Bubbles Academy

Yesterday, Adam, Zooey and I went on a play adventure to Bubbles Academy. Bubbles is a place in Lincoln Park that offers baby and kid music, movement and swim lessons as well as open play groups. We went to the open playgroup that is offered every Saturday (as well as M-F) from 1-5pm. The play is for babies and toddlers and takes place in a big, fun, colorful carpeted room called the Meadow Room. There are all kinds of toys, tunnels and foam blocks to climb on and through, sit atop toys, sleds, grocery carts to push, tents to play in, scarves and clothes to try on and, of course, bubbles!

Meadow Room

As soon as we got there we placed Zooey on the floor and she was off to the races. She showed not an ounce of apprehension or shyness as she scooted around the room from toy to toy. She immediately got involved with some bubbles and spent the first 1/2 hour with a bubble on her head. This is the view we had of her most of the day as she scooted in front of us in her attempt to get to the next great thing:

Constant movement= blurry pics. But see the bubble on her head??

Sometimes the authorities forced toys on her that she wasn't necessarily interested in. But she resourcefully found an escape route!

Watching the big(ger) kids

Zooey really enjoyed watching some of the bigger kids. We spent a good 5 minutes watching an 18 month old having her snack and not listening (or not understanding?) her mom's request for her to "sit over here". Hopefully Zooey wasn't learning lessons in not listening to your mom! All of the parents we ran into were super conscientious about enforcing sharing and making sure the bigger kids didn't get too close to Zooey. So I felt kinda bad when Zooey would scoot right up to bigger "walkers" and try to take their toys. I guess she's learned from being in a daycare room with a bunch of older, bigger boys that you have to take what you want from them! I think she's too young to understand "sharing" but I'll admit, other kids were disproportionately "sharing" with her and she didn't give much back in return!

"I know what to do with this!!"

Her favorites were the tunnels (no surprise there, she loves tunnels), the play ketchup bottle, the foam balls and the sled. She zoomed around the room on the sled two separate times, holding on for dear life. She didn't even seem to notice when other kids hopped on for a ride as well.

More, Daddy, More!

Doesn't she look like a frog?

Totally non-plussed when this guy joined the ride!

We weren't able to capture a whole lot of smiles- when Zooey is in the zone trying new things or exploring she is stingy with the smiles, but she certainly was entertained. She probably could have gone another 1/2 hour but her parents were ready for a change of scenery!

Play time well spent!

My Black Friday was very bright!

A few years ago my family started a wonderful tradition of NOT getting each other Xmas gifts. I know I've mentioned before on this blog how much this one decision has enhanced my enjoyment of the holidays. Fighting through crowds at stores with a long list to purchase in a ridiculously small amount of free time is not my idea of the Christmas spirit! Plus my husband and I work very hard not to acquire unnecessary "stuff" thus getting a bunch of well-intended but hard to store presents is not ideal! So our list of people to buy for this year numbered five- 3 nephews and 2 nieces- and all have been purchased.

One wonderful consequence of this present-free Xmas is we are free to spend Black Friday however we want. This year, my family was kind enough to make the drive into the city to visit. And, yes, we entered retail stores, but without any pressure of "having to buy things". Mom, Anna-Lisa, Jason and I made the short trek to Macy's on State to look at the Great Tree and window decorations. This is the 105th year that Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's which traditional Chicagoans like myself preferred...and it will always be the Sears tower, forget Willis), assembled the 45 foot tree. There are over 1200 ornaments on the tree and 25,000 lights. Just think, at the first lighting of the Great Tree, people arrived in horse drawn carriages and there was probably no line for dinner at The Walnut Room! Back when the tree used to be real (they changed to artificial a few years ago), they had firemen on hand 24/7 just in case!

Mom and I

Jason, A-L, and Mom

It was fun to people watch the folks in the Walnut Room from above. It was an eclectic group of children, elderly folks, families, fairies (employees, we suspect) and people dressed as elves (turns out they were patrons). It was also fun to watch other visitors take photos in front of the tree. Many of them (particularly the pre-teen boys but a surprising amount of adults who one would think made the tree trip under their own free will) were BORED and GRUMPY looking! Maybe they spent the morning fighting over door-buster deals......So we decided to take some grump photos of our own:)

Blurry grumpsters

Slightly less blurry grumpsters

We didn't really shop- did some fragrance smelling and some animal print vest perusing, but nothing serious. I was surprised to find that being in the huge eight floor store actually made me WANT to do a bit of shopping, a task that I usually abhor. Maybe it was all the Xmas decorations? I might even try to convince my husband to wander around the store with me later this week. Without any "must buy" items on the agenda, it might be fun!

We then walked all the way to 900 N Michigan and stopped at Lululemon Athletica and then over to WaterTower Place for stops at 2 quick stores. The area wasn't any busier than a usual Saturday - I think the ridiculous crowds were probably in the suburbs- at least that's the impression I got from Facebook!

After our 4 mile urban hike, we enjoyed a lovely dinner of ravioli casserole (thanks, Mom!) and left over apple pie from T-giving. Adam and I had rushed to get the tree and other decorations up before my family arrived and were successful- my Mom helped by putting up the final ornaments.

Overall, it was a nice, relaxed visit. A little walking, a little eating, a little chatting and a very little shopping. Happy Black Friday to us!

Another cool consequence of this minimal gift giving is that we've been using the SAME roll of Xmas wrapping paper for 10 years! Can you believe it? Yes, it was a big economy sized roll when we first bought it, but it's still impressive to me that's it's lasted 10 years. Back when we did gifts, every single Xmas present Adam and I gave each other was wrapped in this paper as well as the majority of gifts we gave family and friends. Well I used the last of the roll yesterday on my niece, Maya's, gift. I guess both my husband and I have a bit of a romantic streak in us because we both felt like it was a pretty monumental occasion and we mutually agreed that we better keep a sliver of the paper in our "scrapbook" since it's had such a role in our joint life. Seriously, we've had this paper since we lived in Roger's Park before we were even married! Dorks that we are we'll probably have to make an announcement about this at Christmas, likely with another picture, before eager Maya opens her gift!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

Eating with my girlfriends

There are many oddities in medical training. One is that every 3-4 years we finish a phase of training and a good percentage of our co-workers move on, to new training programs, to new jobs, en masse. The end result of this for me is that most of my closest friends are now scattered across the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific with countless stops in between. This week I was lucky enough to have two of my closest girl friends here in Chicago with me! It was great! So what did we do with ourselves? We laughed. We ate. We exercised. We didn't really sleep. Repeat.

Here are some of the places we visited.

We started Wednesday with a night at Bar Toma with my dear friend from medical school, Bonnie. Also in town was her (and our) friend Eric. It was an absolutely perfect Chicago night. Pleasant temperature in the sun, pleasant temperature after sundown, just perfect! Bar Toma is a great spot, flush with all the usual accolades of a fabulous chicago spot including Time Out Chicago Eat Out Award 2012 best new pizza, Food and Wine best new pizza, Chicago Magazine's 20 best new restaurants. The chef is Tony Mantuano from Spiaggia which is the only 4 star Italian restaurant in Chicago. He's also the chef at Terzo Piano (see my review here) on the roof of the Modern Wing of the Art Institute. Bottom line: the pizza is fabulous with interesting fresh ingredients and the place walks the walk in addition to talking the talk as noted above.

The sauce parade on every table.

Thursday night we headed to an old favorite (actually, I think it's only been around for a few years but we go there so frequently it seems like it's 'old' in the best sense of the word!), Lillie's Q on North Avenue. This is a BBQ joint. The next question out of any self-respecting BBQ lover would then be what kind of BBQ? The answer is ALL! Texas style focuses on the meat preparation with lots of wood  cooked meats and often no sauce. North Carolina style involves vinegar or mustard based sauces. And Memphis style (my personal favorite) involves sweeter, tomato based sauces with variable amounts of heat. All are good and in the hands of Lillie's Q chefs, all are great! Other amazing tastes include the fried pickles and the shrimp and grits. So good!

Oh, and they have moonshine! Adam enjoyed many a moonshine cocktail waiting for us gals to arrive and he definitely recommends the adult 'Cherry Coke'. I was lucky enough to have a night with two of my very favorite women in the world as Sara joined us direct from San Francisco. I'm so lucky to have such great friends from different phases of my life who get along so well. I swear they were planning a vacation together and they weren't planning on inviting me! (Don't worry, I invited myself.)

Bonnie, me, Sara

Friday, after Sara and I went to the Triathlon expo, we headed down to the South Loop to meet up with a friend from residency. We stopped at a casual but delicious pizza sports bar called Flo & Santos. They do one thing and they do it well. We paired our pizza with a super nutritious (but absolutely delicious) basket of onion rings (don't judge- we were preparing for our triathlon!) and a couple (few?) glasses of Allegash Whites. F & S is a Polish themed sports bar with exposed brick, 'tavern style' pizza, peirogies and plenty of friendly bartenders. The chef/owner was intrigued by our body marking and after chatting with us a while kept our steady supply of beer going gratis:)

Saturday night after making all our triathlon preparations, working out, and napping, Sara and I rallied to check out the brand new City Winery. This is a great spot on Randolph- one of a string of many good spots on Randolph, but definitely one worth checking out. It's a HUGE space, with a great outdoor eatery, a large bar area, a really huge main eating area as well as cute eating nooks on an upper level and by the fireplace, and more tables in a separate room with a stage where small bands and comedians put on shows. They make their own wine with grapes from various regions. I had a great Cabernet Franc from some Russian River (CA) grapes, delicious! We started with Risotto Balls, which were good but fried to my surprise. For meals, Sara tried the Seawater Tofu Steak and I had the duck breast. Both were very good. We then had the lava filled chocolate cake for dessert. The food was as good as expected, but not better than expected. But the great space and the excellent house wines make it worth a visit.

I almost forgot to mention brunches! Yes, the girls and I became ladies who lunched/brunched for a few days. Twice we visited the very convenient and almost impossibly popular Wildberry just down the street from our apartment. This is a solid brunch spot with something for everyone. It's not super chic and not super unique but has all the usual offerings including omelets, skillets, specialty benedicts, with plenty of dessert type offerings such as tiramisu pancakes and red velvet french toasts. The place often has a huge gathering of people outside but has many tables both inside and out thus the line moves quickly.

Perennial-Virant is another good brunch spot especially for those in the Old Town area. It's a trendy spot for dinner and increasingly becoming a top ten brunch spot in Chicago, which is a competitive space in which to excel. Adam had the 2 egg skillet with black beans, chow-chow, spiced onion, smoked capriko cheese, and cilantro. I had the local tomato salad with cantaloupe, pickled watermelon vinaigrette, candied pistachios and basil with a side of cheesy grits. Sara had the omelette w/ mouton frays, shaved summer vegetables and pesto. Oh, and we of course sampled both the mimosas and the bloody mary's and we were all satisfied:)

It was a great week of socializing, eating and drinking. I must admit, though, I'm ready for some home (Adam) cooked meals:)
 

Date Night Success: South Shore Golf Course

As I mentioned in our 9th anniversary post, Adam and I committed to weekly (or as close to it as possible given we are hard working yuppies) date nights. We started off with a Friday night golf date. After a swim lesson, a short bike ride while watching the Air Show practice and a 1 mile run I was ready for a nice relaxing round of golf.

I love golf. I really do. I'm not particularly good at it, in part because I play so infrequently. But golf is basically mandatory, stop and smell the flowers time. It involves being outside with people you care about (I mostly golf with my husband and my parents) or by oneself which has some benefits as well, walking around and playing a game that demands nearly 100% of your focus. It's hard to think about work while you're golfing. There's so much going on between your shots and your fellow players shots, and choosing the right club and placing your bag in the right place that there's not much room for other thoughts. Which is perfect! Mandatory relaxation.

And the feeling of a well struck shot can carry you through an otherwise mediocre 9 or 18 holes of golf. That perfectly struck 5 iron. That beautiful drive that runs and runs and stays on the fairway. That pitch shot that lands on the green. I love those shots. I'll take tens of bad shots for a perfect iron shot. Of course it'd be awesome if my good shot to bad shot ratio would increase, but hey I'm not picky.

So, Adam and I went golfing. Near our home their are three main course options: the South Shore and Sydney Marovitz nine hole courses and the Jackson Park 18 hole course. Given we would be sneaking in a few holes after work we went with the 9 holes at South Shore. I really like this course. Yes it's a public course in Chicago so there are more divets than one would like and the course play is a bit slower than it should be (sometimes WAY slower than it should be- we only got in 7 holes in 2 hours due to some slow folks ahead of us who don't know golf etiquette), but the course has some great perks. Four of the holes are directly along the lake and you can hear the waves crashing on the shore, which I just love. There is a putting and short game practice area right on the water as well.

The course is located at the South Shore Cultural Center which houses special events. It is a beautiful, old property that used to be the South Shore Country Club founded back in 1905. Now it is home to a beach, a short- game practice area, a 9 hole course, a meeting place for cyclists and and a great location for events such as weddings and other social gatherings. If you are a Chicagoan I definitely recommend checking it out!

Coldplay

For two years in a row now, Adam and I have been able to see Coldplay as part of our wedding anniversary celebration. But this time, WE WERE IN THE FRONT!! I knew it was going to be awesome and it was everything I hoped it was going to be.

I was first introduced to Coldplay by my brother. Back in college in the '90s (yeah, I'm old), the only access I had to music was ready bad radio stations in Champaign, Illinois, random CD purchases where you buy an album and hope for the best and my little brother. The latter was definitely the most reliable. The situation got even worse when I moved to rural Mississippi. You can imagine the music choices there:)

So I owe thanks to Garrett for sending me a burned album of Coldplay Parachutes years and years ago. My love for Coldplay has only grown over the years. They are great to run to, great to work to, great to rock out to with the top down in the convertible. Great to sing along to. And they are fantastic performers, really great. Chris Martin is a typical rock star in the best sense. Sweaty, jumping around, working the crowd, a true performer. We saw them last year at Lollapalooza and they were absolutely amazing. One of the few groups I'd be willing to deal with the unwashed masses of Lolla youngsters for.

But last Wednesday night, we didn't even have to that. We had a leisurely dinner with some friends and - due to insider information- made our way over the the concert arriving exactly 5 minutes before the show started (which was 1.5 hours later than the posted time). And we were in the 2nd row. THE 2ND ROW...FROM THE STAGE! The whole concert experience made me feel like a teenager. In a good way. I was screaming, I was dancing, I was so excited and I just couldn't stop smiling. The show would have been great no matter the seats but being right in front, not straining to see, not wishing I had binoculars, was so absolutely incredible.

I remember being in high school going to concerts staring at the folks in the front rows wondering if they really appreciated being there. Did they enjoy it enough to really deserve those seats? Sometimes, front seats would be empty! I could never understand that. But I can say with 100% certainly, that I enjoyed those seats as much as anyone could. I can't remember the last time I was so excited!!!

The show was great. The special effects were really fun- lot's of confetti, the usual light shows. Everyone got wrist bands that lit up to the beat of the music during certain songs, creating an absolute stunning display in the cavernous space of the United Center. They played all the key songs. Let's face it, almost all their songs are key songs. For one of their encores, they placed themselves in a back corner of the stadium which was great- folks who had mediocre seats suddenly were so close to Chris Martin that they could touch him. That was really cool.

I can't thank Todd enough for remembering my love for Coldplay and essentially getting Adam and I such an amazing 9th wedding anniversary present. He had no idea it was our 9th wedding anniversary, but sure enough, Coldplay night was our 9th anniversary eve which made the night all the more special. Thanks, Todd!

Me, Adam's left arm and Chris Martin. :)

9th Wedding Anniversary

Adam and I like to joke that while we've been married for 9 years (as of 8/9/2012!, can you believe it!), it feels like it's been much less time, in part because our work schedules are so insane that we (very sadly) can go weeks at a time without seeing each other. This has been particularly true over the past year during the first insane year of my Hematology/Oncology Fellowship. Thankfully, my work hours have calmed down again....just in time for Adam's to get crazy again. So, for our anniversary we committed to do the one thing that can be so hard for us to find time to do- spend uninterrupted time together!! So we both took Friday off and decided to spend a wonderful 3 day weekend here in Chicago.

We had an action packed weekend, maybe too action packed for Adam, but just perfect for me. We started on Friday with a 6:00 am tee time for 18 holes at Jackson Park. It was just perfect golf weather, the coolest day in Chicago in 44 days! Yeah, it rained a couple times but only for a few minutes and that's a small price to pay to enjoy a cool day in August! Adam played great, I played okay but the important thing is we started our 3 day weekend off on a great foot!

The Bridge House tavern is right behind me.

Then it was nap time and exercise time (6 mile run for Adam, 3 mile run and 1500 yd swim for me). Then we headed out on the town. We started at Shaw's where we enjoyed a dozen fabulous oysters- the Moon Shoal's were absolutely amazing. They tasted like water. Delicious! We had some nice wine- a blended Chenin Blanc and Viognier. Then we took a nice walk around Chicago in what had turned out to be an amazing breezy, sunny, summer day. We then stopped at the BridgeHouse tavern, a new place on the banks of the Chicago River. I had a fabulous mixed drink called the Water Cooler, a delicious blend of Hendrick’s Gin, Watermelon, and Cucumber. Yum!! I'll be back!

My favorite building in the city, The United Building, is behind us

View from the Bridge House Tavern at night.

View from the Treehouse, looking out over Millennium Park.

We then stopped by a new place just steps from our place near Millennium Park called the Treehouse, an outdoor patio on the roof of Tavern in the Park. From outdoor bar to outdoor bar, who can complain about that?

Getting ready to put in at 12th Street Beach.

Taking a nap after our almost-paddle.

As you might imagine, we needed to sleep in a bit the next day. But after a quick breakfast, we rallied and headed out with Zak our kayak to paddle on Lake Michigan. We put the (inflatable) yak together in the parking lot, carried it down to the water, I got in, Adam tried to get in all the while eyeing the RIDICULOUSLY HUGE WAVES that had developed since we conceived of the idea of kayaking on Lake Michigan and sadly we had to abort mission. The waves were RIDICULOUS. Spilling in the lake was not an anniversary gift I wanted any part of. The day was so beautiful- 79 degrees, sunny with a nice breeze. And there-in lies the problem. The 'nice breeze' was actually a 20 mph wind causing 7 foot waves and a small craft advisory for the lake. It just wasn't safe. But we actually had a nice time relaxing in the sun waiting for the kayak to dry. I had a Chicago style hot dog while Adam took a snooze. We sure felt like we paddled!













For dinner we headed to two of our favorite Chicago places- Hopleaf for 
drinks then Jin Ju for dinner. Old favorites.

Adam's Sushi Salad. Yum!

At hole 7 at South Shore golf course.

Sunday we golfed 9 at South Shore; another beautiful golf day. Then off for a tasty breakfast at one of our old Hyde Park haunts, Medici, followed by a quick 1 mile run. 

Next up, couples massages at Lillie Ann's. I've been lucky enough to have a handful of professional  massages including a glorious 80 minutes on the beach in Mexico . But for Adam this was his first....massage....ever! It was a great massage (has anyone had a not-great massage?). My masseuse was Samantha and I definitely recommend her. We'll be back at some point, I'm sure.

Then to cap off the weekend, Adam made delicious bison steaks with heirloom tomato, fresh corn and blue cheese salad. Oh-so-good. It was so great to spend such quality time with Adam. I'm hoping we can plan weekly date nights so quality time doesn't have to only be an anniversary special occasion!

Val Around Town

This weekend is my second weekend off IN A ROW and my first weekend off spent at home since fellowship ended. I haven't had two consecutive weekends off (not including one two-week formal vacation) in over a year. I'm not sure that regular M-F office workers have a full appreciation of how luxurious it is to have two days off a week. I feel like a real person again. I think of things I'd like to do and then I DO them or at least make PLANS to do them rather than thinking, "one day maybe I'll do that". So great. I don't get panicky when it's 9 pm and I'm not asleep yet because I can sleep in next weekend!

So how did I spend my first weekend day of freedom? Here's the play-by-play.

Not my teeth

7 am: Getting up at 7 am is sleeping in, I'll take it!


8:40 am: Nice convertible ride down to the dentist. My hygienist is so gentle, I almost fell asleep in the chair. Very relaxing.


9-10:30 am: Got caught up some work. Working at home on the weekend for a few hours at a time is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than having to go in to work at a certain time and not being able to leave until everything is dealt with.


10:30-12: Researched and booked a hotel for the Big Sur International Marathon in April which I will register for in 23 minutes (registration opens at 7 am pacific time this AM).

My new shoe!

12-1 pm: Worked on blog posts. There's such a huge back log of posts I want to write!


1-2 pm: Ran w/ Adam, Lunch, Shower


2-3:30 pm: Tried on and rented a wet suit at Fleet Feet. While there, I bought new running shoes as well! I've been running with Brooks Ravennas for a while and I like to try new things so this time I got the Mizuno Wave Inspires. Turquoise seems to be the shoe color of the season (the new Ravennas were turquoise as well). Adam says my shoes look like the color of the Italian flag and that I shouldn't be surprised if people offer me pizza while I'm running to which I said "Fabulous! Where have these shoes been all my life?" :)


3-4 pm: Grocery shopping at Mariano's

Our VIP passes

I look so lopsided!

5-8 pm: Used our VIP access passes to attend the Pitchfork Music Festival over in the West Loop. We listened to the Chromatics who I liked a lot. For those who know M83, the Chromatics are kind of a lighter, less intense, slightly more 80s version of M83. People watching was highly entertaining as usual- there were some prime weirdos out in full force. Prize for most strange attire of the day was a chubby man wearing a woman's traditional West African dress with tights, galoshes and a flower in his hair. Hmm. Much to my surprise we were far from the oldest people there. The older I get the less I find standing outside in the heat with a bunch of people with questionable hygiene to be tolerable, but last night the weather was nice and I didn't even get stepped on (a first at an outdoor music fest!) so I have no complaints.

That's a little more normal.

8-9 pm: Consumed tasty gelato at Black Dog Gelato in Ukranian Village. I had Salted Peanut and Chai Spice and Adam had Salted Peanut, Mexican Hot Chocolate and Goat Cheese, Carmel and Cashew. It was a beautiful night, a perfect night for music, gelato and a nice ride in Elly:)

On tap today: Swimming with my wetsuit at Oak Street Beach and registering for the Big Sur International Marathon. I could get used to this two-day weekend business:)