM      

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