Birthday month continues.....

Yeah, so basically I went into a mini hibernation the last few days, and didn't do a whole lot of anything.  I have been cleaning a bit and doing some outside chores and other things that didn't require a lot of mental energy.  The Mad-Art Teacher needed a reset couple of days!  I go through times like this when life just seems too much to handle, and after retreating into my own little world,  I come out ready for action again.

I did have some very nice little birthday month treats for myself, not the least of which was seeing my little grandboy!  And my Mad-Second Son and his Sarah.  In case you haven't heard, they are in the process of moving up here, since he secured a good job in the area and well....  kids, I'm gonna have a grandbaby (and another son and one of my Sarahs!!!) near me!  Exciting stuff!

Another thing I began doing over the weekend was to pull out the piano bench and start playing again.  I was very happy when the pieces I used to play the most come right back after just 2 days of practice- mostly, that is.  When I got to a piece with 3 sharps I was totally blank on what that third sharp was- but my fingers remembered.  I have more practicing to do!  My hands and arms are really tired today from the baby holding and the piano playing.  I will begin my Italian lessons again in a week or so.  That stupid elbow breaking business certainly did make my life spin out in directions I didn't expect.

I also realize I have those 2 Denver posts to do yet, and I plan to, but it might be a while.  Today I go pick up my dear friend Cheri from the Amtrak station in Columbus!  She is going to spend the rest of the week with me, and I am so very excited!  You just KNOW that Bayfielding and kayaking and other enjoyable things will be happening.  And not only that, I get to see miss Ella tonight, since we are staying with Jon and Sarah for the night.

I have a little bit more finishing up here in the house and then I need to pack an overnight bag and it occurs to me I have no idea what I am going to have for meals when Cheri is here!  Lol, well I am pretty good at punting.  That is after all, what summer is all about.  Rolling with the way the day goes.

I needed this reset.  I feel good again, not letting life's little disappointments get me down for long.  And that is a joy!

Headed to Missouri

At the end of June I packed up the car and headed to Missouri to visit a wonderful and awesome friend, via Janesville and then ending via Milwaukee!  It is a HIKE down there- a 5 hour drive to Janesville and then a 6 hour trip down to her house WAAAAYYYY to the southern part of Missouri.  I had never been to that fine state before, so after a little discussion, I decided I would drive there this summer.

The silver tree on the grounds of the St. Louis Art Museum

Missouri is just beautiful and I very much enjoyed seeing the countryside, as I had an hour of driving after crossing over the Mississippi River south of St. Louis.  I was anxious to get there and am glad that we headed back to St. Louis twice and I got to really see the land as I was riding.

My dear friend Cheri lives to the southwest of St. Louis and she and her wonderful husband were such gracious hosts.  I had a marvelous time visiting- we spent 2 days traveling all over the city and then spent one day hanging bopping around her neck of the proverbial woods.

Botanical Gardens

Chihuly Gate at the Missouri Botanical Gardens

I loved all the touring and driving and eating and  seeing that I did, but the best part I think was relaxing at her house in the mornings, drinking coffee and enjoying ourselves in a leisurely way.  It was a great way to start off each day.  I was treated like a princess and I felt totally spoiled and certainly didn't want to leave!!

The funky eye sculpture at the Sculpture Park

The "Womb" sculpture

Butterflies from the Butterfly house

Butterfly

Monday we spent time going to some lovely outdoor venues- the St. Louis Sculpture Garden, the Butterfly House,  The Botanical Gardens, trying to see the Basilica which closed at 5, and then had my first sushi at the Drunken Fish!  I met Cheri's super nice son and his gf, who joined us for dinner. The Sculpture Garden was fun, as was the Butterfly house, but the Gardens were outstanding!!  And then the sushi was super- we had such a sweet waiter, he was so patient and attentive!!  Later we walked around that area and then did some gawking at really awesome houses, plus scoped out somethings for the next day and had a grand time driving back home to her house.  It was a long and energizing day and I got some great shots.  I will say, I tried to take lots of photos, but I ended up taking many with my phone, because sometimes I just didn't want to interrupt what I was seeing by being hidden behind the camera.  Weird, but true.

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Chihuly installation at the Botanical Gardens

Veggie sushi with Mango  

Tuesday, we headed up to the city again, armed with a plan and a lot of coffee and water, and went straight to the Basilica of St. Louis.  It is an absolutely astounding piece of architecture and the mosaic that decorate the entirety of the interior is beyond words.  When you look at the size of the pieces of the mosaic, they must be 1/2 - 3/4 inch, it is mind-boggling.  Amazing place to visit, no matter what your beliefs.

Basilica of St. Louis

Basilica interior

Unedited details (oops)

A better example of the brilliant color of the mosaic

After a lovely lunch at the Boathouse (another of several yummy meals!!) we headed over to the St. Louis zoo for a walk.  We went around the whole thing, but because it was so hot, not a lot of animals were too active.  It is a really nice place, but we needed to get OUT of the heat and so we walked up the hill to the St. Louis Art Museum!  There was an Impressionism show there plus the work of Mark Rothko was on special exhibit as well.  It was a really good time!  Dinner that night was a HUGE concrete shake at Ted Drewes, and then we went on to see the ARCH!  Now, I will say that many people thought I was crazy for not going up in the arch since I was there, but my own son told me not to.  I have a serious issue with claustrophobia, which was exacerbated by being stuck in a small bathroom once many years ago when a lock on a door failed.  So, he knew that I would not do well jammed into a small place like that.  I have no problem not having gone up in it, and I think Cheri was fine with that too!  (on a weird side note, heights sort of bother me too, but that wouldn't keep me from going on a hot air balloon ride or helicopter ride- just sayin').  The Arch was a lot of fun to see, we went underneath of it and saw the little "town" that is there, with food, information and even a movie theater (and some really nice bathrooms- lol!)  We went and sat on the steps looking over the Mississippi and Cheri told me some stories about her growing up in the area.  Before we got to the arch (and it was interesting getting there, too, between Cheri, Siri and I, we managed to find a free place to park and get in a several mile walk too.)  Before we got to the arch we visited the park where the Worlds Fair was and BallPark Village and just looked at the beautiful buildings and views of this old part of St. Louis.  We did a lot of walking around and looking at things....

Lovely heron hanging out on the dock at the Boat House

I don't even remember what this crazy guy is called- St. Louis Zoo animal

I am a fan of flamingos for some reason.  Lol

The arch is beautiful

A Modigliano and a  fuzzy shot of a Picasso at the St. Louis Art Museum 

Throughout the time we were in St. Louis, we saw LOTS of these fun birthday cakes.  St. Louis is 250 years old and along the lines of the painted cows and the like seen in other cities, here there were birthday cakes that artists decorated- 250 of them apparently.  We must have seen 15 of them around the city where we were.  It was entertaining to see and I just read that there is an app to find all 250 of them.  I think it was more fun to discover them!

One of 250 birthday cakes to celebrate St. Louis Birthday

After all of this, we swung by Cheri's daughter's house where I met their little family!  What a lovely day that was- we got back late again and planned the next day's events.

It was great to be in the city, but we wanted to stay closer to her home Wednesday, so we took our time getting ready and we went into her favorite coffee shop for an early lunch and I met one of her lovely friends.  We did some shopping and then went to the little farmers market and went to look at some of the BEAUTIFUL wineries in southern Missouri - the one we stopped at was the Chaumette winery 

Lol this is a bit of an awkward shot at the winery- why I am standing half on a stone I am not sure

Beautiful land around the winery.

We had a lot of coffee!  YUM!

But the wine was VERY enjoyable! To think we went to yoga after this!

View of the lovely Missouri countryside

We finished off the last full day of my visit with a lovely dinner with Cheri and her hubby.  It was a perfect end to a perfect trip..... oh wait, there was one more thing we did that night.

Wine in a hot tub??  why yes, thank you

I left the next day with a lump in my throat and a mind swirling with wonderful memories.  I had the best time enjoying the company of my dear friend and really love the state of Missouri.  It is just beautiful.

I had such a good time with Cheri and Mike and Coach!!  

This certainly is one of the best trips I have taken!  Cheri is one of the best joy-givers I know.  I hope your life is full of them too!

From the Botanical Gardens

Debi and Cheri at the Butterfly Garden

Looking at the arch through the park and fountain

I left out soooo many little things that we shared but that is ok, those are the things that we will remember and make sense to us, probably not to others who were not there.  The walking and seeing and laughing and getting almost lost in the city and driving and eating and relaxing added up to a wonderful adventure for me.  Bookended on the weekends with seeing my boys and my Sarahs and my grandkiddos made it on more layer of rich and complete.

Thank you doesn't even begin to cover it!  But, thank you Cheri for a most wonderful stay.

June Wrap up 2: Chicago and Cheri.....

I love love love Chicago!!

Having really late lunch after taking in the sights!!

I had the BEST time there- and of course a good part of that enjoyment came from spending that time with some great friends.

I realize how fortunate I am to find and make friends with amazing people. I have a lot of different people in my life that are involved with different facets of my day, week and year.  Some of my "best" friends are people I have never met in person- they are my loseit friends- fitness and health friends who I interact with on loseit, on FaceBook, through texting and email.  There is something about this group of people that transcends the miles. 

Grant Park 

Again, fortunately, I have summers to myself and I have been able to meet some of my online friends!! I have, without exception, enjoyed these encounters SO much and look forward to meeting each of these people again.

At Caribou Coffee

This particular trip was a double win for me, as I spent time with 2 of my loseit friends..... Cheri and Randy.  Without going into a lot of detail, Cheri and I have been fast friends since we added each other to our friends list!  We decided last winter (since we are apparently long lost twin sisters) that a trip to Chicago to meet and get to know each other was the thing to do, and I am thrilled to say we DID!!  Other than the 5 or so hours that we slept each night, we never stopped talking the whole time.  We had a glorious, active, awesome time together.

The first day we were fortunate enough to have our own special tour guide, another loseit user who has been one of my friends almost from the beginning- Randy.  Randy lives in Chicago and has for a while, and has the MOST incredible knowledge of that city and it's buildings.  We were treated to a 3 plus hour walking tour, complete with color commentary and as a fellow photographer, he walked us over to a great camera shop when my 35 mm was not working.  Fortunately, the camera only glitched and of course WORKED when I was showing it to the camera guy.....  or else he has really good karma!  I can not begin to thank Randy enough for the tour and I wish we could have seen him the next day, but it unfortunately didn't work out.... NEXT TIME!!!  And so because of that little detail, I don't have a pic of Randy and I together and I find that greatly distressing.  :(

Randy: this is the pic that happened when I clicked the shutter at the camera store- never expecting it to work!  

Sunday found us all over the downtown area: Saw the Picasso sculptures and lots of other ones, went over bridges and across the Chicago River, past the Hancock building, over and around and we ended up over by Navy Pier and down by the lake front where both Cheri and I in separate incidences ended up on the ground: surprised and laughing. We passed through Millennium Park, saw Cloud Gate and just had a fantastic time!  We walked 7.1 miles that afternoon!

Picasso sculpture

This thingsprays water across the river every hour!

yet another Picasso

Miro Sculpture

Water tower

Hey, I think I know that guy!

After Randy took his tired self home, Cheri and I continued on our quest for exploring the city and went over to Grant Park and saw that amazing Fountain!!!  We also found a great place for walking/running in the morning- right along the lake front.  

Instead of a blow by blow account of our days, here is a synopsis:

• We walked and ran each morning by the lake.  It was gorgeous and fun.  

Cheri running along the lake

Tired Debi snapping pix and run/walking

• We drank a LOT of coffee!
• I took a ton of pix- it had to happen

night!

• We went to the Art Institute and that will have a separate post.  I was in heaven........ 

• The only money we spent, besides food, was for a coffee cup!!  :)  We walked the Magnificent mile, stopped at Garrett's Popcorn shop, got stuck under a building during a scattered thunderstorm and walked and walked and walked.  

Cloud gate

• We tried to get to a Crossfit gym, but it was closed, so we went to Trader Joe's instead!!!
• We found an awesome sculpture installation that looked like something from the Walking Dead! It was a wonderful piece that commemorates the victims of the holocaust.  In fact there are so many wonderful sculptures in the downtown area I could have spent an entire day exploring only that.

• Our hotel- the Congress Hotel- was right across from Grant Park and we were thrilled to be able to walk everywhere.  It was in a perfect location for our purposes. 

our make shift door lock for a sketchy deadbolt- we crack me up!!

• We ate some FANTASTIC food- mostly in little places, but included the Walnut Room in Macy's.  There is vegetarian food EVERYWHERE there!!!  YES!

Portabella burger

• We drove our lil selves in and out of the city with little problem.  THAT was huge to me, I was worried to death about driving in Chicago.  

Lots of pictures--- lots and lots

sailboats along the lakeshore

Close, yet so far apart: at the Art Institute

Along the lake shore

People watching

More people watching

Grant park

The skies looked like this a lot!

Gardens in Millenium Park along the bridge

Cone flowers

Hard and soft, angles and curves

Window washer hanging above us at Caribou coffee

So many great memories with 2 wonderful friends.  What a wonderful way to finish off June!