Catching my breath

Whew! After one big weekend with the house party, it took me a bit to get back to my usual tranquil self. Just as I was getting to that point, we were off for another weekend, this one in Chicago!

(It’s not that I don’t enjoy the heck out of these weekends and have a blast. I do! But I’m a classic introvert who needs time to recharge. That much social interaction is definitely fun for me, but it also exhausts me.)

After driving through a torrential downpour and apparently a couple of tornado warnings in the area, we were happy to get checked in at the hotel, the Majestic. It’s an elderly beauty in the Lakeview area, close to Wrigleyville. We’ve stayed there a few times and it’s a nice, reasonable place. Not as ritzy as some places we’ve stayed, but it’s got some great amenities, a gorgeous lobby, and it is in a lovely residential area. It’s fun to walk to Wrigley Field and check out all the apartment buildings and beautiful flowers that so many people in the area seem to put out in their small yards. It’s one of our go-to hotels!

We walked a few blocks in the rain to grab a bite to eat and had some great burgers and beers at Rocks. We realized that we’d been there there year before when we went up for a Cubs game with Tom and Diana. I don’t think I had a burger last time, but I sure enjoyed this one. It was quite good!

We weren’t out late, because the next day at noon was a Cubs game! It turned out to be a perfect late summer day and was made even better with a Cubs win. They almost let it slip away, but the Cubbies prevailed and they are still doing surprisingly well this late in the season. After the game, we went back to the hotel room to watch Notre Dame take on the Ramblin’ Wreck and we won THAT game, too. Again, Georgia Tech gave us a scare, but we hung on to beat them. It was a good sports day for us!

Then we hopped in the car and headed to a Chicago suburb to our friends Joe and Maria’s house. Other friends (George and Karen) were there, too, and it was so nice of Joe and Maria to have us over! (We all met through Bob, who did the house concert.) We had some amazing deep dish pizza—nobody does deep dish pizza like Chicago—and Joe shared some of his more interesting (and potent) beers. Really delicious stuff that is more like a wine than a beer. There may or may not have been an incident where it was determined if two people can fit into the trunk of a Corvette. (Yes.) Arcade games were played and it was a very fun evening!

The next morning it was back to the Bend and trying to get back to our usual routine. As always, we had a wonderful time in Chicago and look forward to our next visit! Now I have all week to recuperate and then it’s our first Notre Dame football game of the season on Saturday. The weather looks to be beautiful all week, including for the game, and I’m trying to soak up all the sunshine and warmth possible before the cool weather sets in. Tailgating will be happening this Saturday!

I’m sorry to see summer winding down, but it’s been a great one, and I’ll look forward to the next one. As always!