A Quintessentially Chicago Weekend

This weekend, my dad and his girlfriend, Connie, flew in to spend the weekend with me here in Chicago. We had a great time exploring (and for me re-exploring) the typical touristy places of Chicago. We did everything from Chicago style pizza to the Sears Tower, a drive through the Magnificent Mile and along Lakeshore drive, and a concert at the House of Blues. As I was downloading my pictures I realized that Connie actually took a majority of the pictures of us and my dad took a LOT (as always) of the buildings and things like that). But here are a few from our little adventure:



So, our first day we drove downtown and made our way to the top of the Sears Tower. I've been living in Chicago for 8 months now and I still have not been up there (the $13 ticket price could have something to do with it!). But, I got the bird's-eye view of Chicago on a beautiful, clear day. I was amazed at how fast the elevator rockets you up to the top. Your ears can feel the pressure both going up and coming down it goes so fast! These pictures are taken of downtown (1). You can see the black Hancock building. And (2) you can see "Museum Campus" on the Lake which has the Aquarium, the Planetarium and the Field museum (which we went to the next day).


We had Chicago-style pizza and then headed to the House of Blues to see Big Head Todd and GB Leighton. It was a great concert. Both bands were a mixture of rock and blues, not the classically deep blues I was expecting. But, I really enjoyed it.








Our second day we took the train downtown, rather than deal with parking, and we went to the Field Museum. The worlds largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton, nicknamed Sue, resides there. They also have an amazing exhibit of Egyptian mummies, 23 in all. There's enough stuff in this museum to take a couple of days to browse through. So, we hit the highlights. I'm definitely wanting to go back though, and to the aquarium, and the Edward Hopper exhibit that they have at the Art Institute. Anyways, we explored the Field Museum, walked through Grant Park and Millennium Park where my dad paused for a deep meditative moment on top of the BP Bridge (the metal, twisty, windy one across the freeway) and counted the stories in a couple of his favorite buildings. We took our picture(s) in The Bean (a metal sculpture in Millennium Park that looks like a gigantic, shiny bean. We finished out the evening with Thai food, tea, and browsing through Borders bookstore (Where I bought The Kite Runner, the movie, finally!! I brought it home and cried through half of it! I couldn't believe how much they made China, where it was filmed, look like Kabul. It was incredible!).

Our final day we stuck around the 'burbs and went to church, saw a movie (Vantage Point...liked it for the most part despite it's few political jabs and I also get frustrated that every show, be it a movie or a tv series like 24, its nearly always a Muslim that is the terrorist. Let's all remember people that not all Muslims are terrorists. And not all terrorists are Muslims. A small percentage of the Muslim world uses terrorism to make a point. Just like the Muslim world needs to know that not all western women are prostitutes. We fail one another when we live by stereotypes and we do a disservice when we believe those stereotypes...just a small, ahem, soapbox of mine. ) We had Chicago-style hotdogs to complete our classically-Chicago weekend. It was great to meet Connie and to spend time with my dad. I don't get to see my family nearly enough, even with being here in the States.

Red River Gorge, Day 3&4

Day 3: Rock Bridge
Day 3 had me solo-hiking for part of the day until the rain really started coming down. I hiked back to this arch in the second picture which is a natural arch over the river. Right before the arch was a beautiful little waterfall, also pictured below.


After a while hiking there I headed over to another section of the gorge and was going to check out a couple arches but the rain really started to come down. I found the "hidden arch" which is pictured below. I took a (slightly out of focus) self-portrait and headed back to the dry hostel for the rest of the afternoon.



Day 4: Double Arch
A group of 5 of us did a five mile loop to check out the double arch. It was a beautiful trail as the first half of it followed the top of this ridge and you could see the gorge on either side.

This was overlooking the gorge on the top of a really high cliff. I was getting a little woozy on top of this, especially as I was running worst-case scenarios through my mind. But, I pushed all that aside and took this picture as a tribute to all the foot pictures I've seen of friends of mine sitting on the beach (usually couples mind you) to show what my life is all about: just me and the wilderness. And it's beautiful!


A light-headed smile on top of the cliff. We hiked on top of the ridge in the background and got a sweet view of the cliff we were standing on top of.


Here's a view of the double arch from the opposite ridge. We climbed up underneath the arch, which yes, meant we hiked down from the ridge we were on and back up to the other side. My calves are in enough pain to prove it!


A tribute to the cliff bar industry. These are awesome for hiking. May I recommend the Cool Mint Chocolate and the Black Cherry Almond.


And the sign of a good hike: wet, muddy shoes. Mine are in the forefront.

Tomorrow the rest of the group wants to get a couple climbs in before we head back to flat, cold Illinois so I'll probably just hang out with them. I've put in a grand total of 23 miles over the last three days. Pretty excited about that.

Red River Gorge, Day 2

So, today I became a true rock star of the hiking world. Myself and another girl, Jenni, hiked about 10 miles along the aptly named trail called "The Rough Trail." This trail runs along the gorge but not just along the top of it but UP and DOWN in the gorge. INSANE! The hike started nicely following a little stream and then we hit the uphill climbs and the knee-killing descents. I would say we went up and down the gorge about 6-7 times. It was intense! Here are some pictures from our extravaganza:

This is called the Gray Arch. At the bottom there was a memorial dedicated to a guy that fell off the arch. Scary.


You can see how big the gorge area can be. Jenni is down at the bottom here. I felt so small throughout the entire hike. It was awesome!


Another self-portrait! But I'm not a narcissist!


Some sweet rock formations that I saw along the trail.


We had to cross this river four or five times. We had a combination of rock jumping, walking over logs and this crossing, there was nothing I could do but take off my shoes and walk. It was FREEZING!!!! I'm trying to smile here while Jenni too my picture but I don't think I could feel my toes by this time.


A pretty picture I took of the river. The entire gorge area was so beautiful. I took a ton of pictures along the way but pictures can never truly capture the breath-taking beauty when you are actually there. Hiking is something you can't just read about, you actually have to do it.


Here we are at the end of our ten mile hike, completely exhausted, but feeling like we had just conquered the world!

Spring Break 2008!!

This spring break I am in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky with a group of people from Wheaton going hiking and rock climbing. I will probably be gracing the trails and not pretending to be spiderwoman on the side of the cliff because I'm afraid of heights and I'm not going to pretend to be buff and strong at the expense of my life pummeling off the rock face! But, I'm SO HAPPY to be out of the concrete jungle and into the REAL wilderness. Today we threw our stuff down at our hostel and set out for a short hike to a place called the Indian staircase.

This is the view from the top of the Indian staircase overlooking the gorge. It looks a little drab without their being leaves on the trees, but trust me, the view was AMAZING!


This is the "Indian Staircase." If you look closely you can see the divets that make up the staircase in the sandstone.


Here's the ubiquitous self-portrait at the top of the hike. Always need a good self-portrait I always say.


This picture is of me and my friend Augustine. She'll be the rock-climbing queen for the week but I'm excited for the rest of the time we'll be hanging out. We are in the same program at Wheaton.

Well, look forward to more adventures in the days to come. Tomorrow I'm planning on hitting "The Rough Trail"...nearly 8 miles of up and down along the sides of the gorge. Looking forward to a good workout. If I can pick up my fingers to blog, you may be hearing from me. If not...I've crashed for the day and will see you another time! :)