travels

My Kind of Town

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Yesterday I returned from a 4-night business/conference trip to Chicago – one of my favorite cities. On the way there I figured out that it has been about 2 ½ years since my last visit, a tragedy on all accounts. Only a 4 hour drive from Toledo, we used to visit quite often. Being “married with child(ren)” makes it hard for a quick trip to the windy city but this trip showed me that we all need to go back soon. I saw it for the first time through a mother’s eyes and saw how walkable the city is, how safe most of the streets feel and how kid-friendly it can be.

But I was on my own for this trip (with two colleagues whom I consider good friends and a host of others from my department) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The weather was incredible – a bit of Indian summer with 80-degree days featuring crisp blue skies. We stayed at the Sheraton, which although showing a bit of wear around the edges, had a great location and my room faced Navy Pier. The first night after a nice long walk down the Lakefront Trail from Ohio Street Beach to East Chestnut and back down Michigan Avenue we indulged in a movie, Dark Knight. Since my coworker is male and both Chicago baseball teams were playing we ended up at ESPN Zone for dinner. Not much to talk about there, but if you need a testosterone kick this is the place to go.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 6:30 AM the next morning and was unable to fall back asleep.  Luckily I had Mark put 30 Day Shred on my iPod so I got that hooked up to the TV and got to work (yes, I packed a set of 5 lb. dumbbells in my suitcase).  Level 1 rocked and I felt so good afterwords I decided to hit the lake trail again for a few miles.  By the time I checked out the cafe at Fox & Obel for a chai my muscles were screaming at me.  That Jillian ain’t no joke!

That afternoon included some power-shopping and lots of walking with my boss who was in search of a formal for an upcoming event. We took to the State Street area and hit Loehmann’s, Nordstrom Rack, Filene’s Basement, TJ Maxx and finally Macy’s (in the beautiful Field’s building) where we found the perfect dress. We then meet some others for drinks and a light bite at Su Casa – good drinks, crappy food. After heading back to the hotel for a quick change we ended up with everyone from my office – 12 people in all – at the Terrace at Conrad. The drinks were extremely pricy but the vibe was great and a vendor who is also a friend generously picked up the tab. This is a rooftop bar and had some pretty views and comfortable seating. Several people ordered from the tapas menu, but I wasn’t hungry. It’s a cute place if you’re looking for a place on Michigan to get away from the crowds.

On Friday afternoon we headed to Giordano’s on North Rush to satisfy a deep-dish pizza craving at lunch. Good food and the lunch special “personal dish” was cheap and relatively fast since they were pre-made. I guess it would be a good spot if you’re in the mood for deep dish but I really don’t have much to compare to.  After a session or two I managed to eek out another round of 30 Day Shred before I headed out to Navy Pier with a colleague. We ended up at Riva, sipping drafts, soaking up the sun and watching dozens of sailboats and hundreds of people go by.  I had been there years ago with my Uncle and it was a nice place to return to.  You can’t ask for a better view and their hummus was delicious.

That night I went up to Andersonville to have dinner with a college friend, Tom. It was great to leave the downtown area for the evening and, of course, to catch up. It’s been way too long since I’ve seen him and we had a fantastic time gabbing away. As he showed me around the neighborhood we passed Hopleaf, which Danielle had recommended as one of her favorites, so we stopped in. Danielle specifically said “You MUST go and get the mussels” and she was right – they were perfect! Paired with a Bell’s Amber and I was very, very happy. After dinner we strolled up the street to another bar for cocktails so we could continue our conversation. It was a perfect, relaxed time and I’m so happy to have seen Tom. I can’t wait this long for our next visit.

Saturday was the last day of the conference and after a quick jaunt the the West Egg for a very hearty and delicious breakfast we wrapped up our “official” reason for being there.  After that I strolled over to Uncle Julio’s to meet an old neighbor to catch up over some standard Mexican fare.  Their shrimp quesadilla was very good and the sopaipillas were better.  I made my way the 3 miles back to the hotel, patting myself for not getting lost once on all my walking adventures, and caught some of the college football on TV with a friend. After an excruciating session with Jillian I dragged my travel partners to my favorite Chicago eats: Shaw’s Crab House.  We were seated in the bar right away and had a couple of good, strong fruity drinks.  But what I had been looking forward to all week was the lobster roll and it did not disappoint.  I’ve never been to New England for the real deal but this thing has to be close – a toasty, buttered roll loaded with huge chunks of sweet lobster lightly dressed in a mayo dressing.  It’s about as close to a religious experience as you can have in a restaurant.  Everyone was happy, even the guy who “doesn’t eat things that come out of the water”.  Even though I was very full, I had to take another of Foodmomiac’s suggestions and get the raspberry pie.  I DID share mine but have to say that it’s everything Danielle said and more.  Even if you don’t like seafood, if you are in Chicago go to Shaw’s for the pie.  

Sunday morning I was up at 6:30 AM again (damn it!  why can’t my body let me sleep in when I have no responsibilities to tend to?) so I dragged out the weights and tacked the Shred again.   That’s right – I did it every day I was there.  If that’s not a testament to it being a workout you can fit into any schedule I don’t know what is.  By the time I was done the sun was rising so I decided to head south on the lakefront trail and took my football-fan friend with me.  We walked down past the harbors and parks so he could see Solider Field – a round trip trek of almost 6 miles.  It was an okay day but cloudy with a stiff breeze blowing off the lake; a signal that it was time to head home.

Since I ate my way through the city I was a bit nervous about the damage I had done.  I was pleased to find out when I got home that not only did I not do any damage, but I lost weight on my trip.  I guess walking several miles a day along with getting your ass kicked daily by Jillian is the way to survive a trip to your favorite city when you have an expense account and vendors picking up the tabs.  I highly recommend it.

*I also highly recommend getting dining suggestions from Foodmomiac if headed to Chicago.  Then do exactly what she says, she won’t disappoint!  I was bummed I didn’t see her while I was there, ironically she was in Ohio.

Updates and Such

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There is so much going on right now that I feel like we are zipping through weeks at a time.  Our vacation seems to be the carrot at the end of the stick right now.  We will be spending a week in Hilton Head in late October; we’ve never been down there in the fall and we wanted to take advantage of having no school schedules to check out a favorite destination in a new season.   We’ll also be visiting a college friend on the way home.

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This weekend is the bash to celebrate M’s 2nd birthday.  I can’t believe she will be 2 next week and can’t believe all that’s happened since we celebrated her 1st: a new house, two new daycares and a host of other transitions.  We’ll have about 15 people (including 5 kids) over on Saturday and I’m trying to get ready.  I know I will still be a psycho-Martha-Stewart-drone all morning before the party.  It’s one of the few times I’m a typical Virgo – I love party planning but I get crazy stressed about all the tiny details.  This year I’m trying to be very Zen.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

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I’ve been doing Weight Watchers @ Work for about 4 weeks and it’s going very well.  My employer is paying for it as part of our wellness initiative.  I’ve lost about 15 pounds (and have more then several left to lose) but am feeling like the last several days I’ve been stuck in a state of inertia.  I need to start working out on a more regular basis again.  So many people have praised the 30 Day Shred that I have it next on our Netflix queue.  I need a few options other than walking to get me back to a regular schedule. 

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I’m so excited about this.  I hope it pans out because I think it would be amazing!

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M was about 70% potty-trained via the lazy-parent method at her old daycare (this method is where you let the daycare staff do the training and just follow their lead when at home. I highly recommend it).  We have never really tried to train her but she had been interested in sitting on the potty for several months and in the last month had actually started using it with regularity.  With the switch to the new daycare/preschool she isn’t using the potty at all.  I need to talk to them about working with her some more now she is settled in.  She’s there for 40 hours a week and if they don’t work with her she’ll never get it.  I don’t feel she needs to be out of diapers yet, but I also don’t want to loose all the momentum and interest she had gained before the switch. 

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I go to Chicago for 5 days next week, leaving the day after M’s actual birthday.  I’m looking forward to it but also hate to be gone that long for work.  It’s a long time to be gone from my family and I feel guilty for leaving Mark as a single parent for that long.  The guilt is all mine, he is a wonderful and more than capable parent who has not said one word about going it alone for that long, but I still feel bad.  Plus, although we get reimbursed, the trip is a pretty big outlay of cash and that’s something we don’t have much of right now (2 more payments and a major debt is cleared and I cannot wait).

In the Beginning

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I attended the 3-Day Get Started Meeting tonight and officially registered as a walker. I’d love to say the meeting left me so inspired that I felt like this was the best undertaking of my life, but meh. Don’t get me wrong. I am very much excited about this walk and the entire journey I will be taking to get there. It’s just meetings like that are just not my bag. I’m much more of an introvert than what these types of things cater to, so I used my daughter as an excuse to leave early. The one thing that brought tears to my eyes was a young man – maybe 20 years old – who is the head of the security crew. As he was telling everyone his role and why he is involved (his mother was diagnosed 7 years ago) he said “there are 37 women in this room right now. Five of you will be diagnosed with breast cancer in your lifetime. I do this for each of you”. It was a very touching and well-stated sentiment from such a young man and it left me with chills up my back.

Good enough for me.

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This past weekend my husband, Mark, and I finally had our first overnight get-away since M was born nearly 18 months ago. Can we pause a second to repeat that? 18 months without a single night away from our often wakeful child. Say what you will about sexy retreats, but honestly I was most looking forward to blissful sleep and staying in bed past 7 AM. My sister volunteered to take M and we booked a room at a small “boutique” hotel in Columbus called The Lofts. Our package included in-room massages, room service, etc. Everything was set for a day of relaxing and, most importantly, veging out.

We were told at check in that the room we specifically reserved because it had a soaking bathtub had physical damage from the previous guest and was unusable. Instead they gave us suite and a discounted rate. Fine with me as this was an expensive overnight – a bit of saved money is good. The room they gave us was next to the damaged room and upon entering we were impressed. It was a large, two-room suite with a nice big bathroom. However, upon further inspection we found the bill from the previous guest laying under the table, 2 discarded beer bottle caps on the sofa and toothpaste splatter on the bathroom walls. Oh well, we figured the room seemed pretty clean otherwise and we were too excited at the prospect of doing nothing to want to go through the hassle of changing rooms. The stay started out fine. We had our massages, and headed out to dinner. Upon returning we decided to watch a movie since it has been ages since we’ve seen a recently released flick. Too bad the movie service didn’t work on our TV. We called down and they tried to remotely fix the problem with no luck. They sent someone to the room to do the repair but still couldn’t get it to work.

By this time it’s nearly 11 PM and we decided to fill out our breakfast order for room service before turning in and when I grabbed the pen from the desk it was covered in something sticky that smelled like tobacco. I had to wash my hands 6 times to get the smell off! It was so disgusting I think I vomited in my mouth a little. We finally go to sleep content in the fact that there would be at least a solid 8-hours ahead of us. Not so fast. I woke up at 1:00 to the sounds of voices in the hall which lasted about 10 minutes. Then, after a few minutes of silence I we can hear a TV. It’s not muffled and actually sounds like the TV in our room is on with no picture. After looking like a fool, trying to figure what is wrong with our TV we discover the noise is coming from the room next door – the room that is supposed to be unusable! The walls are so thin we can hear everything. I call the front desk and they obviously call the guy in the room next door as we can hear every word he says. Then he turns his TV up!I decide to go downstairs in person and had to wait 5-7 minutes before someone came out of the office behind the desk. I explain my problem and he said there is nothing he can do. I am livid at this point so I ask to check out (remember that it’s about 1:30 AM at this time). I tell him I will pay for the package items that we used but won’t pay for the room. He tells me he can’t access the billing system so there is nothing he can do, our card has already been charged.

Fine – I get the name and number of the GM while Mark calls another hotel. The clerk prints my bill which apparently he CAN do and it includes a bogus $70 food/beverage charge which I dispute and ask him to produce a signature for the charge. He pulls out the stack of food recipets and says “There are too many here to through right now. I’ll do it tomorrow”. At this point I want to crawl over the desk and poke his eyes out, but am also so tired I just want to find a quiet bed. I write “DISPUTED” in large letters on the food/beverage bill and check out at 2:00 AM. We make our way over to the Northwest Columbus Marriott where the very nice night manager is expecting us. He knows our story from Mark’s phone call and set us up in a great room that is isolated from other guests. I don’t think there was anyone within 5 rooms of ours. He also kindly gave us a very late check out at no extra charge. We did enjoy our 11 hours at the Marriott, but were exhausted the entire day.

On the way to the Marriott, I used Mark’s iPhone to e-mail the GM at the first hotel about our problems and most likely used too many curse words in the message. He did call back on Sunday and after a lengthly conversation he refund our entire bill. He also offered a discount off our next stay. Yea right.

I’m still tired from the weekend. I think our next get-away may not be for another 18 months.