Home, Sweet (Other) Home (and a graduation!)

Let me start by talking about how amazing my little sister is.  She is 6 years younger than me, and we were not close growing up.  In fact, when Mom first started to get sick in 2010, I think Danielle and I drifted further apart -- we were so focused on Mom's health, we didn't really spend much time communicating with each other unless it was about Mom.  As awful as Mom's passing was, it forced the two of us to live together in the same house for 2 weeks, something we hadn't done in a decade.  We had this wonderful opportunity, regardless of the terrible circumstance, to reconnect as sisters, and now she is one of my best friends.

Anyway, back to Danielle.  She was a published author in high school, has won awards at every stage of her education, has 3 degrees, and is currently working at MIT on some research that I don't fully understand.  She is super duper brilliant.  Despite all her accolades, she is generally a grounded and personable individual and if you met her on the street, you wouldn't know she was a Class A Nerd until you asked her about work.  

This trip back to the Midwest USA started with her graduation.  She actually finished her PhD at Illinois when she defended her thesis last year, and for a variety of reasons she opted to wait a year to to walk and have her PhD hooding ceremony. Since I missed her defense, I couldn't miss her this ceremony! I had only been to Champaign-Urbana once, and G had never been.  We didn't get see a lot of campus, and what we did see was beautiful in May.  We were definitely blessed with some nice weather!

Congratulations, Graduate!!

This pose was not easy with all the regalia!

Spring photo-op!

After graduation weekend, we headed up to my hometown of Kalamazoo.  I can't remember exactly how long it's been since I've visited Kalamazoo.  My parents moved from Kalamazoo to Mystic, CT in 2007, and I probably visited my first husband's parents' home once or twice after moving to Texas.  Regardless, it has been a long time.  G and I ate at my favorite Chinese Restaurant in nearby Mattawan (Chinn Chinn - I waitressed at the original Peking Palace in college and often dream about the Mongolian Beef), we attended mass at the church I grew up in, drove by my childhood home, and met up with lots of family friends.  We even did a quick driving tour of both my hold high schools.  It was crazy and hectic and super fun to show G where I grew up.  

Mother's Day brunch with my high school Youth Minister

I knew when I planned this trip that both G and I would need some R&R after lots of driving and sightseeing, so I booked us a mid-week getaway in South Haven.  It has been a perfect beachy recharege for both of us on the beautiful Lake Michigan.  Again, it has been unseasonably sunny in Michigan, and we basked in the cool mornings followed by warm afternoons.  We won't have weather like this in again in Abu Dhabi until at least December, so we enjoyed it while we could!  We took long strolls down the beach, squealed as we stepped into the cold Lake Michigan waters, and marveled at the college coeds we saw partying on the public beaches and swimming.  We also took a classic selfie at the South Haven lighthouse, which is remarkably smaller than I thought it would be.  Plus, with the extra time on our hands, I introduced G to the awesome-ness of Meijer.  Pretty much everything you could get at Walmart or Target, but better!  

Michigan T-Shirt, purchased at Meijer

Selfie at the lighthouse!

Our sunset was interrupted by some clouds, but still gorgeous

With our batteries recharged, we drove back towards the Windy City for the final leg of our trip.  Rather than take the freeway, we opted for the scenic route along Red Arrow Highway.  Personally, I've never gone to Chicago this way -- when I lived in the Midwest, I was always in a hurry trying to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible.  We really enjoyed the scenic drive - we found a hip new brewery and taproom along the way and stopped for lunch.  Apparently, Haymarket is based in Chicago and this branch in Bridgman just opened in January 2017.  The food was great and G seemed to really like the beer as well - so win win!  We made another quick stop in Michigan City at the Lighthouse Outlet Mall to pick up some deep discount clothes since retail in Abu Dhabi can be quite expensive.

Selfie in front of Haymarket

At this point, we (mostly I) had a lapse in judgement.  We should have hopped on the freeway for the remainder of the drive to Chicago, but I thought it would be interesting to stay on the back roads.  Google was showing backups on both the toll road and on I-94, so I thought it might be less stressful to continue our leisurely drive.  We drove through Gary and East Chicago, which was definitely an eye-opening experience.  You could tell that at one time in the not too distant past that these were nice places to live, but that they've both just been run down by industrial blight.  The steel mills that we drove by were actually kind of cool for a pair of oil & gas nerds, but the depressed surrounding communities were really sad to drive through.

It was a relief to finally make it to Chicago.  We met up with Jamie, my best friend from grade school, and her husband, Alec for the weekend.  We were supposed to go to a Cubs game, but we were unfortunately rained out.  G was so bummed out to miss the game at the historic Wrigley field, so we went to the ballpark anyway to walk around and take pictures.  While Jamie and Alec were in Chicago with us, we had a mini pub crawl, ate some deep dish pizza, drank a bunch of beer (well they drank beer, I had sodas) and laughed over Cards Against Humanity.

Bummed that we were rained out :-(  Just means we'll have to come back!

Photos around the stadium

Ironically, after the game's original start time, it didn't rain again for the rest of the weekend

After Jamie and Alec headed home on Sunday morning, G and I did a quick tour of downtown.  We had Jamie and Alec drop us off at Millennium Park so I could show G the shiny bean.  Poor G had his first encounter with some of the Buddhist peddlers around the park who try to give you beads and prayers for peace in exchange for donations to the temple.  He thought they were giving him free stuff until they started telling him how much the beads cost.  I gave the gentleman a $5 bill, firmly said "No, Thank you" and ushered G away towards the river.  We walked around downtown for a bit, and then decided to take the Chicago Architecture Foundation boat tour.  I had previously taken several walking tours of Chicago, so I thought a boat tour would be different and new for both of us.  The tour did not disappoint!  It was cool to see all the new construction that had gone up since I'd last been to Chi-Town a decade ago.

Underneath the shiny bean

The "end" of the bean - with a cool skyline reflection!

Chicago skyline from our riverboat cruise tour

We ended our whirlwind Midwest tour similarly to how we started, with family.  We had dinner and ice cream with Danielle's husband, Jonny, who is attending grad school in Chicago.  We didn't get to hang out much the weekend before with all the graduation festivities, so it was nice to have a low key casual dinner and catch up.

At this point, G and I were ready to head home - we had a great trip, and we loved seeing so many of our friends and family!