Ahoy,
A and I went to Chicago to sign some paperwork. It was a very simple City Hall affair. In Illinois, you have to get a marriage license at least 24 hours before you can get married. We did not fill it out online before going, so I advise you to do it online first. Even though you have to show up anyway, they'll give you a hard time if you make them type in all your info.
We went on a Friday morning to City Hall. There aren't a ton of people in line for this on a Friday morning. It was fine. A very nice judge married us with a handful of family in the room. All in all, it was not very exciting - not a big deal. There were a lot of people dressed well for a basement office in the city, but it did the trick. It was just what we wanted. And it was a really hot day as we walked around getting pictures. Which was not what I wanted. We made our way from City Hall into Millennium Park to see the bean. It really was unseasonably warm and a slow crawl for our big group. Someone always needs water, or to pee, or coffee, etc. I was happy to push through and not have to go back out for pictures later.
We went onto dim sum in Chinatown before separating for an afternoon siesta. A's friend arrived from Paris and we went for a drink with him. My mom and dad cooked dinner at home that night. It was a lot of food. Some more friends arrived that night.
The next morning, we invited people in town to go on an architecture cruise on the river. I had been on a lot of these as field trips in grade school, but the architecture had changed. Architecture in Chicago is so dense and changes so quickly, it is easy to learn something new every time. We went on to get lunch at Billy Goat's where the owner came out to greet us. Our next task was to decorate our tent at the Bike the Drive festival. It was exciting to see it come together.
That evening was my mom's party. She tried to get me to wear a different outfit, but I, of course, objected. I objected to many things. There was a lot of food. And a lot of people I did not know. We tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Our bike ride the next morning had a call time of about 5am. The sun was up really early, so that helped. We rolled out of the house to the train to get to the start station at Buckingham Fountain. Divvy was so generous to be able to get us 30 bikes for the day. We all checked out bikes and rolled out later than I wanted. We were racing the sun because it would be really, really hot later. It was a gorgeous ride. So unique and scenic. It's the one time a year no cars are on Lake Shore Drive.
I arranged with my very generous friend to bring us food from Maxwell's, a Chicago classic. At the tent, everyone laid around melting in the heat. It was so fun to have all our friends out for a bike ride and picnic. Everyone was so concerned it would be cold, but no one anticipated it would be so severely opposite. It made us so happy to share the experience with friends.
A tried to convince some friends to go climb after. But everyone really needed a siesta. He was unsuccessful, but we went back the next morning for a climb at the most scenic indoor gym around. We went home to loaf around before going out to a bar for dinner and a drink. Our last bike ride of the day took us to Pilsen for some ice cream. We were like a bike gang ripping around the neighborhood. It was awesome.
We had 5 friends staying with us at the house, and it was really such a great experience. I really love that folks were willing to stay with us like a slumber party. It made it so fun to go home and just hang out together. It really was such a fantastic weekend with so many of our friends. We were so happy and touched that people came out for us. I hope folks had a fun experience and found something to love about Chicago.
soon,
jt
A and I went to Chicago to sign some paperwork. It was a very simple City Hall affair. In Illinois, you have to get a marriage license at least 24 hours before you can get married. We did not fill it out online before going, so I advise you to do it online first. Even though you have to show up anyway, they'll give you a hard time if you make them type in all your info.
We went on a Friday morning to City Hall. There aren't a ton of people in line for this on a Friday morning. It was fine. A very nice judge married us with a handful of family in the room. All in all, it was not very exciting - not a big deal. There were a lot of people dressed well for a basement office in the city, but it did the trick. It was just what we wanted. And it was a really hot day as we walked around getting pictures. Which was not what I wanted. We made our way from City Hall into Millennium Park to see the bean. It really was unseasonably warm and a slow crawl for our big group. Someone always needs water, or to pee, or coffee, etc. I was happy to push through and not have to go back out for pictures later.
We went onto dim sum in Chinatown before separating for an afternoon siesta. A's friend arrived from Paris and we went for a drink with him. My mom and dad cooked dinner at home that night. It was a lot of food. Some more friends arrived that night.
The next morning, we invited people in town to go on an architecture cruise on the river. I had been on a lot of these as field trips in grade school, but the architecture had changed. Architecture in Chicago is so dense and changes so quickly, it is easy to learn something new every time. We went on to get lunch at Billy Goat's where the owner came out to greet us. Our next task was to decorate our tent at the Bike the Drive festival. It was exciting to see it come together.
That evening was my mom's party. She tried to get me to wear a different outfit, but I, of course, objected. I objected to many things. There was a lot of food. And a lot of people I did not know. We tried to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Our bike ride the next morning had a call time of about 5am. The sun was up really early, so that helped. We rolled out of the house to the train to get to the start station at Buckingham Fountain. Divvy was so generous to be able to get us 30 bikes for the day. We all checked out bikes and rolled out later than I wanted. We were racing the sun because it would be really, really hot later. It was a gorgeous ride. So unique and scenic. It's the one time a year no cars are on Lake Shore Drive.
I arranged with my very generous friend to bring us food from Maxwell's, a Chicago classic. At the tent, everyone laid around melting in the heat. It was so fun to have all our friends out for a bike ride and picnic. Everyone was so concerned it would be cold, but no one anticipated it would be so severely opposite. It made us so happy to share the experience with friends.
A tried to convince some friends to go climb after. But everyone really needed a siesta. He was unsuccessful, but we went back the next morning for a climb at the most scenic indoor gym around. We went home to loaf around before going out to a bar for dinner and a drink. Our last bike ride of the day took us to Pilsen for some ice cream. We were like a bike gang ripping around the neighborhood. It was awesome.
We had 5 friends staying with us at the house, and it was really such a great experience. I really love that folks were willing to stay with us like a slumber party. It made it so fun to go home and just hang out together. It really was such a fantastic weekend with so many of our friends. We were so happy and touched that people came out for us. I hope folks had a fun experience and found something to love about Chicago.
soon,
jt
