A"Round" Chicago

Chris Moore often tells people he lives in Chicago. And while I tend to agree with him, geographically, that may not be the most accurate statement. However, when I tell people from Chicago where he lives, no one's heard of it. Sure, he's got a sweet house, close to the lake where he water skis and it's by his work, but no one really knows where it is. Here's a map showing Round Lake, IL. And of course to the north, Milwaukee, the south is Chicago. Yeah, it's basically a toss up. But, given his state address, we'll go with Chicago.

This past weekend I took a few days to go out and visit him, along with his wife Christy and their new addition, Stella. Wait, yes, they have a new dog, but it's Victoria, their almost 3 month old daughter who was the main attraction. I took my camera, didn't use it once, so I've stolen a photo from the Moore's and put it out here. She's a very well-tempered girl, starting to show some facial expressions, has a vice-like grip if she gets one of your fingers, and enjoys standing up. Yes, I know all these things because I actually broke my long standing rule of holding babies. She was too much fun not to get to play with her.

The highlight of the trip was heading to Milwaukee for a Brewers/Twins game. Great stadium, although it was a bit of a haul from the parking lot to the venue. We had free tickets thanks to a connection of Christy's which made the game even more enjoyable. I missed out on some of the action in the stands (minors getting thrown out for bringing beer to the stadium, one kid throwing up) and the Twins missed out on hitting the ball as the Brewers throttled them 11-1. We bailed a little early to avoid traffic, but that was fine with me. So check Miller Park off the list of Major League Baseball ballparks to visit.

The most entertaining part of the weekend was watching Chris lace up the boots for his soccer league game. They played a really good team, didn't have any subs, and the mosquitos were out in full force, but it was a fun time nonetheless. Ended up leaving my debit card at the Chili's we went to afterwards. Fortunately, they still had it as I realized I had lost my card at the baseball game. And I don't want you to think we didn't sample some of the local restaurants, had to hit up Gino's East when I arrived on Thursday for some deep dish, plus some Italian beef at Portillo's and a local mexican restaurant on the lake. Needless to say, I brought about 5 pounds of Chicago back with me in the form of my gut.

Ended up working every day while there, a couple in the office with Chris, which worked out really well. Really nice facility there, hit the gym twice for free which is always a bonus. It gave Chris and I some time to hang out on the drive to/from work (and of course, to chronicle more of Chirs' road rage).

Trip ended Tuesday night with a late return flight back home. Probably the most eventful moments happened with the travel. I loaded up on four new (to me) albums via iTunes (Adele, Chris Brown, Foo Fighters and Matt Nathanson, reviews forthcoming) and we headed to the airport just after 7 PM for an 8:55 PM flight. Now O'Hare is a bit of a bear, but hey, it's easy enough. And the speed limit there is 20 mph inside the airport departure area. Well, Chris is hitting 40+ and gets lit up by a cop. He pulls over and the cop pulls up beside him, with two passengers in the car. One in the front, the other in the back. So wait, this guy is going to the airport to pick up someone (in his cop car, mind you) and decides to show off and pull us over. No ticket, but it caused Chris to miss the turn and then have to go through arrivals to get back to departures. We cut it close on timing, but I got checked in, made it to the gate with plenty of time and got my bag upon landing in Charlotte. Well, it took a while to get it since our plane sat on the tarmac for an hour. But I got it.

Great extended weekend, I know both Chris and Christy have had a parade of visitors come through and more still to come, but was glad to spend some time with the new parents, bonded at the end with their new "puppy" Stella, heck, their other dog Calvin was warm and receptive, which he used to just cower and hide. It's a busy summer of visits and this trip started it off right!