Adventure-time in Chicago

Hi family! Warning- we forgot our camera. :[ So this will be a very verbiose post. :D My apologies.

So this weekend Brandon and I decided to celebrate our February birthdays and Valentine’s Day by going to Chicago for a much needed vacation. I’d had a horrible week. I was working 12-14 hours days all week, (and I don’t mean out of the house for 12 – 14 hours, I mean GOING, non-stop from class to work to church to internship and repeat). It wasn’t very fun. In fact, on Thursday night (the last day of that wretched week) I had been asked to be a part of a Relief Society lesson on Family Home Evenings. I was supposed to talk about FHE without children – young couples, widows and empty nesters. I started my talk saying “I’ve had a bad week, so if I cry…” then I cried through the whole lesson. It was not my best moment. Anyway, I was glad I still got a lot of support from the sisters. They were nice to me even though I felt pretty useless. Friday I had only an hour of class and an hour of work then we could leave for Chicago.

We packed up and ate lunch and headed out the door around 1:30. We’d probably get to our hotel by 4.30 (Chicago time, which is an hour earlier than Fort Wayne) and have plenty of time to get settled and get to our Medieval Times reservation at 7:30 (Medieval Times!! Yeaaah!) Well, about an hour or two out from Fort Wayne, the van starts making some strange noises. Whenever we got over 50 or 60 mph it would gradually start getting louder and shakier. We pulled over once or twice to see if it was the tires, but couldn’t figure it out. We pulled into the nearest town and discovered the internals of our rear passenger brake drum had apparently disintegrated. Yippee! While we wait we walked through the cold to a nearby K-Mart to wander around and attempt to lift our spirits. About 2 hours and nearly $400 later, we were back on our way, with not nearly such a nice cushion of time to make our reservations. We decided to say yes to the toll roads in the hopes it would get us there a little quicker. Little did we know we would add about half an hour to our travel time just waiting in line to pay. Bleagh. I was getting frustrated and kept asking if we should just call to cancel and reschedule. But Brandon thought we could do it. We pull into Medieval Times about 4 minutes before the show started and are seated shortly after it had begun. We made it!!!

Medieval Times was a blast. We got to cheer on the green night (the bad guy! Yeaaah!) and eat with our hands and because we bought a Valentines day package they gave us some cool cheering swag- as well as two nice flutes (for our sparkling juice!) After a stressful, adventure-filled trip it was a nice-surprise that we’d actually made it. I kept trying to get our knight to throw me a rose, but sitting up on the very top row with Brandon makes it a little unlikely. I still remember when Julia got a rose when we went with Granny in Florida. I was so jealous!! (and still am?) One awful thing- we got to see this big guy sitting in front of us try to carry his own vomit up the stairs and into the bathroom. Grooossss. The fight sequences were cheesy- a few of the players clearly forgot their actions, as they awkwardly tried to slap each other or dodge hits that never came. Ha. Afterwards we went through the ‘torture museum’ which was really more of a hallway, but that was gross too. I kept wondering if that really happened. People are pretty sick sometimes.

Saturday we went to the Temple and got some of Brandon’s family’s names done. We did a session and a few sealings, (which I think might be my favorite) and then went home to eat and change before heading to the Chicago Auto Show. Brandon will have to write about that. I just followed him around trying not to get lost in the crowd. Eventually I just sat down and read Harry Potter while he wandered through the last half of the show. There was a bag-Nazi there, this little old lady who badgered everyone to see what they were carrying, even if they’d already been checked by someone else. Brandon says: It was huge and really fun to see all the cars. The Infinity concept was a little disappointing- it looked ugly and disproportioned. The Panemera wasn’t as ugly as everyone said either. The Evo still takes my breath away. (Liberty: does it? Brandon: It really does.) Disappointed Ferrari didn’t show up- or any of the other major supercar makers. We stopped to look at the new Lexas LFA. The ‘booth jock’ (the guy who stands there and talks up the cars) was kind of a jerk. It’s bizarre how everyone who works these cars has to be so pretty. (Sorry, Liberty’s Principles of Persuasion class is seeping in!) He was more concerned with fluffing his hair than answering anyone’s questions. He kept using the phrase “pure Japanese muscle” – not true. Traditional Japanese ‘muscle’ came from I-5 and I-4 turbo, not the naturally aspirated big blocks in this car.

We had planned to take the local trains from the Auto Show to Gino’s East (Yes, we did go to Gino’s!!) I was kind of nervous about taking the train, but we decided to add a little more walking to a further station so at least we wouldn’t have to transfer. After figuring out which way we needed to leave the convention center towards the Metro station, we headed out. We only made it about a block or two before turning back. The roads, and more importantly, the sidewalks, were poorly plowed, making it impassable for even Brandon’s heavy duty wheelchair. We headed back to our car and drove up to Gino’s, where we had to pay for parking (again! $30 for 2 and a half hours? BARF!) and wait outside in the cold for an hour before being seated. We had a delicious pizza (cheese and sausage) and an appetizer to hold us over while we waited. Best mozzarella sticks I’ve ever had. (Really, Pizzatillos) Yum. We ordered a medium (of which we each only ate one piece. Oops) but got to enjoy it again for lunch (and dinner) on Sunday. The service was pretty atrocious, but when you’re so popular that you don’t even have to try to get people to come, I guess you stop caring. No, we didn’t graffiti anything either. We’re not that exciting.

Sunday morning we debated whether or not to go to Church, but ended up just lounging around our hotel all morning before we had to check out again. Hahaha, yeah, we were bad, but that’s what you’re supposed to do on vacation-- be lazy. :D

So I’m writing this to you on the car ride home. I’ll edit and proofread in a few hours when we get home and Brandon will probably add in a little bit too. Just wanted to share with you our adventures and good times. We had a lot of ‘hiccups’ but we still had fun. Brandon does an excellent job at looking on the bright side. He keeps me from getting too frustrated when things don’t go according to plan. :] Oh, and I neglected to make birthday post for Brandon, so I’ll do it here:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDON! You are MOST Awesome!! :D Brandon turned 24 last Thursday, Feb 10th. Going to the auto show was his birthday present, as well as an audio card for his computer that Liberty bought him (only because he’d put it into our Amazon cart- otherwise I would never have picked out computer parts for him). We love and miss you all dearly and are thrilled about Indira and Blake’s growing family. :D Hope you’re all staying warm- I’m praying Spring will come soon. (Like Brandon said in his previous post, we don’t do well with Winter). Don't Forget to Be AWESOME!

-Liberty (and Brandon)