Family Weekend Adventures!

I'm finally recovering from my cold... and I have to say that a summer cold is just about the worst thing. We've had some beautiful days lately, and I've been too busy sucking on cough drops and sniffling to really enjoy it. Thankfully, I was still able to have a pretty good weekend, with my parents and little sister in town hanging out with us! We always enjoy slowing down and playing tourist around our city, and it was such a treat to have a whole weekend off from work.

We wandered around downtown Evanston on Friday afternoon, then enjoyed a typical Chicago cookout of brats, potato salad, and baked beans. Plenty of beer and wine went down smoothly with the meal, and we decided to aid our digestion with a nice walk around our neighborhood. We ended up walking past Rod Blagojevich's house right as his wife Patti was walking in with some groceries. She said hello and commented on what a nice night it was for a walk, and as we continued on my mom started talking about how friendly people in Chicago were, as Joe and I tried to contain our laughter until we got far enough away to tell my mom who we had just run into. It was pretty hilarious, maybe more so thanks to the aforementioned drinks with dinner...

Saturday started out with some wonderful sleeping in, and a lazy morning at home.  Then we went over to Mostrose Beach to walk around and have a lunchtime picnic, which was so enjoyable. I love how much people use the beaches and parks in Chicago, since so few people actually have yards of their own.

After the picnic we did a little shopping along Lincoln Avenue, stopping in at Brew Camp, a new homebrew store near our house. The guy was really nice, and we're excited to go back there next time we need supplies.

That night we went to dinner at The Gage, to celebrate my birthday. We had a fantastic meal, and a surprise dessert to top off the celebration. It was so fun to hang out with my family, and to soak up our wonderful city through the eyes of visitors.



Millennium Park with my little sister.

 

Cute parents on Michigan Avenue



Delicious birthday dinner

 My parents timed their trip well, because we were able to celebrate Father's Day with my dad! My family is spread out across the country (the 6 of us are in 4 different states at this point, but we were in 6 different states just a few months ago!), so we don't get to spent too many holidays together. We had a nice breakfast at home with my dad on Sunday morning, before they headed back towards Missouri. It was a nice end to a fun weekend catching up with some of my favorite people!