It has been awhile. I am now refreshed.
There are many advantages to a vacation in Chicago. Weather is not one of them. (I AM NOT tropical. I AM NOT a toucan. And I did not pray for warm weather during the winter.)
The in-laws rode our sorry lazy selves into exhaustion. A play: The Book of Mormon. Another play: Second City and the Lyric Opera do opera. A pop-up dinner by a professional chef in his home. (He served alligator. No, it doesn't taste like chicken. And it spent the next day trying to crawl out.) A chocolate tour of Chicago.
The tour was booked in April, long before hockey finals. My Red Sox hat (brought on the trip to protect face and head from sun) was an unfortunate choice. At the beginning of the week, the denizens of the city voiced their rivalry. At the end of the week, their uninvited sentiments bordered on pity. (Chicago, don't you understand? It is a RED SOX hat, not a Bruins hat. It has nothing to do with hockey. And no, you aren't clever calling the sports section Hawkytown every single day. Once is cute. Every day = lack of imagination.)
On the day of the parade, the venerable Art Institute of Chicago celebrated the Blackhawk victory. Their lions sported new headgear.
A visit to one of the new hotspots: Found Kitchen and Restaurant. Yum! I had a cocktail named The Bitter Sophisticate Goes to Spain. The mix contained red wine, maurin de quina, cola, and lime. I may have ordered a second one.
The Architectural Foundation of Chicago took us on a tour of Loop architecture via the L (which is Chicago-speak for the elevated part of the subway).
We worked out (TWICE) with Mr. E's parents and their personal trainer. I also found a new torment exercise method: take a walk, use a jumprope. Walk, skip rope, stop, do doublefooted fast for fifteen jumps, skip one foot at a time, skip running, it all works. Very aerobic. Do not do this in excess heat or humidity, or you will die.
We need a vacation to recover from our vacation.
We left the deck plants watering, fertilized with 5-10-5 just as we left. The second picture is 13 days later.
Planned and perfected, I brought lots of knitting. I worked on the second of the Wollmeise sock, and the body of Way From Brighton, in Judy's Willoughby yarn (merino/cashmere/silk).
More on that in the next post.