Ravinia

A few weeks ago James and I got to experience one of Chicago’s favorite summer events – the Ravinia Music Festival. Ravinia is a beautiful private park, and in the summertime it features concerts nearly every night. The music ranges from pop music to classical, and we got to go one Friday evening featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing a variety of Brahms pieces.

We showed up around 6:00pm with a picnic blanket and a basket full of picnic goodies with our friends Adam and Tamara. There was some high class picnicking at Ravinia! People brought fancy table linens and vases with flowers and candles and Champaign and wine and cheese spreads. New time we might need to step it up a bit with our picnic spread.

Then the music starts around dusk, and there are hundreds of little white candles strung from the trees that get brighter as the sky gets darker. Brahms was delightful, we had a great time with our friends, and it was a perfect summer evening. We can’t wait to go to Ravinia again!

My parents just finished up a two week stay at La Casa Rienstra, and I think we’d all agree that the highlight of their time here was a weekend trip to the Michigan shores. James and I have been on Lake Michigan in the Chicago area, but we’ve heard about how beautiful the beaches are on the Michigan side of Lake Michigan. So we took off during the 4^th of July weekend for Sagatauk, Michigan. Sagatauk is a great little artsy seaside town, with beautiful walkways along the harbor, fun shopping, good food, and fabulous beaches. The main beach in Sagatauk, Oval Beach, has actually been ranked by several travel magazines and was ranked by Conde Nast as one of the top 5 beaches in the US. Not bad for the mid-west, huh?

On our drive up to Sagatauk, we stopped for a picnic on the beach in South Haven, Michigan – another great little beach town. The place was packed – it must have taken us 45 minutes to find a parking spot! But once we got to the beach it was well worth it.

Then we carried on to Sagatauk, checked into our hotel, freshened up, and hit the town to stroll the harbor, sip margaritas, and enjoy an amazing prime rib dinner for my parents’ anniversary.

The next day we packed a lunch and took off for Oval Beach – and Conde Nast is right – this is a fabulous beach! It has a very East Coast beach feel – sea grass, sailboats, and rolling sandy hills beyond the beach. And the water is so much warmer than the Pacific shores that I grew up on – you can swim in it without feeling numb! We all came home a little toasty after several hours in the sun, but very satisfied.

We hit up a really cute little restaurant on the water for our Fourth of July Dinner, The Mermaid, and had some of the best calamari I’ve had in a long time. Then we rolled out our picnic blanket at the park for Fireworks over the Harbor with a package of fudge from the local chocolate shop. Pure Independence Bliss!

Memorial Day at the Beach (And thank heavens there is a beach!)

Here in Chicagoland, this has been a colder spring than usual – so I am told. Thus I was thrilled to find out that we’d have a sunny, clear, thunderstorm-free Memorial Day of 91 degrees. Yahoo!

Of course, 91 degrees is HOT. And what does any sane person want to do on a day such as this? Go to the beach, of course. Now, I’ve lived on the West Coast and on the East Coast and so the beach is a viable option in either of those places. But now I live in the Mid-west, nowhere near an ocean. But to my very pleasant surprise, the shores of Lake Michigan feel very much like an ocean. You can look out at the water and see no signs of land, so far and vast is this expansive lake. Up to this point, however, I’ve only seen Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. And while the waterfront is beautiful, it’s no beach. There isn’t a sandy spread to lay out a beach towel and an umbrella.

But the locals informed me that if one moves beyond Grant Park, you can indeed find sandy beaches downtown. And, in the northern suburbs, there are some amazing beaches. So James and I decided to go check out the beaches in Evanston. This is a great town north of Chicago, where Northwestern is located. It has great shops, restaurants, parks, bookstores, and, beaches. James and I were thrilled as we strolled the paths along the water…and the beaches were hopping for Memorial Day! Volleyball, massive family BBQ’s, sandcastles, soccer, ice cream, and everything that makes for a good summer day.

So my plan is this…hit the beaches as many times as possible this summer, to store up on some Chicago lovin’ before I hit the winter again. Because man, I really hate the winters here. But I do love beaches, and Chicago, it turns out, has a lot of them. Thank heavens.

A blustery weekend in Chicago

Well, it is mid-May and our temperatures this past week have been extreme. It was 88 degrees Wednesday and 85 degrees Tuesday—and our house was about 83 degrees inside. Not comfortable to sleep in! So we turned on the AC, and assumed that we’d finally turned the corner towards spring weather.

Then our good friends, Ben and Karen, arrived late Thursday night and stayed with us for the day on Friday. We had tickets to the Cubs game, and thought it was supposed to be around 72 degrees. We knew it might rain, but thought it would be warm so we dressed for warm weather. And it seemed as soon as we sat down at the game, the wind started howling and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. And we could literally see clouds being swept through the stadium by the wind – BRRR!!!

Ben heroically tracked down a starbucks not far from the stadium and brought back Hot Cocoas, which kept me going until about the fifth inning. Karen and I stuck it out until the 6^th inning, and then we took off to warm up in the Starbucks. But we had fun nonetheless, and the Cubs won! Thanks for coming to stay with us B & K – way too short, but sweet!

Then today James had his half marathon in Chicago on the waterfront. Well, let’s just say that after two minutes out of the parking garage and walking through the rain and wind, we were both ready to turn around and go back home. But James persevered, and so did 3500 other runners. It really could not have been worse weather for a run this time of year – about 45 degrees, fierce wind, pelting rain…miserable. Most of the run went right along the Lake Michigan seawall, and James said that the waves crashing into the walls were being drawn up by the wind to douse the already soaked runners. I cheered him on at the start, and then took my numb body to a coffee shop to wait it out until the end. I caught him at the finish line, and was so proud of him for finishing. James has done two full marathons, but I think this half-marathon was just as much a challenge because of the nasty weather. So well done James!

And can I just say that I am not impressed with Chicago weather yet? After a freezing, long winter I was hoping for a lovely spring. Well, that hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully the Chicago summer can win me over!

Easter

This marked our first Easter in Illinois, and James and I kept with our tradition of inviting a rather eclectic group over to our house for Easter brunch. We both feel like Easter is an excellent time to open your home to old and new friends, an opportunity for us all to share together in the joy of the glory of our risen Lord.

This was also a very special Easter for James and me, because we became members at Church of the Resurrection. We went through the Core class to become members (which involves three 4-hour sessions, plus an all-day retreat), and then we were confirmed as members during the Saturday night Easter Vigil. I am really glad we decided to become members during the Easter vigil, because it is an amazing service of worship and praise. It starts at 7:00pm and doesn’t end until after 11:00pm, but the time flies! A few weeks later when our bishop was in town, James and I were then confirmed into the Anglican Church. We are looking forward to getting more involved with church this upcoming year, and to continue meeting new people.

Easter was always a really special holiday for my family, with lots of fun traditions. It has been difficult to not get to spend it with family the last 4 years, but it has also been a real blessing to spend it with new friends and to create our own traditions.

Did you watch the Wedding?

Those who know me well would not be surprised that I got up at 4:45AM to watch the Royal Wedding yesterday. They might be surprised, however, that I convinced my husband to join me. I sold it as an “early morning date” with tea and scones, and a little Royal Wedding on the side. James protested at first, grumbled for five minutes, but I eventually convinced him.

I loved the wedding for a variety of reasons.

1. The liturgy. It was a traditional Anglican wedding liturgy, which is beautiful. Even the wedding sermon was nice. And seeing as we are being confirmed into the Anglican Church on Monday evening when our bishop is in town, we rather like that kind of stuff.

The music. Divine. Complete with a boys choir. Amen.

Kate’s Dress. Her dress was lovely, classy, and elegant—a very Grace Kelly-esque wedding gown.

1. The Bridesmaids and Page Boys. Adorable, right? James likes to tease that we had an “army” of children in our wedding, but we only had 5, not 6.

Constitutional Monarchy. There is something really powerful about the way that the British Monarchy draws its people together. Yes, the monarchy has had its problems over the years. But when done well, within a system of checks and balances and with the goal of serving the people, I think the monarchy is a really powerful symbol for a nation. It was moving to watch the British people line the streets yesterday, and to hear them singing the hymn “Jerusalem” together as it was broadcast on loudspeakers throughout the park.

The Queen. God save the Queen! I really do love Queen Elizabeth II – I think she has had one of the most fascinating lives. As a girl, she lived through WWII in London while her father was the king. The Royal Family stayed in London throughout the bombings of WWII, while many others were fleeing to the countryside, to show support and solidarity for the people of London. Many mornings after bombings, Elizabeth was out roaming the streets with her sister, mother, and father greeting people and commiserating with them in their losses. And she became queen when her father died at the age of 26—she has been on the throne for 59 years now. Wow.

Well, Cheers to William and Kate!

"What God has joined together let no man put asunder."

Winter Trip Series: Volume 2

A few weeks ago, I flew down to Texas to meet up with some good friends from Princeton for a three-day hiking trip. That description might give you the impression that the trip just fell into our laps. Oh no siirreeee. We went out and conquered it like men. Men who are wild at heart. In truth, planning the trip was a logistical challenge on the scale of moving an army of men and elephants through the Alps in wintertime. Our troubles began when 21 inches of snow fell on Chicago two nights before my flight was schedule to depart. I spent several hours on the phone the next day only to learn that composing the on hold music for major corporate phone trees must be the lowest paying job in America. By mid afternoon, I also discovered that the good folks at Southwest Airlines (and O’Hare, and my wife) took a rather different position than I had hoped on the viability of my flight the next morning. I don’t think the representative I was speaking to found my offer to fly the plane myself amusing.

Relaying this news to Adam and Ben that evening set off mad dash to find a new date that would work. The following evening concluded with a three way Skype conference call during which we all searched for tickets. Sitting there in my hiking boots, boxers, and headlamp, with a tall bourbon, I felt sure that we could make something work.

We had planned to meet up at the El Paso airport, and rent a car for the five hour drive southeast to Big Bend National Park. My flight to El Paso arrived two hours late, pushing our drive into the night. Around 9 p.m. we decided to just get a hotel for the night, get our packs ready, and drive down the following morning.

By the time we got the trailhead, it was midday and everyone was ready to get going, so we did. Which, three miles later, turned out to have been a mistake. A sun cured old Texas gentleman pointed this out to us when we asked for directions to our campsite. He gave us a very polite rendition of “you caan’t git der frum hir.”

Six hours later and three miles down the right trail, darkness was falling and we had to decide whether to try to make our original campsite or stop at the next one available. After some discussion of this matter wiser heads – i.e. not my head – prevailed and we made camp.

That night, I was awakened by the sound of Adam yelling, in a stage whisper, “Ben, Ben.” Ben was not responding, so I got up (and he soon did as well) and we spent the next 20 minutes huddled over him trying to fix his broken sleeping bag zipper. We tried safety pins, then we tried duct tape, then we tried straps from our backpacks. We did not succeed. We did manage to stumble into a few physically intimate encounters that were not among my hopes or expectations for our time together. Unfortunately, Adam was left to pass the night without much shelter from the freezing temperature.

The next day we took off on a loop shorter than our original plan, which led out to a ridge overlooking the valley. The view was worth it. Having done all of my hiking in alpine climates, I found west Texas ruggedly beautiful and utterly barren. From the ridge you could see dozens of miles into the valley without spying a single moving thing. We finished back at the parking lot and decided, for various reasons, to drive down to a border town for the night. The drive along the Rio Grande was nice, but the town was not. We stayed in a little hotel called The Three Palms, so named for the three palms planted nearby. The place was surprisingly hard to find, and without Drew’s sure navigation, it would have been harder. We rewarded Drew by making him sleep on the broken half of one of our two queen size beds (sorry!).

The following morning we drove back to El Paso, stopping at points of interest along the way. Took a very memorable drive through a little artist town called Marfa. Had the best Mexican food ever in El Paso. In the evening we went to a bar in an old train to celebrate Drew’s birthday. The bartender looked like a guy whose life was almost interesting enough for a Jimmy Buffett song. Fortunately, we were able to hear his life’s story, which confirmed my initial suspicion. The only other guy at the bar was a well dressed young business type, who started talking to us and turned out to be a real estate agent to Mexican drug lords. But a nice guy overall.

By the time we left, everyone was exhausted and spent. The trip didn’t go according to plan. But it was a wonderful time with good friends, hopefully the first of many.