skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The last 5 days have been spent confirming our Italy trip details. Contacting airlines to figure out international seats, getting new suitcases since European carry-ons can only be 21" high including wheels and US luggage is usually 22"!!, washing clothes, packing, packing, packing, weighing suitcases, copying travel documents, squeezing in time to get my nails done, oh yeah and working all week, setting up international phone plans, and then a phone call... J's grandmother has broken her leg!
We rushed over to the hospital last night to visit her before we left. She is doing ok, heading for surgery tomorrow and then a long road to recovery. We are sending our prayers to her for a successful surgery and for a safe trip for us over the next week!! Everything always seems to happen at the same time. And now, we are off!
In our go, go, go style of traveling every chance we get ,we headed down to Columbus to see our friends John and Billie and watch the Nebraska Cornhuskers play Ohio State.
Looking at the calendar I realized that we have/will be busy every weekend from the last weekend in August until the last weekend in October. Wow! Too late to change it now but looks like Halloween will be low key this year so we can get some rest.
We spent Friday night just hanging out with our friends, eating my new favorite pizza Mellow Mushroom, talking football and catching up. Saturday while John went off to work to coach his team, we helped Billie tailgate with some of the Nebraska fans. We were in the biggest and fanciest RV I have ever seen. Somehow Jared even ended up on top of it to check out the view of Columbus. After hours, like 8, of tailgating we took our first pedicab to the game.
The weather was amazingly beautiful during the day but then got quite chilly that night. We watched John run out of the tunnel with the team, saw the Ohio State tradition of "dotting the i" in Ohio, the band, and cheered on the Huskers.
Unfortunately it was a painful loss at 63-38. And to top it off, we couldn't find a cab to get back to the hotel. We walked around downtown for over an hour trying to hail one to no avail. It was not my favorite evening.
The next morning we met up with friends that are family to me so I could finally meet their daughter. With them living so close, we are really going to try and be in better touch this year, especially since she has #2 on the way!
And in just a few days we are off on our trip to Italy!! So much to do, so little time.
Every year J has a conference to attend for his medical education and board exams and I get to tag along. Our first trip to Chicago was back in 2009 where we celebrated J's 30th birthday back in my pre-blogging days. This is one of my favorites of us.
Then the conference moved to San Francisco in 2010, Atlanta in 2011, and we are back to CHI town again this year. I invited one of my besties from college, to join us and as always, we had a blast.**
On Friday we walked around the city and enjoyed the amazing weather, no jacket needed! No one had eaten from being stuck in traffic traveling so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Ditka's with Steve. The boys turned in early to rest for their oral board exams the next day and I met up with Courtney once she arrived later that night for cocktails and snacks.
Saturday was exam day and once that was over, we could have some fun. We spent the afternoon at a sports bar celebrating the (hopeful) end of the general surgery exam stresses. Our friends Matt, Mary, and her boyfriend Steve joined us as well. There was a mimosa bar, yummy appetizers, and college football for all! Even some silliness in trying on the waitress Oktoberfest outfit (which seemed like a completely normal idea at the time), Courtney's phone dropping into the toilet, and learning that yes, immersing your iPhone in a bag of sealed rice immediately after complete water submersion may possibly save it!
That night we ended up at a BBQ restaurant that we think was also a gay bar and even though J was tired he rallied and came up with the idea of going to the top of the John Hancock building for drinks. The line was a mile long but somehow I got tapped on the shoulder and we were seated immediately... right at the window! Chocolate martini's for everyone!!
Our last day was filled with shopping and sight seeing, for me and Court anyway. We headed over to Millennium Park, saw the bean, the building we thought was from "Adventures in Babysitting," and then back to the hotel with the boys who had been in meetings for the conference.
While at happy hour in the hotel, Courtney and I searched the web for the best place for oysters Rockefeller in the city and were able to make reservations for that night! We hit up Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House, even tried fish legs, and then too Lux Bar for music and dancing. It was a great time... can't wait for Vegas next year!
**J and I had been trying to match up his friend Steve with my friend Courtney since our wedding over 4 years ago. And this weekend they totally hit it off. Fingers crossed that this pair works out... they both deserve a lifetime of happiness and if it is together that would be even better!
