Museum Days

This past weekend I visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago with my friend Katie. It's been forever since I visited any kind of museum, and I was looking forward to this personal favorite of mine. All through January, many of Chicago's museums are celebrating Free Museum Days, so it was the best time to go!

A big part of the museum was just as I remember it. It's a shame it isn't open longer on the weekends. Since we only had around four hours to see it all, we probably barely made a dent in it. Still, it was neat to see the many different exhibits on display. My personal favorite was the Henry Crown Space Center, of course.

The day started out with snow. Lots of it. But I'll have to agree with Katie that it was still a beautiful sight to see. It pretty much snowed all.day.long. The city ended up with almost a foot of snow. Chilly bus stops, fogged up city buses, snow laden sidewalks, wet socks, unending falling snow, and one frozen foot later (thank you, puddle), we made it back in one piece! We ended the day having a spectacular dinner at Charlie's Ale House on Navy Pier.

After dinner we hopped on the bus back to Union Station, only to find the bus driver was not around! How nutty is that? The bus driver eventually shows up and tells us about the craving he's had all day about the popcorn he's been missing out on during his route. You see, apparently Garrets of Chicago is THE place to get your gourmet popcorn- yes- I said gourmet.

So what does he do? On the way to the station, he stops his bus in front of the Garrets store and proceeds to go inside to buy his bag of popcorn! I don't think either of us expected he'd actually STOP the bus and go inside. He did, however, give us a sample of said popcorn, and it was rather tasty. No wonder he was craving it. The whole situation was really awkward, but hilarious at the same time.

See more photos of the trip on my Flickr page here.

Next time I'll have a progress report on my running. It's been frustrating to say the least, but what can I do? It's winter after all.

First post of 2009

Well, I'm enjoying my last few moments of freedom before returning to work on Monday after a nice, long break during the holidays. I'm looking forward to what's in store for me this year, and hopefully I'll make the best of it.

I wound up the weekend joining a friend at a birthday party for a friend of hers. It was a nice wrap up to long weekend away from the office. I played bocce for the first time. I thought the game was more complicated than it turned out to be having never played before. It's kind of a mashup of bowling, pool, and marbles. Definitely a low impact sport which was good for my sore legs!

Speaking of sore legs, I'm hoping to get some normalcy back into my running routine. The holidays sort of threw the schedule out of whack. The only sure thing have been my long runs on Saturdays, and a scattering of strength training in between. Not to mention I DO have a half marathon and full marathon to train for now! I better get to it.

Well, I hope everyone survived the holidays and are off to a good start in 2009.

I'm ready for it.

Goodbye 2008

Well, I'm writing this about five hours before we say goodbye to 2008 and ring in the new year. I went for my last run of the year this morning- a glorious easy run of five miles at Independence Grove. It was bone chilling cold, but the scenery was breathtaking. I turned off my iPod for a few minutes during my run just to enjoy the silence.

Had to do a little dancing around this kind of stuff:



This past year treated me really well. I can't complain. I'm happy and healthy, which are two things that matter most.

Last January I made one, and only one, resolution for 2008- to run and finish the Chicago Marathon, which I did. Everything else revolved around that goal- from eating well, having a positive outlook in life, meeting new people, and getting healthy- all of which I accomplished. For this, I am happy.

I'm very much looking forward to 2009. I don't know what to expect, which I guess adds to the mystery of it all. I'd like to travel more- see places I've never seen before. Perhaps run at Grand Canyon National Park, see the aurora in Alaska, or join a tornado chasing tour! Either way, I'm super excited and can't wait to see what's in store.

Oh, and one last thing: I've decided to run marathon #1 for '09 in St. Louis, Mo. on April 19. This will be a nice compliment to the Chicago Marathon I plan on running again in October. That's two full marathons for 2009 (for now)! Bring it on.

So this is my last post for 2008. Happy New Year to all and I wish you all the best in 2009.

See you all on the flip side!