Chicago

Chicago is a very fun city. Especially if you like to eat. And, I do. We returned last night from a week of exploring the Windy City. Neither of us had been before, so we stayed in Downtown Chicago the first 3 days and ate deep dish pizza, visited Chinatown, ate in Greek town and Little Italy, watched fireworks from Navy Pier and tried to burn off all those calories by renting bicycles and cycling the city along Lake Michigan.

Chris had a conference in a suburb, so we made our way Southwest and stayed near Naperville, a very quaint little town that reminded me of New England. It had a river walk and we discovered Red Mango...a frozen yogurt shop that didn't serve the frozen yogurt I'm accustomed to, but yogurt like you'd buy in the grocery store, frozen, whipped up, and topped with fresh fruit. I think we sampled it four days in a row...just to make sure.

The best part of the stay in Naperville was the morning we decided to play racquetball in the gym of the hotel. I'm never better than Chris at any sport, but I used to play racquetball alot about 5 years ago. Part of the strategy is to know where the ball is going to come off the wall, and since I've played more than Chris, I automatically had an edge (beside the fact that I pretty much dominate him in this sport). He kept getting in my way, and it annoyed me because I'd miss a point. I very sweetly informed him that if he got in my way again, I was hitting the ball regardless of where he was standing and let the chips fall where they may (as I write this, it occurs to me that I may not be the most loving of spouses when I play games with Chris--I'll have to ponder on that later). Sure enough, he served the ball really hard and I hit it back really hard and his head got in the way. I dropped him like a fly. The ball hit him right in the middle of the forehead and a nice red circle started to puff up. It didn't stop him from getting in front of me the next time, and so I proceeded to hit him in the thigh and the back of the arm. For some reason he really hates racquetball.


Chris took the rental car with him, so I was stuck at our 80's era hotel everyday with nothing in walking distance. My cousin, Sara, who lives just outside of Chicago, very sweetly drove down and rescued me. She took me to the Morton Arboretum, and we talked while her two kids played in the water. We had so much fun, and since I never get to see her, I got to catch up on all the goings on with my cousins.


We miraculously made it to O'Hare without any incident and wonder of wonders, our plane was on time! It was good to be home and to see my dogs. I don't think Chris was quite as enthusiastic about seeing Trudy and Sophie, but my parents seemed pretty pleased that we were back if only because they didn't have to watch the girls anymore. Trudy was ecstatic to see us...Sophie wagged her tail and then headed under the couch. She's so dumb she probably doesn't remember who we are.