Vacation - Chicago

Mom and me

The Journey

Day 1: Leave Unalakleet on a delayed Hageland flight. Hug my Momma goodbye. Leave Anchorage on a delayed Delta flight and get stood up by my best friend Chelsea.

Day 2: Leave Salt Lake City on a delayed flight, which causes me to miss my on time flight out of Denver to Durango. Miraculously make it on the next overbooked flight to Durango and get big huge hugs from Gretchen and Matt. :)

Day 3: Shovel off and jump car with the help of a trusty shovel, Matt, and Gretchen. (After being fed homemade and very yummy raspberry coffee cake!) Mosey around Durango making a few crucial stops at Baskin Robbins, Wagon Wheel, and my storage unit. Ride off into the daylight on my way to Alburquerque. Get some food and promptly fall asleep in my fries. Classy.

Aune Mieke and me

Day 4: Get up late. Scuttle my butt into my car and off to the Airport Parking place. Flight out of Albuquerque is on time. After a slight delay and purchasing a shot glass from Atlanta, my flight to Chicago departs. I arrive on time and yet it takes a fricking hour for my bags to come out of the plane and onto the baggage claim. Yes, two flights came in after us and got their bags before us. I was thrilled. After rescueing my bags from the throes of neglection I scuttle outside and Aune Mieke pulls up and gives me a big old hug. :) Happy Sissy. Tired Sissy. Sissy would like a beer.

Chicago!

Aune and I decided to stay up late and catch up at the Hop Leaf. A very beery bar, just my size and scene. :) We got some very good tasting beers and chatted, catching up on those fun little things that don't always come out over phone calls. Amazing time. The bartender also gave me a shot, or rather took a shot with me. Mad skills, without even trying.

Matty

We slept in and lazed about in the morning drinking coffee and debating what to do. Eventually we decided to go to Lincoln Square and get some Thai food. Excellent idea and excellent food. We shared spring rolls as an appetizer and then killed our entrees. I had the seafood with noodles, and let me just say I have some love for oceanic creatures. Squid, shrimp, crab... all good. Then we walked around the area and met up with Aune's friend, Genevieve. Absolutely fun girl, very real and meeting her was definitely a highlight of Chicago time. That evening Matt came and picked Aune and I up and we ended up going to the Goose Island Brewery. It was quite busy but in a short amount of time we were able to procure a table in the bar area. More food, more beer, more conversation made me a happy girl.

Holland Memory

The next day Aune, Lisa, Dena and I made our way to Grand Rapids. I kitty napped in the car and when we got there Trix and I challenged our brains with a game of Holland Memory over dinner. I totally walked away the champion. As you can see it was by quite a bit. Effing rad and of course, a highlight. That evening was New Year's Eve and after being lazy Aune, Kevin (Aune's older brother) and I began our evening of well mannered frivolity. Our first stop was their cousin's, just a short, in, out, hello, goodbye. The second stop of the evening was downtown Grand Rapids, we parked and walked around for about an hour. There was line dancing with a DJ, some big beautiful trees, tons of people, and my very cold thighs. The third stop was our final stop. An engineer named Andy, for the second year in a row, blocked off half of his pool and then heated it up to between 103 and 107 degrees. Very much fun! Very much unique, and it turned out to be a very good New Year, a first for me. Throughout the course of the old year changing into the new year, I cheersed about 3 times. Lovely. :) Mellow evening with beer, really good people, a unique place and theme. Good stuff.

Okay enough for now.