Those of you who know me pretty intimately are aware of my tradition of taking 1-2 weeks off from work around my birthday for a NYC Staycation. Well, this year, WE BROKE TRADITION!
Before NYC became the epicenter of COVID19, I had three trips planned: 1. Go to my cousin’s wedding in Texas – this one my mom and I got to do and then flew back home to an EMPTY airport. The city was shut down a few days after we got back. 2. Take the aforementioned Madre to Atlanta for her birthday – this had to be cancelled, and finally… 3. Go to Chicago to see how my dance bestie Carolyn and her hubby Jon had settled in after getting married and moving to Chicago – you guessed it, this one was also cancelled. (NOTE: there was a fourth, more local trip involving my nursing school bestie, a car ride upstate, and a yoga retreat, but that was a little earlier than these exploits… man, I go tripping a lot!)
So as COVID started to exit our lives (Delta, you can kiss my butt for showing your ugly face as I flew to Chicago), Carolyn and I were texting on her hubby’s birthday and we decided that I was coming to visit. I hadn’t seen them in three years and really, it had been too long. We made plans for a five day, four night major hang out session, and oh boy, did we do just that.
As much as I would love to chronicle what happened from day to day, anybody and their brother Bob can read this blog, so we will go through the highlights!!
HIGHLIGHT NUMBER ONE: Literally just existing with my friends and their animals in their lovely home and exploring their lovely city. Carolyn and Jon literally bike everywhere, so they borrowed a bike (thanks Pat and Pam!) and I joined in. I turned my Garmin on for EVERY RIDE, more out of curiosity and also to get those miles charted, and we clocked over 60 miles!! I found Chicago to be a very bike friendly city, and loved that I could go anywhere on the two-wheeled device. I also love all the insider information on bike seats for ladies, panniers and more that they gave me. I really should have taken notes.
HIGHLIGHT NUMBER TWO: We FINALLY got to boulder. Carolyn and I would be what you call amateur boulderererers (is that even what you call it??) in our history at the climbing gyms of NYC [sidebar story: one time Carolyn and I were climbing to the point of extreme hunger and ended up at an Italian restaurant because pasta and the dinner was probably in the top five of my most romantic dinners list]. Carolyn brought me as a guest to her gym and we had some great climbs. You know when you have a friend that you might not see for a while and then all of a sudden, you are together again but it doesn’t seem like that much time had passed? Well, the whole weekend was that for me.
HIGHLIGHT NUMBER THREE: In Carolyn fashion, we ended up kayaking five miles in the Chicago River!! This was super fun! Highly recommend doing this if you find yourself in Chicago… really, you should look for Carolyn to do it with because she is a hoot. I’ll throw some photos at the bottom of the blog for your visual pleasure.
HIGHLIGHT NUMBER FOUR: BOOKSTORES! I know I am yelling but I can’t really help it. We went to several bookstores just to browse and I have to say that I haven’t seen or been in that many bookstores in a few years. I love the smell of books (yes, I can “smell” them… y’know the air around a book changes). We had book limits because of our bicyclist status (plus someone had to fly home a few days later), which helped me really narrow down my choices. I can get into real bookstore trouble… surprised? The one book I bought was Dune, so I am ready to fall into that science fiction world! We then biked to an amazing vegan place… that vegan key lime cake was sublime! For my Chicago readers, that place was called Upton’s!
HIGHLIGHT NUMBER FIVE: Dang, I was only going to do five highlights but I had two more things in mind… oh well, guess you’ll never know what the sixth one was! Lastly, Chicago beer is delish! The highlight within the highlight was this place called Beermiscuous where it can literally take you 1o minutes to pick your beer. That was place was fun and now will forever be remembered as the place where I learned how to play a mini board game named Jaipur.
So there you have it folks! I’m already trying to figure out when I can visit again.
Mar Tells Mini Tales 