Chi-town Gettin' Down

For Labor Day I was able to spend some time with my sister and her boyfriend in Chicago. I wasn't really sure how to "tackle" Chicago, but Tabitha helped (despite the fact that she was still recovering from being doored) and we had a great time!

First up, we went to Remix Chicago, a recycled art fair. Everything that was sold was made from recycled materials. They offered workshops, had some live music, and Keys 4/4 transformed old pianos by giving them a nice facelift. Then, they donated the pianos back to local schools! Pretty cool, right? It was a small festival, but it was awesome because it was all volunteers from schools (parents) and they really had a nice turn out! 

After leaving the art fair we got some delicious bar food and witnessed a very weird wedding. Well, let me just say this was the first of about 4 or 5 wedding that weekend! Anyway, we were at a brewery in the middle of the day and the wedding was either starting or they were having their reception at 2 in the afternoon. The worst part, in my opinion, is that Remix Chicago was going on right outside with a live band! You could literally hear it everywhere you were... Strange... that's what it was.

We walked around Chicago and looked at all of the beautiful houses. I even tried to talk Tab into calling one that was for sale and act interested so that we could see the inside. After that, it was FroYo time! I all but demanded it and it was so worth it. Can someone please open on of these in Oki that I like? I know there's one that's "kind of" like what we have in the states, but it's just not the same.

The next day, we went on an architecture tour on the water. It was great, but I honestly learned more from Tabitha. Our guide was all, "If you look at the gray building on the left...," Um, do you know how many gray buildings are in Chicago?! Despite the crappy guide, we had a really good time and it was a beautiful day!

To wrap up the day, Tabitha and I rented Divvy Bikes. Basically, it's like a bike vending machine and they have a ton of stations all over the city. We rode on a bike trail (no roads for Tabitha just yet) down the shore and stopped to hear from live music at a restaurant on the beach. After that, we headed home to meet up with Kyle and have some really good Italian food!

My favorite day was Monday, Labor Day. Tabitha and Kyle both had the day off and we decided last minute to check out City Winery's Bubbly-Q. At the event, we were given a little bottle of champagne and got to listen to some great bluegrass music. It was great because it got us a little excited about mom's upcoming surprise birthday (more on that later)!

After Bubbly-Q we tried to find this random "Olympics" party, which turned out to be a beautiful tragedy. Ha! First of all, it was extremely far away. Then, we couldn't find it. However, we did find a Polish Festival and we were totally down for that. We had some beer, listened to some music that we couldn't understand. THEN... we found an amazing cover band that played Thrift Shop promptly upon arrival, which was our theme song for the entire weekend. At the end of the weekend, I walked away with a ton of fun pictures (as you can see), lots of great memories with my sister, and a Rasta Garfield that I won playing a basketball game at the Polish Fest. Success!!