Memorial Day Weekend

What a busy fun weekend! I didn’t get a chance to do this post last night so I am a day late! I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! I had the day off on Friday so I was lucky enough to have a 4-day weekend! Rob had the day off too!

Friday, we didn’t do much. We went to downtown Plainfield in the afternoon for a little while to walk around and take Leah to the park. Saturday, the weather took a turn and was pretty cruddy outside. I was hoping it would have been nice, but no such luck. We spent the morning running errands and cleaning up around the house. In the afternoon, we had my nephew’s first birthday party. It amazes me how quickly a year goes by! He had a construction themed birthday and everything was so cute. My sister-in-law really outdid herself with all of the details.

Sunday, we had tickets to go to the Cubs game. I was SO looking forward to going and spending the day with Rob. As much as I love having Leah around, it was definitely nice to get out for adult time. My dad agreed to watch Leah for the day. He came over to our house around 10:30 am so we could hit the road. We had to take a few pictures before we headed downtown.

We parked by our old apartment in Old Town. We walked down North Avenue and stopped at “McGinny’s” for a drink. It is a place we used to frequent often when we lived in the area. Just as we finished our drink, it began pouring. It was not just a drizzle, but was coming down in buckets! It was NOT a nice day for a ball game. It was freezing outside – cold and rainy. We weren’t sure if they were going to cancel the game or not. Once it slowed down a bit, we left the bar and walked over to the brown line to head over to Wrigleyville. After we got off the el, it started to come down really hard again. We had to wait under the viaduct before we could go anywhere. We learned that there was now a rain-delay for the game. We stopped at the Vines for lunch and hung out there to see what the weather was going to do. It FINALLY started to clear up and they were going to get the game underway. We walked over to Wrigley Field. As soon as we got to our seats, we decided we weren’t going to stay. Our seats were wet and it was way too cold outside. Brrrr! We stopped at a few places for a few more drinks and then headed home. Although the weather was horrendous, it was still great to get out for the day with my husband.

Sunday was night and day from how it had been on Saturday! Sunday was hot and sunny! It was beautiful and we had to take advantage. We decided to head back downtown, but this time we took our peanut with us. We left the house early, around 9:00 and once again parked by our old apartment. First stop…..North Avenue Beach. It is only a mile away from our old place and was great to get a nice walk in. The beach was crowded, but not overly packed. We took Leah down by the water. She does not like walking on grass, so I was curious to see how she would like the sand. (We took her to the beach last year, but she was only 5 months old – too little to remember anything). She did not like the sand and she did not like the water. I will admit, the water was pretty darn cold. We only stayed at the beach for about a half hour and continued on our way. Next stop…..Lincoln Park Zoo. From the beach to the zoo, it was about a 2.5 mile walk. On our way there, we saw Bill and Juliana Rancic (from E! News) running along the lakefront. No one seemed to bother them. The lakefront was definitely busy. There were lots of runners, roller blader’s and bicyclers cruising up and down the walkway. We got to the zoo and walked around for awhile. Lincoln Park Zoo is not nearly as big as Brookfield, but we still saw some animals and exhibits. Leah was starting to get hungry so we decided to leave and go grab some lunch. We walked all the way over to a restaurant called “State.” When we lived downtown, we used to go there all of the time. It was quite a walk. When we finally got there, it was CLOSED! Argh. I think it was just closed for the holiday because it didn’t look like it was closed down for good. We had to turn around and start walking back. We ended up at Tilli’s on Halstead. After lunch, we headed back to the car to come home. It was a long day and it was definitely toasty outside. Leah hadn’t had a nap and she was due for one. She fell asleep a few minutes after we got in the car. After our day in the city, we easily must have walked 8+ miles.

After we got home, our fun didn’t end! We stopped at the store and bought Leah one of those small plastic pools. We filled it up with water and let her play in the backyard. At first she didn’t want to go near it, but by the end of the afternoon, I couldn’t get her out of it. We ended the evening by grilling chicken and veggies and enjoying a nice “healthy” dinner. Overall, it was a great weekend with my family.