A Well Earned Trip

I'm blogging from Chicago! Pretty sweet, huh? I totally skipped school to drive down this morning and spend the weekend. Of course, this weekend is the Chicago Marathon, which is how my mom "justifies" this trip. Marathon or not, this city is awesome!

The drive here was fun, considering it was five hours on the road. We arrived around 1:30 (Chicago time) and dropped our bags off at my mom's friends' house where we're staying. After that was all taken care of, we hopped on the city bus and headed to the convention center where the race expo is. Even though we aren't running it, expos are always fun to go to. Lots of free food, and good deals on running stuff like clothes.

After taking the bus back home, I came to the conclusion that I'll never be able to depend on public transportation on a regular basis. Waiting for the bus, we actually witnessed a gang-related thing of some kind. I'm not totally sure what was going down, but two thugs were met by a third thug in a car (that parked right in front of the freaking bus stop!) and they flashed each other gang signs. Fortunately, the bus showed up quickly. The ride back home was interesting, and not in a good way. The bus was totally packed, and I had to stand for a while. I don't mind giving up my seat for someone, but it is pretty tough to stay upright while in motion. Then this tool with a cell phone got on, and proceeded to give parents on the bus plenty of reason to cover their children's ears. I was really glad to get off the bus, is what I'm pretty much saying.

We hung out at my mom's friends' place for a while, watching their new infant play. I read most of that time, and was totally zoned out of any conversation that occurred. Apparently, it was decided that we would go to eat at an Italian/organic restaurant near Wicker Park called Crust. The place was full of hipsters, but the food was awesome. Actually, we ate in an enclosed outdoor area, which was nice. The table next to us had a dog sitting at it, which I found pretty weird. We ordered a bunch of thin-crust pizzas, and I had a very tasty root beer. The pizza was incredibly delicious, and it was really high quality.

Well, I think I'm getting up early-ish tomorrow, so I'm finishing up this post. No clue what we're doing with our day, but since it's in Chicago, it will definitely be fun!