a love affair...

...with the windy city.

i am still trying to decide whether which was better: friday afternoon or friday night. not an altogether bad conumdrum to have to ponder.

friday kristen and i loaded our bikes into the back of my car (which, incidentally is not meant for hauling things, i've discovered) and set off for evanston (where northwestern is). it was incredibly amusing to see my trying to wrestle those bikes into my trunk, but, regardless, the important part is that they got in, and we set off (note: i almost said got off, before i realized the unintentional double entendre that would cause...). we got there, we walked around campus a bit, i did my version of the campus tour. ie: instead of, this is the student union and that, over there is allison hall --- this, is where mark and i went flower picking and missed curfew one night, and that is where aayah and i sat to eat lunch every day. sort of a walk down memory lane-ish sort of thing. anyway - breakfast/lunch at clark's, a pit stop at a new popcorn shop which sells (brace yourselves!) caffeinated popcorn. (how cool is that?!?!). at lunch, our poor waitress had to chase down not only one, but twwoooo check evaders. who even does that? i felt so bad for her! after lunch, because she was with me, kristen's bike decided to break. this was not cool as it would have put a stop to our bike tour-ing plans. what was cool, was that, i miraculously managed to find a bike store two blocks away that could fix it! for ten bucks. verrry cool, and grown up ish - i definitely get a kick out of being able to fix problems in addition to creating them ;).

okay - here's the cool part. (ready?!) we biked to downtown chicago. 27 some odd miles. HOW COOL IS THAT? we seriously biked allll the way into the city along the lakeshore path. it was sooo pretty. and we got to see the air and water show from this amazing vantage point. it was kind of like chasing a rainbow, because we were talking about how close the skyline looked, and then we found a bike path that was headed in that general direction and so we just kept going towards the sears tower. the only difference is that, instead of an imaginary pot of gold (which never really materializes) - we got midtown traffic. but seriously, it was a beautiful thing. i never really thought of bikes as a means of transportation, i've never really gone anywhere by bike before. apparently my thinking was skewed.

friday night was amazingly cool too. i got taken out to sushi wabi for dinner. this hip industrial sushi joint downtown. i'm unsure as to what i ate (i think i might have eaten eel) but the guys just told me that they would order and that they would only pay if i didn't ask questions about what was in the maki rolls. their strategy was enjoyable. my food was amazing so long as i didn't concern myself with its composition. and i didn't have to pick up the two hundred dollar tab for the evening ;). and then, as if my tastebuds weren't happy enough we went to redlight for dessert. . .ohh my god. i think what i ate was the physical manifestation of sin. it was thatttt good. topped off with a waltz around millenium park... canoodling in the new reflecting pools -- all under the watchful eyes of those weird tower sculpture thing-ys (it made me feel like an exhibitionist!!). and i think a new favorite chicago memory was born (old ones include: salsa-ing with dan @ adler, swing-ing with mike @ grant park, movies in the park with catie and also with bob, ghiardelli with ashish, ravinia picnics, my amazing bike ride with kris, and now sushi wabi).

i used to think i was getting jipped by not moving away from home for college. but if going to NU means i get to experience more of chicago? i'm not missing out on much, after all. i <3 you baby.

<3, serena!