It's Starting.......

School has been in for one week and one day..... and the kids are sick! Deven is all stuffy and has a slight fever, Dylan has a cough and is stuffy and I choke on everything I try to eat with a sore throat! It is to early in the year to start this, I am hoping though that it passes quickly!

On another note Tim and I dropped the boys off at my dad's on Saturday morning and made a 2 1/2 hour long trip to Old Town Chicago. It had been raining in Peru when we left and as we drove North West the clouds began to break up, creating beautiful skyscapes. The drive was quick and pleasant. It went by quick and there was some great scenery as the road unraveled ahead of us. The temps have been dipping pretty low at night here and so there are a few types of trees that have clumps of leaves turning yellowish orange. Driving into Chicago reminded us of driving into LA except for three key things. One the bridges, the tolls and of course Lake Michigan in the distant!

We met up with old high school friends of mine, Jeff and his wife Christal. We went to a great little pub Corcorans. We sat outside in the alley looking at pictures and catching up. I had Shepard's Pie for the first time and it was to die for. We sat there for about 4 hours or so and then we drove a short distance to Lincoln park. There we crossed a bridge over the freeway and walked down to the beach. There was a hockey rink, with a roller hockey game in progress. There was a building like a blue and white ship that had little concessions stands, a bike rental, extremely clean bathrooms and a restaurant upstairs with loud music and out door seating! We took some pictures, got our feet wet... well mine were soaked! We walked along the path dodging bikers, runners and roller bladers.

After the stroll on the beach we decided to try a bar and followed our GPS in circles, not finding any parking anywhere, then we followed Jeff and his GPS till we had no idea where anything was but that we were where we didn't want to be. As we are driving down I see a big red sign proclaiming Hollywood Grill. We decide to stop, they had free parking! We walk around to the front door, checking out the 50's diner style restaurant and realize they are going to be selling much if any alcohol and then Christal looks across the street and finds a small local bar! Woohoo. We cross the street, go in and there are 6 other people there. A platinum blonde, large chested bartender in her mid 40's. No one is under 45, except us. We sit down, get some drinks and tell stories! It was a blast until someone there decided to turn on the jukebox. Talk was pretty much impossible so after 6 or so songs we bail. We head to the parking lot where we chat and watch as a couple of people wait for the cops because of an accident. Make fun of them all and then decide it's late, they have a 3 hour drive home, we have a 2 1/2 hour drive we need to get on our way.

We should have stayed! We got on the freeway in less the 3 minutes, got a half mile down the road and saw red. A sea of red that extended further then we could tell. The freeway started to crawl and it got slower and slower. I was looking at the same sky scraper for over 40 min. According to a woman next to us on the freeway two semi's had rolled and we were waiting for the wreckers to take them away! An hour and a half and maybe 2 miles later we got passed the wreck, and were able to make it home in just over two more hours. We were just glad we weren't on the other side of the freeway, they had an accident too and it was backed up a lot worse then our side. A reminder why we live in a small town.

So that was our weekend and the beginning of our week. Deven is worried he might have to miss school tomorrow and Dylan is excited to buy lunch again. We have decided to make Chicago a yearly trip, but next year we aren't paying $48 for 6 hours of parking, were getting a hotel and taking cabs and trolley's! Below are some pictures.