This weekend I took a little vacation to Chicago. I found a cheap ticket online and there happen to be some good things going on in the city, so I decided to go for it. I hadn't been to the Windy City in over a year, so it felt like I was due for a visit. Matthew and Suz picked me up at the airport and we went straight to the train so Suz and I could get up to Ravinia for a live taping of A Prairie Home Companion. We had to take a little detour to actually catch the Metra, but it was all worth it. It was a beautiful evening!
Suz brought some great snacks including cherries, hummus and pita chips and local beer. The fun of Ravinia is that you get to hear a great performance and have a picnic. To me it's the perfect way to spend a summer evening.
Garrison Keillor is the host of A Prairie Home Companion and didn't disappoint. My favorite part of a the show was a small tribute he did to Studs Terkel. This was the first time the show had been recorded at Ravinia without Studs being on the stage.
The musical guest was Sara Watkins, of Nickel Creek fame. She does some really great solo work. Overall it was a really fun show.
One of the unique things about Ravinia is that there is a train that runs right to the entrance of the park. Even though we were told that a train would be there in 15 minutes, it ended up being more like 45 minutes, so we sat on the side of the tracks and opened up the cooler for a little snack while we waited.
After the show we took the train to Evanston and met up with Mariko and Larry who I've known for almost 10 years now! It was great to see such great friends. After grabbing a snack at Panera we walked around downtown Evanston and noticed all of the ways that it's changed since Jerri, Mark, Jocelyn and I lived there in 2000-2001.
Mariko's mom was nice enough to give us a ride back to Matthew's place and we stayed up into the wee hours of the morning catching up and drinking whiskey sours. It was a perfect start to a fun-filled, whirlwind weekend.
Suz brought some great snacks including cherries, hummus and pita chips and local beer. The fun of Ravinia is that you get to hear a great performance and have a picnic. To me it's the perfect way to spend a summer evening.
Garrison Keillor is the host of A Prairie Home Companion and didn't disappoint. My favorite part of a the show was a small tribute he did to Studs Terkel. This was the first time the show had been recorded at Ravinia without Studs being on the stage.
The musical guest was Sara Watkins, of Nickel Creek fame. She does some really great solo work. Overall it was a really fun show.
One of the unique things about Ravinia is that there is a train that runs right to the entrance of the park. Even though we were told that a train would be there in 15 minutes, it ended up being more like 45 minutes, so we sat on the side of the tracks and opened up the cooler for a little snack while we waited.
After the show we took the train to Evanston and met up with Mariko and Larry who I've known for almost 10 years now! It was great to see such great friends. After grabbing a snack at Panera we walked around downtown Evanston and noticed all of the ways that it's changed since Jerri, Mark, Jocelyn and I lived there in 2000-2001.
Mariko's mom was nice enough to give us a ride back to Matthew's place and we stayed up into the wee hours of the morning catching up and drinking whiskey sours. It was a perfect start to a fun-filled, whirlwind weekend.
1 comment:
I am so glad you got to see Mariko and Larry. What a fun weekend!
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