Road Trip!

So Mom and I are officially back from our Mother-Daughter pilgrimage to Chicago to see the Other Daughter, which, if you're following the family tree, is also known as the Seester. We drove up on Thursday and came back on Monday.

And in between, had crazy amounts of fun.

(You know how people get back from a trip and recount absolutely Every. Single. Thing. they did in excruciating, mind-numbing detail, and with pictures to boot? Yeah, that's about to happen here. So sit back and relax, because we're going to do the official trip recap. BYO Popcorn, ya'll).

Commence with the flashback waves.

Thursday:
We pulled out of K-town around 3:30 Eastern, all ready for our cross-country (well, north and south anyway) adventure. Mom and I have radically different tastes in music, (she likes country; I like just about everything but country), so we each decided to contribute 3 CDs to the 6 CD changer in the car. I burned my own, packing each precious disc with 80 minutes of enlightened mp3 goodness, spanning genres and decades with the best music had to offer. Mom chose 3 discs of some fellow named Kenny Chesney. I tried to convince her to at least mix it up with some other artists, but she likes Kenny's blue eyes the best, so half the trip consisted of a rolling shrine to Kenny. (Dear Mr. Chesney...I had no idea who you even were before this trip, but I can now grudgingly identify approximately 75% of your songs. This is not something that I am proud of). Other than the battle of the bands, (where we mostly agreed just to disagree) the trip up was none to bad. Traffic was good, weather was nice, and a Cracker Barrel somewhere in Indiana gave us a good excuse to stretch our legs and fill our bellies. We hit Chi-town just before midnight.

The Seester lives in that building riiiiiiight (pointing) there.

Friday:
The day started with breakfast at our favorite breakfast eatery, Yolk, where I had the delicious Banana Nut French Toast. (I tell you, Heaven is paved with that stuff). Then it was a quick jaunt over to Play It Again Sports, where Tony had his brother Adam buy him a goalie chest protector a week ago, only it was the wrong size, so Tony sent it up with me to see if I could exchange it. (I couldn't...does anyone need a youth large goalie chest protector?) Then it was over to Midway to drop the car off in economy parking, and back to the apartment to get ready for "cocktail hour". (A note about the Seester...she loves to dress up all fancy-like and go to places for overpriced sophisticated cocktails). And in no time at all, she had me trussed up in one of her jaw-dropping outfits like Urban Class Barbie, and off we went to a place called Violet Hour for drinks and appetizers. (I must admit, I did look halfway decent if I do say so myself. I'll give the Seester this much...she has excellent taste in clothes).




All dolled up at the Violet Hour

Finally, it was over to Shaw's Crab House, where we had (you guessed it!) some most awesome crab legs. (In addition to Banana Nut French Toast, Heaven will also have Alaskan King Crab just running around, marinating themselves in drawn butter and begging to be eaten).

Steph's buddy Zack and hubby Patto

Saturday:

Saturday dawned with yet another trip to Yolk, (seriously people, you have to try it next time you're in Chicago), and every intention of hitting the architectural boat tour. Alas, the tour was sold out for the day, so we pre-purchased tickets for Sunday and instead meandered down to Navy Pier. (I love Navy Pier...it always has so much to see and do. And more than its fair share of people to watch). We came, we saw, I drug everyone down to the very end of the pier on a quest for the Elusive Grape Slushie...a good time was had by all. Of course, after that we were kinda hungry, so once again it was back to the apartment to regroup and order authentic Chicago pizza for a nice night in. Steph's friend Zack joined us, and general hilarity ensued when we tried to teach him how to play Spoons. (Be warned, he cheats).

A shot of the famous Navy Pier

The Seester on her Segway

Sunday:
Sunday turned out to be our busiest "tourist" day, beginning with a Segway Tour. (The Seester's hubby Patto was a little nonplussed about the dork-factor of a group of us zooming around the city on Segways, but even he was totally having a blast by the end of it). The machines are instinctively easy to use...if you can stand, you can ride a Segway. I highly, HIGHLY recommend it, even if it does involve wearing bright orange helmets.

After the Segways, we ran right over to do the Architectural Boat Tour up and down the river. Our guide spent a lot of time waxing poetic about the joys of Post-Modernism as she pointed out each of the buildings, but it managed to be fun and educational at the same time. We finished out the evening with roughly 900 lbs of Chinese food back at the apartment. (There will be major gym penance for all of this food we've eaten). At this point, our gracious hosts said their goodnights since they had to work the next day, and everyone bid their adieus.

Mom and Yours Truly on our Segways

Picture from the boat tour. Look at all that Modernism!

Monday:
Monday really just consisted of Mom and me just lounging around the quiet apartment for the first half of the day, slowly packing bags and eating more leftover Chinese. Patto burned some Tim McGraw Greatest Hits CDs for Mom from itunes, so at least for the ride home, Kenny was out and Tim was in. (I kept my original selections and thus my sanity). Mom has the ability to read in the car without getting sick, and I have the ability to drive and not fall asleep, so we just stuck to our strengths. We were back on the road just by 4:30, but we hit some traffic and construction zones, so we didn't get back in until about 1:45am. All in all, not a bad road trip at all. I even told Mom that we should consider making it an annual thing.