Making Summer Funner

Back of the Target shirts

Yes you read this right, Funner.  I like to think of it as a real world and apparently Target agrees with me.  I was at Taste of Chicago when I saw this shirt.  The people from Target also gave everyone there a free sand pale and shovel!  I had to get a picture of this shirt for a couple reasons.  1st it uses the word funner which I love and 2nd because it was a great title to the weekend.

Friday started out like normal with a half day of work.  Once work was over I went rock climbing at LPAC for the first time this summer.  It is a great work out but I just do not have the strength to go up the more advanced walls like everyone else there seemed to be able to do on Friday. 

Outdoor rock wall at LPAC

After rock climbing I went for a run which is fairly standard but then I went to On The Route and looked at bikes and tried some out.  I decided to wait and not purchase right then but a couple hours later I went back to the store and purchased myself a new bike.  I got a Trek Wingra!  I have been riding the same bike since 8th grade so this is a huge step forward.  Now I need to get some accessories like a luggage rack and grocery side baskets! 

New Bike - I will replace this with a better
picture once I get a chance to take one.

A couple people on my kickball team got engaged recently so our team went out to celebrate their engagement before our end of season party.  We went to Gino's East in Lakeview because its easy to split and its also BYOB.  We had a lot of fun and got Bill and Kaylyn some fun pirate themed gifts.  Our kickball team is called Kick in a Box but we like to have new themes.  This season we have a pirate theme next season who knows. 

I will be putting a picture of the gifts later today
The end of the season party was just down Racine at Will's Northwoods.  I frequent Will's alot for many different reasons.  Our landlord owns the bar so we pay our rent there, we play team trivia there alot of Tuesdays and its also next door to my house so its very convenient for dinner or just a drink once in a while. I did not participate in this seasons flip cup tournament but still had a blast just hanging out with everyone and enjoying some free beer.  The night was a lot of fun with old friends and teammates and new friends which as always makes for a great time.  I left early around 1am and from what I heard I missed out some late night bars and possibly some poor life choices.  I think I did ok!

Flip cup Tournament

I woke up early on Saturday a bit hungover and went to LPAC for boxing followed by hardcore.  Its now Tuesday and my abs still hurt from that 30 minute hardcore class!  I really enjoy the boxing class but 8:30am on Saturday is just a bit rough.  I have been doing this boxing class since about February and I have improved a ton but I still have a long way to go.  I am really starting to see the results though.  I have more upper body strength, I am getting skinnier, and its a great endurance sport.  I almost feel like if I was mugged on the streets of Chicago I could at least land a solid punch on my attacker before I run like hell to the closest cop I can find.

As if Friday wasn't filled with enough drinking I went with my friend Nikki up to Theresa's birthday bar crawl in Wrigley.  I do not think since I have lived in Chicago I have gone day drinking in Wrigley.  The last time I can remember day drinking was the first fall after college when I came to visit Allie who at the time lived in Wrigley.  There was a block party going on that weekend which meant lots of day drinking.  That was also the weekend that I told myself one day I will live in Chicago and a while later I moved here.  I only stayed on the birthday bar crawl for a few hours making it to 3 bars.  It was alot of fun but I also felt weird, maybe cause I was day drinking or maybe cause I was still hungover from the night before.  On the bright side of being up in Wrigley I finally tried Ian's Pizza.  Everyone keeps laughing at me when I tell them I have never been there before.  I tried the taco pizza and the mac and cheese pizza.  Ian's was very similar to a place a I used to go to called Sicily's Pizza when I worked at Crayola called.  That place had a kick ass cheese steak pizza and taco pizza.  I will say that Ian's had a really good mac and cheese pizza specially when you add a little hot sauce.

A little later in the evening I went to a friends house party for Half Way to Christmas.  The entire backyard was decked out in Christmas lights and garland and the only music playing was Christmas songs.  I arrived late and had missed the food portion which apparently they had some good food on the grill.  I did make it in time to play some flip cup and just hang out with friends.  It was a great time over in Wicker Park and one of the few times I was in that area not at a bar, which seems to be the norm.  I was so tired from the day and the previous night I did not make it much past midnight before I went home and went to bed.

Dave sporting his Christmas attire

A group of us playing flip cup

Sunday morning I woke to go to the Pride Parade.  While I really only know a few people who are gay I still feel that me going to the parade shows that I support the equal rights that everyone deserves.  While the parade itself is a huge celebration it still has a great message of everyone is the same and should all get the same treatment.  My friend Ashley was hosting a Pride Parade pre-game so I met up with Britani and headed to Ashley's.  I started with mimosas and bagels and just hung out with some of the people going with us to the parade.  It was only a couple guys and the rest were girls to start but once we made it to the parade and then to a good spot to watch the parade some of my kickball friends showed up to join us.  We had a group of about 15-20 I would guess and just had a great time.  The weather was perfect!  Warm but not too warm and sunny.  The parade started and had a great energy that never died down.  Once the mimosas ran out we went to beer and then even to a few shots in the local bars along Broadway.  Needless to say by like 3pm I was pretty much drunk yet some how I kept going.

Campaign signs

The Chicago Sky Mascot

Dustin, myself, Brittani, and Danielle at Pride Parade

After the parade was over we sorta split up and half of us went to get dinner.  We couldn't get into Mi Tiera but we got into the place across the road.  The food was really good but the Mojito was really kinda bad.  The food wasn't quite Mexican but also not quite Tex-Mex either.  It was really good though but honestly not sure how likely I am to return.  After dinner I went and met back up with the other half of the group at Durkins but did not last very long before I went home.

Monday might as well still been the weekend.  It felt more like Sunday since Sunday just felt like another Saturday.  Monday I went down to Taste of Chicago with Kate and Danielle.  Tyler was gonna go but bailed at the last minute.  Sorry Tyler you missed out on some good food and not a lot of people.  I had a few things I had last year like the jollof rice with sauteed goat meat at Vee Vee's African Restaurant and the Pierogies at Kasia's Deli but then I also tried some completely new things like the Irish Egg Role (corned beef and hash in an egg role) at Abbey Pub and the samosa at Arya Bhavan.  I tried a polish sausage from Bobak Sausage and a street taco from Carbon.  I rounded out my night with Rainbow Cone which was super yummy.  Some people think Taste is too expensive but I look at is as a great opportunity to check out restaurants all over the city and as festivals go in the city its pretty cheap.  Plus there were also some free give aways.  Ocean Spray had some good samples that I might actually go and try like the Pomegranate Blueberry sparkling juice.  Target was also out handing out free things which I mentioned earlier.  The best part of Target being there were the shirts they were wearing that provided the title for this post.

Sausages grilling at the Kasia stand at Taste

a look at Chicago from Taste

After we left taste we met up some of Kate's friends across the street at Millennium Park and joined them at New Music Mondays and listened to Low.  Considering the forecast was for thunderstorms and the weather ended up being perfect it was a great way to end the weekend even if I count Monday evening into the weekend.

A view from North Ave Beach where I play volleyball every week

A Photo of Chicago

So I have struggled on what I should say here.  I dont really feel like just listing out all the things I did this past weekend.  It was just very random and filled with lots of different things.  So instead of boring anyone reading this with words I will just simply post some pictures and you can make your own conclusions.

A biker along the North Pond

Cool flower behind the Nature Museum

Can't think of a better way to spend my half day Fridays

View from the lake trail

Buchingham Fountain

Buckingham Fountain water and light show

Art Institute

Tourist viewing the fountains

The Bean in Millennium Park

The Bean at Millinnium Park

Jay Pritzker Pavilion

8am Yoga in the Park

View of the city from Taste of Randolph

View of Chicago from Lake St

My neighborhood from 29 stories up

Chicago Skyline from Addison and Lakeshore Dr

Maybe next time I will elaborate on this in words.  I had lots of ideas of things to talk about this week but when ever I started writing I just couldn't get my point across so I said forget it and just went with this instead.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

My Wish List

So there are  plenty of things I want to do and I am getting better at actually doing them but I still have a long ways to go.  I have done quite a bit up to this point with living life and gaining new experiences but why stop there.  Just like what we were told as children growing up, "you learn something new everyday".  Well I want to take that and run with it.  I am not the outdoors adventurous type but I'm also not not that type.  People like my sister could probably just go pitch a tent just about anywhere and be just fine.  I however can not do that though I would like to.  Unlike my sister though I can survive in a big city and make the city work for me where she would not fair as well.  My parents did an excellent job raising me and my sister and providing us with so many wonderful opportunities to explore what the Earth had to offer.

Me and my sister after hiking up a mountain to ski it!

Growing up my family would go camping and while we had a pop up camper (still do actually) we went camping to get away.  Michigan offers an impressive State Park System with so many options.  We generally would take the campsites that were wooded but either on or near a lake or river.  The sites would have power but the only thing our pop up used power for was the few little lamps inside the camper.  I have still never to this day been tent camping but I figure if you sleep in a pop up when it rains and its cold its not too far off (yes I know I'm not on the ground but still).  I have fond memories or camping at Hoffmaster State Park and in Muskegon and up north on Mullet Lake at Aloha State Park.  I want to go camping again soon but I am getting to that.

I do not think there was ever a spring break that my family did not go someplace.  Some years were bigger then others but I have done everything from Disney World in Florida to Disneyland in California to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky to Beach's along the Atlantic.  We also went skiing and visited Washington DC and family in New England.  During the summer the vacations got a bit bigger even.  When I was in 8th grade we took a 2 week road trip from Michigan out west.  I visited Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Teton, Mt Rushmore, and the Badlands.  When I was very little I remember traveling to visit my aunt and uncle in Idaho and we drove out west in the US but returned east through Canada.

During College I expanded my traveling further and did a short study abroad in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada and later in college went on a real study abroad to Lund, Sweden.  After the study abroad in Lund I traveled on my own and went to Norway where I did Norway in a Nutshell which takes you along the Flåm Railway.  I also took a ship from Bergen up to Ålesund which provided some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life of the Norwegian Fjords.  On that same trip I spent a few days in Copenhagen and then made my way to London, England.  In England I traveled outside of the city on a tour out to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Bath.  I was able to see so much of the world on that trip yet really I only saw a tiny portion.

Château Frontenac

Nyhavn, Copenhagen

About 2am along the Fjords of Norway

Library at the University of Lund

Stonehenge

After College I traveled the US some visiting friends that had moved around the country to places like Atlanta and Charlotte, NC.  I also went to visit my sister who lives in the Teton Mountain Valley Area (at the time in Driggs, ID but now in Jackson, WY) to go and do some sight seeing as well as some skiing at Grand Targhee where she works.  I also took another trip over the big pond to travel to the United Kingdom once more.  In 2009 I took a week or so and traveled to Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland because I had been sitting still for too long.

Skiing Grand Targhee in the Teton Mountains

Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland

View of Edinburgh from the Sir Walter Scott Monument

In the past year I have been very active which is what prompted this blog.  I went to the Kentucky Derby, skiing at my sisters (Grand Targhee), countless festivals and local sports events, Atlanta, Michigan, Kicks for a Cure, Wildman Ranch, stepped foot in all 5 Great Lakes in 4 days, went to Toronto, went skydiving, went to Mexico, my first road football game (Penn State), Washington DC and so much more.  I know it is all great but is it enough?  I only have so long to live, and I plan on living for a long time, there is so much of this country, continent, and planet has to see.

My family and the Paulson's white water rafting at Wildman Ranch

No captain needed!

The whole group of us at Churchill Downs before the Derby

After the Blue Jays Indians game in Toronto

Me and Mandy at the MSU Notre Dame game

Me, Jeff, Patricia at the swim up bar in Mexico for Allie's wedding

The whole group of us at Allie's wedding enjoying muy mas cervezas 

Erin, Danielle, and I at College Game Day at Wrigley

Meghan, Mandy and I at Penn State after watching MSU clinch the BigTen Title

I have both a small general wish list as well as a much more elaborate wish list.  So here is just the small easy wish list:

• Go Camping
• Take some friends on a Pure Michigan tour to Sleeping Bear, Mackinaw Island, and the cottage
• I want to run the Chicago Marathon I am currently training for
• Win the Redeye weekly photo challenge
• Go explore Jackson Park and learn more about the White City
• I want to go hiking
• I want to go back to Québec City
• Do a Tower Climb

Carriage on Mackinaw Island

I also have an entire Chicago Wish list but that's for another time.

For my main wish list here we go:

• Travel to Fiji and some other less traveled tropical islands
• Visit Denver (luckily I have some friends here so that shouldn't be that hard)
• I want to see Hawaii as well as Alaska
• I also want to visit the remaining few states I have never been to
• Want to experience Australia both the cities and culture but also the outback.
• Travel and explore the Pacific Coast
• I want to visit more of Europe including Spain, Italy, France etc
• By the time I am 35 years old I would love to say that I have been to the 8 countries I have heritage in (Italy, France, Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands) So currently I have been to Ireland, Scotland and England so only 5 to go!
• I want to go explore China, Japan, Korea, and the smaller nations in that region
• I have been to the rest of Scandinavia but I want to also visit Finland
• I want to travel to Iceland and Greenland
• I have heard amazing things about South America so I want to go there as well
• I want to visit all the continents
• I want to go the Vancouver
• I want to go to the Olympics one day and I would love to be a part of them as in work for them or at least volunteer for something.
• I want to one day go to the National Park that is within Michigan, Isle Royale
• I want to live in another Country
• I want to visit Grand Canyon, Acadia, Sequoia, Zion, Olympic, Kenai Fjords, Denali National Parks
• Drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, Hoover Dam and US 101
• Visit a rain forest
• Take the train to the west coast and then take the Canadian Railway back east
• Pretty much I want to do everything on this website. 
• And so many more things that I have yet to think of.

So who wants to join me along my way to see all that there is to see on this beautiful planet?  Here is a video from an artist I found who makes me want to get out and travel more and this particular video just makes me want to go back to Norway.


The Arctic Light from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Festivals!

Festivals are known around the country in many different forms and formats and different frequencies throught the year.  Some places just have a state fair, others have art festivals, some have festivals in honor of fruits, the solstace or other various things.  Growing up DeWitt we had one festival a year  called the Ox Roast.  Since moving to Chicago I have learned that festivals here take on a whole new meaning.  We have festivals for just about everything.  This weekend I only made it to 3 festivals, yes, 3 festivals just in one weekend.  I only had time for the three festivals because I was busy doing a few other things as well but I really wanted to make it atleast one of the art festivals too.

I started out my weekend when I left work at noon on Friday.  I went downtown to meet up with my old roomie Erin and we went to Adler Planetarium.  I have lived in Chicago for 2.5 years and have never been to the planetarium before and considering it is the oldest in the country I felt it was time to change this.  They were running a special for free admission last week so it was a perfect oppertunity to go.  We took the bus down and it was funny it was 4 locals on the bus and we all had to ask if the bus went out as far as the planetarium.  The bus driver laughed when I pulled the stop cord when we got there because he knew it was our destination.  The planetarium it self was nice.  I had a few mixed reviews depending on exhibits.  The colar system exhibit was very out of date but some of the other ones were very cool and I learned some interesting facts.  I really enjoyed the live astronomer talk which was very imformative and fun.  The history of space discovery and exploration was also very interesting.  They have some really old telescopes on display.

After the planetarium we took the bus back to the loop and parted ways.  I met up with my friend Dani who was in town for the week and weekend and she came to stay at my house.  She had really been wanting good pizza so where else but Pequod's.  After we waited for over an hour to sit (thats pretty standard) we enjoyed lots of great pizza!  We all had lots of desires to go out that night and enjoy the town but exhausttion won out.  I finally watched the Hangover (the original) and went to bed.  Needed to get my rest for the real weekend.

Saturday I woke up and went to boxing and then an abs class before really starting out the day.  Got a group together and headed up to festival 1 of 3 for the weekend.  We started the day out at Midsommarfest in Andersonville.  I really enjoyed this festival and wish I could have stayed longer.  There was some great street vendors and lots of live music.  They had 5 stages.  The only part that I was slightly bummed about was the food.  I really wanted some traditional Swedish food but I could not find it with out leaving the festival and going into a restaurant.  I wish we would have spent longer there before we headed out and went down to Ribfest.

The Puppet Bike in action at Midsommar

Ribfest is very similiar to Taste of Chicago except its only ribs.  Ribfest is a festival as you guessed it, all about ribs.  There were many vendors cooking ribs and while most of them were super good some were not as great.  The price was a bit high as well.  They not only ask for a donation at the gate but then also charge for everything.  It works out to be $2 per rib which is very high.  There were some good freebies though which made things better.  I had the most amazing buffalo chicken wrapped in bacon!  It was a sponser Wright Brand that cooked up this dish and it was free and come off of a truck that looked like a train.  I also had some free wine courtesy of Gnarly Head.  The wines were ok, I don't know if I would buy them myself but it was enjoyable none the less.  I would have to say in my opinion the best ribs there came from The Piggery.  Between Ribfest and Midsommar I had a gyro, gellato, ribs (7), lemonade, beer, deep fried Oreos, and bacon wrapped chicken wings (it was so worth it though).

Wright Brand's giant tailgate semi smoker!!!

Enjoying some free samples!

After Ribfest (the second time, we went back after a drink across the street) we all left with Tyler and went to a bar called Christina's Place which was way far west over on Kedzie at Grace.  It was a fun place but the distance made it less desirable.  I stayed there for a while and listened to some karekoe before a few of us hopped in a cab and went home.  While we were waiting for a cab we witnessed 2 tow trucks go drag racing down Addison.

Sunday started out much more low key than Saturday.  This was Dani's last day in town so we just went and grabbed grilled cheeses' over at Cheesie's Pub.  Dani packed up and headed off to the airport and I went for a run.  After the amount of unhealthy food I eat at Ribfest and Midsommar I needed a good run and the weather was perfect.  I wish I would have gone further than just 6 miles.  After the run I came home and got ready for festival #3.  I met up with some friends and headed over to Party as St. Mike's which is a large block party.  A band called 7th Heaven was playing.  In Chicago there are lots of really good cover bands and these are one of them.  They have a segment called 30 songs in 30 minutes and they are all good sing along songs.  It was really a perfect way to end my Sunday except we didnt quite end there.  None of us had had dinner yet so we walked over to Corcoran's Grill in Old Town for some dinner.  It was nice to just sit down and enjoy spending some time with friends.  The festivals were all fun and all but I didn't get to sit at all.

I wish I could have made it too Well's Street Art Fair, Old Town Art Festival, or Blue's Fest but there just was not time this year.  Perhaps next year!  With festivals just about every weekend in Chicago there is never nothing to do.  Next weekend I am sure will bring more festivals along with it.