On Friday, we all headed up to the frozen north (Chicago) to visit Animal and Anna-mal, old family friends of ours. The Mr. & Ms./Dr. Animals are due to have twins this spring, so we figured it would be a LONG LONG time before they will be prepared to have us and the two small hooligans as houseguests again.
The Animals have two dogs. We don’t have dogs because I am allergic (and averse to adding more work and cleaning to my daily routine, but I digress), so both of our girls were a little skittish. The dogs were also a tad skittish themselves and didn’t know quite what to make of the pint-sized, unpredictable girls. M spent a large portion of the time saying “pssst!” at the dogs, ala one of her favorite shows the Dog Whisperer. The dogs were unimpressed.
Of course, we had to visit the lovely Chicagomama & family. Unfortunately, trying to get from the Animal House to Chicagomama’s house turned out to be an almost insurmountable task. Chicago is completely unfamiliar to me (and has really crappy signage), so I got lost. Really, really lost. Lost like it took me over an hour to find the highway that was less than 2 miles away. This kind of ruined my Chicago love. Anyway, L & M had a lovely time playing with Chicagomama’s girls.
Then I got lost going back to the Animal House.
On Sunday, before we went home, Chicago somewhat redeemed itself with a lovely dim sum brunch in Chinatown. We also met a lovely blogstalker friend of Chicagomama’s who turned out to be just as lovely and delightful as Chicagomama claimed she would be. Who knew that a lunch with 5 shorties and 8 adults could be so pleasant (I expected total chaos.) And the food was good too.
But then we got lost trying to get back on the highway and again Chicago was tainted for me. Stupid, crappy city planning.
The fabulousness of our weekend (getting lost aside) was a little twinged with anxiety, though. The winds of change are blowing for our family. I will have to make another post about that, as it is quite involved and stressful. But for today, it is nice to be home in our cozy little house, in our cute little suburb. Where all the highways are clearly labeled and easily accessible.
Hooray, Chicago! I’d like to apologize on behalf of my city… actually, it’s a little OVERplanned, and so you’re unlikely to get lost as long as you believe in the grid and follow it scrupulously. But then you throw in things like diagonal streets, and highways, and rivers, and it all just gets fouled up. (I’d love it if they’d put warning signs on the diagonals, but no one will agree to do so.) So I’m sorry the driving was such a bad experience for you.
And oo, my interest is piqued by that last bit. But I hope you enjoy some resting-up from your trip first.
I am hooked by that last paragraph, and hope that the winds are positive ones.
And? I feel you on the “lost” anxiety…except that I manage to do it in the major city that is only thirty minutes from my home. Gah.
we got lost in new york once. we ended up going through a pretty weird area, that ended up in a area that was full of hasidic jews walking to (or from?) temple. very surreal.
anyway, i’m glad you had fun hanging out!
TELL ME THE NEWS.
Yep, Chicago bites me in the butt every time, and I’m not a novice in getting around new/big cities. Not sure what it is, but hey, glad it’s not just me.
And when did you become such a blog tease?! The winds of change are blowing? Do share!
Winds of change….windy city….are you moving?
Undoubtedly way off base here.
Winds of change? I hope they’re good ones!
Trope is correct; Chicago was a *very* planned city…grid lines, diagonals, rivers and all. Check out the “City Beautiful” movement and the impact of Olmsted on Chicago’s planned parklands etc.
But, boy howdy, if you’re not familiar with Chicago, yeah, you can get lost pretty easily.
oh boy, is this related to the nbt?