44. Take Melissa somewhere fun overnight without the girls/45. Take Melissa to The Taste of Chicago

I did these two with Melissa a couple weeks back. As described earlier, I didn't have the extra time to blog in the past few weeks. Melissa did a write up on our trip, but I will share a few things I liked about the trip.
1. My Mom watched the girls for the night and there were no real problems.
2. We ate out a lot. While I don't like it a lot of times, I enjoy going out to fun places. Everywhere we went was new for me...too bad I already had that goal done.
3. I love staying in hotels. Melissa and Matt think it's stupid/crazy, but I love sitting in bed and watching TV. We don't have a TV in our bedroom so it is a special treat for me.
4. The Taste wasn't too busy, it made for a much more enjoyable time not having to push your way through hundreds of people to get your food.
5. We got to check out what Second City was all about. It was a fun time. The stage was super small. We talked about how crazy it was that so many famous people had been on that stage on their way to greatness.
6. We ate dinner at 10:15 after our Second City show. With kids that would never happen. We ate at Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. We had all been there before and knew it was so good that we needed to go back. It is basically like a pizza pot pie. It was/is delicious!
7. The hotel we stayed at had a pool. I haven't been swimming without kids in a long time. It was nice to be able to relax and just goof around in the pool and not worry about where the kids were. Yes, I did a bunch of canon balls!
8. The last thing I liked is that I think we found a new annual tradition that we want to keep in the coming years. What a good time!

Breakfast - I had stuffed french toast. It was delicious.
I had never seen the bean before this day. I had to convince everyone that I wasn't lying. The only times I had seen it is when people took pictures of their reflections on the bean, so I figured I needed to replicate that pose.
I love this picture for how awkward everyone looks. The funny thing is that they are posed, this isn't just a candid picture as they are getting ready.
I love watching TV in hotel rooms. And no, I didn't just watch the menu channel. I caught some ESPN and CNNs coverage of the Bernie Madoff trial. Talk about thrilling!
Look how empty the street is! I have only been to the taste one other time, and it was terribly busy there.
Here we are waiting for the show to start at Second City. It was a good time.

72. Canoe to I-88 and back with Matt

Matt and I made it out on the river yesterday. I didn't think this one would happen after Matt's experience from our trip we made last month. The water was swift, but we made it. Mapmyrun.com has the trip up the river at 1.86 miles, it felt far beyond that. I didn't bring my camera for the trip but there would have been a few good shots. The first good shot, us going backward any time we stopped paddling for more than four seconds. The second shot, me pulling the boat (and Matt) through some low spots where we were dragging on the river bottom. The third shot would be the crazy rapids created by the construction that is happening at I-88. We actually didn't officially make it to I-88, I think we made it to about 40 feet away, but the water was just a little too swift and rough to make it that close. It was close enough.
Matt, you can officially retire from canoeing. Thanks for doing this with me.

55. Go camping

It's been awhile. Matt has told me that a bunch of times. This isn't the first time it has happened in this blog's history. I've been busy. I'm going to try to see if I can get more posts up this week. We'll see.

I didn't really mention in my last post that I had gone camping. I think as I was doing it, that I didn't even realize that I was accomplishing it as I was doing it. On the canoe trip, we camped out three times. The first was on a walking trail just off the river. It was a rough night as we were pretty near a major road that had plenty of truck traffic.
Here's a picture of Mike cooking up breakfast at our first spot. One night down!

The second night was a little more adventurous as we thought we had a place, but they told us we couldn't stay there. So what did we do? We stayed there anyway. Luckily, it didn't bring up any problems and no one talked to us.

The last night was my most favorite as I got to go to Judson College/University for the night. They were incredibly hospitable there. We got showers, dinner, entertainment (television in the Commons building) and a safe place to sleep (campus safety told us where we could stay and were very willing to help with anything we may have needed.)Here's our spot at Judson. Nicely tucked between some bushes and right next to the creek.

I know, I reused pictures, and I am not in them, but it's what I've got.

While I know this wasn't the most typical camping trip, it was camping. Hopefully I can get out sometime to do the typical camping experience. You know, the kind where you cook hotdogs over the fire and roast smores. That time may come, but until then, this goal is done!

58. Visit Judson college

As you saw in the last post, I made it out to Judson College last week. I had initially planned for this to be with Melissa, and I am sure I will make it back there with her sometime soon. Things have changed a lot there. Many things are still the same, but there were a few changes.This is Ben Calhoun and his daughter Eva. He lived a couple doors away from me our freshman year and we became good friends while in school. He set us up for dinner in the cafeteria. It was delicious!It was especially nice to be able to eat fresh fruit and multiple entrees. He is currently an admissions counselor and frontman for his band The Least of These. They are going to do great things!
This is a bad picture of Volkman Hall. This is where Melissa lived when we met. I lived here my last year on campus. Ben tells me it is now the home for the Chicago Bandits (Womens professional softball team) who play at Judson.

The Harm A. Weber Academic Center. I used to play intramural football where this building now sits. The grassland in front of it used to be a parking lot. It looks a whole lot different than when I was there.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any more pictures. While we were there for awhile, we were pretty tired and not up for too much of an elaborate tour. It was nice to be there and I look forward to my next visit.

73. Canoeing the Fox River

We made it! The trip is done. Just under 100 miles. Three nights under the moon, and a bunch of memories. We started out on the Fox River in Waterford, WI and made it all the way down to Aurora, IL. It was a good trip. It was nice to have time to hang out with the guys on the trip. We'll all remember it for one reason or another. Here are some pictures from the trip:



The trip started with a 4:00 am wake-up to be able to make it up to Wisconsin at a decent time in the morning. We were very fortunate to have my Dad drive us up. The trip couldn't have been done without him.


We were only on the highway for 5 minutes and one of the ropes broke. Not a good start! It took a few minutes to get things figured out, but it ended up fine.

The starting group. Rob, Matt, Mike and Me.Matt and Rob crossing the Wisconsin/Illinois state line.

Our master chef Mike at our first camping spot. It was a little trail just off the river. There were some creepy fishermen there, but they went away soon enough and we had no trouble with anyone in this spot.

Here we are going through the McHenry Dam. This was a fun experience. Not too eventful, all we did is wait for the lock operator to let us come in, grab a rope, then wait for the water level to lower so we could pass through. It wasn't a huge lock, we had both canoes in there. I'm glad there weren't any other boats with us inside there. There was plenty of space, but I wouldn't want to compete with another boat in there.Camp spot #2. We talked with one of the park rangers here. They said we couldn't camp there, but we had no other options. We found a spot that looked comfy and out of the way. We had no issues and had a nice area to camp for the evening. Mike made a nice cheezy tuna pasta dinner for us.


Matt and Rob paddling up Tyler Creek at Judson College in Elgin.


Here I am in the cafeteria at Judson with my friend Ben Calhoun. He treated us to dinner. It was nice to catch up with Ben to see what new and exciting were happening at Judson.
Camping spot #3. This spot was nice. It backed up to the creek and was out of the way from everything. It was nice to hear the water rushing and to hear the fish jumping in the creek. A natural sound machine!
Here we are in downtown St. Charles. This was an interesting portage. There was some sort of festival which brought in a lot of people. There were many people interested to see us carry the canoes and hoping that after re-entry to the water that we would tip. I'm happy to say we disappointed them on that one.Ryan, John and me at the Batavia portage. This one was really easy as we just walked it down the rocks.

Ryan and Matt at Red Oak Nature Center in North Aurora. Ryan is doing his best Forest Gump impression.

Overall it was a good trip, many miles, a bunch of portages, no injuries and many memories. Thanks guys for trekking along!

#37 Obama, From Promise to Power

I FINALLY finished up one of Obama's biographies! I had to renew it twice at the library. It took forever to finish. It's 387 pages, but really, I wasn't the most dedicated reader for this one. It was not because of the content, but rather, I had so many other things going on that I thought were far more important to do than read a book. I knew when I was writing my goals back in August that one of my biographies would be our next president. I'm glad I read it. The book was written by a journalist from The Chicago Tribune. He followed him from his first election the state senate races all the way to the big time. I got to learn about our leader and get a feel for what his life was like from when he was growing up all the way to his announcement as a presidential candidate. I liked learning about the family dynamics that he had growing up, and getting to know about his schooling. It also gave an idea for what things he did as a community organizer and things he did with his law degree before entering politics. I will be honest, it wasn't much, but he made a name for himself as he did it. He is the 'golden boy' of America. He can't do wrong. It talked about how he was treated that way well before running for president, and I have to say, it is still going on. I'm interested to see how long it lasts. We'll see.

It was a good book, but also lengthy. I'm glad I read it. I don't know what my next book is going to be. I'll keep you posted!

3 more to go

Three movies to go before I will be done with goal 81. See all of the Oscar winning best picture movies from my lifetime. I started the movie Chicago yesterday. I own the movie Silence of the Lambs(yes mom, I own it), and I have the movie The Last Emperor on hold at the library. I'm guessing at the pace I have been going, this one will be done sometime by the middle of next week. It's been awhile since I have checked one off, so I'm excited that I will be able to get it done.

By the way Million Dollar Baby was a pretty good movie. Just in case you cared.