Chicago - Day 1, Ravinia - Take 1

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.

Trenton Thunder revisited

On Sunday John, Jill, the kiddos, my parents and I all went to a Trenton Thunder game to celebrate Jill's birthday and enjoy a nice summer day. I love minor league baseball for all of its quirkiness. The Thunder is known for having a Bat Dog named "Chase, that Golden Thunder". In the first couple innings he runs out to retrieve the bats. Here he is in action:

They also have one of the goofiest mascots I've ever seen. I guess it's hard to create a personification of Thunder, but here he is:

And the boys LOVED him! He goes by Boomer and Emmy kept asking "Where's Boomer?" At one point he and I took a walk to try and find him and when he finally came into our section everyone got very excited to see him so close.

We sat in Section E, in the front row and when I asked Emmy "What is E for?" he said "E is for Emerson!" and pointed to himself. It was pretty cute.

We ended up with 4 seats in the front row and 4 seats in the second row and it worked out really well. Here is Jill and Dad and Mom enjoying the game. Dad busted out the Yankees hat since the Thunder is the AA affiliate of the Yankees.

Nathaniel busted out the Yankees hat because he's actually a Yankees fan. Here's me with the boys:

Sebastian, and all the boys, really loved it when the cotton candy vendor came around. This was already after having hot dogs, chips, lemonade, dippin' dots and funnel cake, so we just got one to share with our whole crew.

And the boys had to get some sort of Thunder gear, so they all got these foam hands (and Emmy got a hat because it turned out to be pretty sunny after a cloudy start to the day). You can kind of see John, Jill, and Mom & Dad in the background here.

After the game we went back to my house and enjoyed some pizza and birthday cake at the picnic table in the backyard. It was really a great day! Happy Birthday, Jill!

Birthday in NYC!

Friday was my 31st Birthday and I was lucky enough to be able to see Josh Ritter, one of my favorite musicians, perform with the NY Pops for free in Central Park. Kim, Alex, Mike, Kelly and I all met at Penn Station, got some salads and sandwiches for dinner and then headed up to the park. We waited in a very long line, but actually ended up with good seats. The concert was the first one in the SummerStage concert series.

Here is me, Kim, Mike, Alex and Kelly at the concert. We had to sit on garbage bags that Kim brought because the ground was soaking wet. It was a turf playfield and it apparently didn't drain very well from the week of rain that we had. I was so happy that the weather held out and we had a beautiful night for an outdoor concert!

Josh Ritter is one of the smiliest, sweetest, most gracious performers I have ever seen perform live, and I think this photo just kind of sums that up:

The music was great and he played many of my favorite songs. I had seen him perform a similar set with the Boston Pops, but was so happy to be able to celebrate my birthday with friends and great music. During the encore Josh called out his friend Glen Hansard who is also a great singer/songwriter and starred in the movie Once. And as a side note - Sylvie and I saw Once in the theatre on my 29th birthday! Here's a photo of Glen and Josh, the sun had gone down and everyone was standing up for the encore, so the conditions were much tougher.

After the concert we ended up stopping for dessert at a little cafe called Follow Me Caffe. It was wonderful! We ordered a brownie a la mode with vanilla gelato and crepes with raspberries and Nutella. It was the perfect way to top off an awesome night.

Kelly headed home from there, but everyone else went back to Mike's apartment to spend the night. It was practically a slumber party! This was the first time we had seen Mike's new apartment and it's awesome! I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll be crashing there. Thanks, Mike, for letting us stay!

In the morning we headed out for a nice little bagel breakfast at Connecticut Muffin and then we split up and Kim and Alex headed to the Museum of Natural History and Mike and I headed to the Guggenheim Museum.

We saw a wonderful show of Frank Lloyd Wright models and drawings. It was so cool to see these images displayed in a building that he designed. His attention to detail, creative thinking and commitment to his vision was so obvious throughout the show. I was fascinated by his unbuilt designs, especially those for Point Park in Pittsburgh and a complex in Baghdad. It was both fascinating and almost frustrating to think how things would have changed if some of his unbuilt buildings had see construction.

Overall, it was a wondeful way to spend my birthday! Music, friends, food and art! Some of my favorite things all rolled in one 24-hour time period!

Dinner out back

Tonight turned out to be a lovely evening, even though they were initially calling for thunderstorms. I had plans to have Amy and Bror over for dinner and was hoping we'd be able to sit at the picnic table out back instead of at my tiny table in the apartment, and it all worked out perfectly. I made delicious African Ground Nut Stew (from a Moosewood cookbook) with local kale from the farmer's market. It turned out well, and for dessert I made Strawberries with Almond Crème Anglaise made with local strawberries. We also enjoyed gin & tonics in the gnome glasses, a true sign of summer!


It was so nice to have people over to my house for dinner and hopefully this will be a common occurrence through the summer months.

Emmy's birthday wish

Just in time for my birthday, Emerson has decided that "Happy Birthday" is his favorite song. Here is one of the cutest renditions if Happy Birthday that has ever been sung to me (a little early, but wonderful nonetheless):

Nephew fun!

I had the pleasure of hanging out with my parents, John, Jill and the kiddos on Saturday. The big news is that Nathaniel lost his big front tooth, and the other one is very wiggly. We all had pizza for dinner and afterward the kids were particularly riled up. I love this photo of Nathaniel - still sweaty from his baseball game - showing off his great new smile!

And here are Emmy and Sebastian having fun at the chalkboard easel. Do you think Emmy might be a lefty? We'll have to wait and see...

It was such a fun afternoon. Those boys are so silly and so cute and each have there own wonderful little personalities. I love those guys so much.

On the Move - Part 2

Yesterday Ann and Lee stopped by on their way from Savannah, GA back home to Boston, MA. They had spent the previous night at a friend's house in Gettysburg, PA so after a few hours of driving they were able to stop in Princeton around 1pm for a nice lunch and tour of the campus and town. We ate at Small World Coffee and then walked all over campus. It was Class Day, so there were tons of people out and about and lots of folks wearing orange and black and showing their Princeton pride.

These cut-outs were on Nassau Street promoting Princeton Bike Tours. Here's me as Einstein and Ann as Michelle Obama (a Princeton alum):

It was a beautiful day and after an hour or so on our feet we treated ourselves to ice cream at Bent Spoon! Ann got a cookie instead of ice cream, but their cookies are really good, too. It was great to see them and I'm glad they were able to stop by on their big trip!

Good Luck at your new job, Ann!