Last Friday the 9th I skipped all my classes...ok I actually slept through my first two and went down to Chicago to celebrate Shelly's and my b-day. I caught the Van Galder at 11:30 and got down to Chicago about 3:15. I got on the train to Evanston at 3:30 and then went to Whole Foods for a little bit of a snack before Shelly and my adventure to The Signature Room at the 95th. I met up with Shelly at about 5:30 and we relaxed a little before getting ready for the dinner. The Signature Room is a very dressy and kinda expensive restaurant, but I totally recommend it. If you like being a high roller like me then the money is well worth it.
The dinner started out with a glass of masi white wine from Veneto, Italy for Shelly and an A to Z rose wine from Oregon for me. The Appetizer came, which was a delicious marinated shrimp with almonds. Oh my god was that awesome. Shelly had the special that night: lobster, shrimp and scallop pasta, while I opted for the seared duck breast. Both were full of flavor and it was pretty much sadness when it was all gone. For dessert I wanted to surprise Shelly for her birthday. I made arrangements for a birthday dessert. The waiter came over gave us some silverware for dessert and as he walked away he gave me a wink. Shelly was a little confused "how did he know we I wanted dessert?" Then he walked out with a slice of their signature white and dark chocolate mousse cake with a candle on top and "Happy Birthday Shelly" written on the plate. She was completely shocked! The dinner was amazing and both of us were happy with the whole experience. The view was beautiful as well. If you get the chance, I say you should try it out! I just wish I remembered to bring my camera that night to show you a little of the experience...and for myself of course. I'll just have to remember it.
On Saturday Gehling drove down and we went for sushi. After that Shelly and I surprised Gehling by bringing him to the Shedd Aquarium.
Here's proof....
It was a pretty good time. The Komodo Dragon was the main attraction and was pretty sweet. Here's a couple pics of the time spent there....
Sweet Ass jellyfish....
Most awesome Chameleon I've ever seen....
Look! A chupacabra! Or wait maybe its a Komodo Dragon...you know what...chupacabra sounds cooler, so its a chupacabra....
Dragonhorses/Seahorses....
This thing just creeped the hell out of me....
It was pretty sweet and was lots of fun. I haven't been there since about junior high I think, maybe even longer. So it was nice experiencing it again!
I'm getting a bit tired and the cougar story is pretty long...so I think I'll keep you in suspense and tell you that story tomorrow. It needs its own blog entry anyways...Don't worry, you'll like! Especially the pics!
Before Gehling and I had the leave Shelly on Sunday we ran into Seth Meyer at ICB (the coffee place he talks about all the fricken time. jk Seth). It was nice to see him before I left. I think he did like a 20 hr ride or something that morning...that dude is so hardcore! Good thing Shelly noticed the bikes outside of ICB or we would have totally missed him.
To end this entry...I turned 23 today. I definitely feel old, yet young. I went on a ride today and all of a sudden started thinking about how I'm 23 fricken years old. Its crazy. For my b-day a couple of us went to the Great Dane for dinner, darts and drinks. I was drunk after one crop circle wheat beer and a white russian....I am such a cheap date. Darts was a blast...I've been playing that with Geo and Gehling so much lately. I'm only good when I'm a little tipsy. I think I got so tipsy so fast because I went on a 2.5 hr bike ride and then went to the SERF and lifted for about 1.5 hrs and didn't have too much to eat before those drinks. Awesome! It was a pretty good and relaxing day overall, which was really nice, but now for the rest of the week I'll be doing homework like crazy. Semester is almost over though. And I register for classes tomorrow afternoon! That's always fun for me for some odd reason....
Alright, well I'll leave you with a pretty sweet pic of Chicago....
OOOOHHHHH....AAAAHHHHHH
I think I may try and see if Dallas wants to live in Chicago next summer seeing that we're both on teams out of Chicago so we would be able to ride with them and travel a little easier with them as well. It also gives us a way to experience some new things other than Madtown. We'll see...
Ciao ciao....
Waitey
