Me in Place

Mr MIP didn’t stop there…he went ahead and conquered another 14er. This one is named Quandary Peak and the climb went well (i.e. he made it down alive).

Before we get back to what I’ve been up to, let’s focus our attention on he who shall be called Mr MIP. He has always been into mountain books, mountain maps, mountain movies, etc., etc.

But lately he got the actual climbing bug. And this summer he was able to spend a few days in Colorado climbing two 14ers, as they’re known. (14ers are mountains over 14,000 feet above sea level.).

Here are some pictures from the first climb – Mt Elbert. Mt Elbert is the second highest mountain on the continental US (Mt Whitney is the highest). Although it is the second highest, it is rated a Class 1 because the incline is gradual. All of the above information should be checked for facts before using it in your mountain report for school, because I’m too lazy to look it up and I’m asking Mr MIP for this info while he’s watching one of his favorite shows, Burn Notice.

Little pika on the trail…can you see him hiding?

Mr MIP took along the small buddy of our eldest…Even Swifter summitted!

Father-in-law put in a heater in their pool this summer. You might want to be nicer to me ‘cuz yeah, pretty much best pool ever now. And you don’t have to swim with 150,003 other people’s kids.

But there’s only so much pool awesomeness a girl can take before she must demand a Blog Adventure!

So we piled in the car and drove to a diner I’ve wanted to try.

Food was A-
Gross Floor under our table was F
So – overall, a C experience! If you’re ever in the Portage area, give it a try. Maybe they’ve cleaned the floor by now.

All in all, a perfect blog adventure.

And…two more checked off the 30 Things to Do in Chicagoland list.

The first was eating pizza at Gino’s East. I had never been – a strange anomaly in my life – but always wanted to go, especially after that one Amazing Race finale where the final task was to order and eat a pan pizza and then race to the finish line. Mr MIP and I ordered a small sausage, black olive and mushroom pan pizza and patiently waited the 45 minutes you always wait while waiting for the waiter to bring your waitful Chicago deep dish pizza.

Oh, yum. Crust is a little more like Lou Malnati’s and the sauce wasn’t quite as good as Giordano’s, in my opinion. But the quiet little booth with the graffiti left by hundreds of other diners, made the experience a great one. Definitely recommended!

Blurry, but I wanted you to see the graffiti covered walls:

And the other thing we accomplished from The List was to visit the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Free and beautiful – it’s definitely a place to check out. Not very large, but filled with beautiful plants and a fern room and orchid room (my fave) and tons of 1st graders, it’s located just north of the (also free!) Lincoln Park Zoo.

Oh, I love orchids. Don’t you?

On the 30 Things to Do in Chicagoland, it includes getting your picture taken by five different statues in located in Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park is the largest public park in Chicago and includes a free zoo, a free conservatory and is just plain beautiful!

There are lots of statues around the park, but only five were listed to get your picture by – so we ended up wandering a LOT around this park, looking for random author statues and asking the oldest zoo volunteers I could find where the statue of Eugene Field was. (The older ones know things. Don’t ever forget that.)

Here ya go -

Grant (did you know Grant and Lincoln are the only two who have a statue both in Lincoln and Grant Parks in Chicago? Makes sense, I guess.)

Shakespeare

Hans Christian Andersen

Eugene Field

Lincoln Himself

Standing by statues isn’t really my idea of fun, but it was fun to check off another thing on the list, and the walk itself around the park was beautiful. Take some time to visit Lincoln Park. You can take a long, nice walk. Visit the free zoo. Visit the free conservatory and have a picnic. Very nearby is the Chicago Historical Museum – which I haven’t visited, but have heard is great.

I also checked off two other things downtown:

One from the 30 Things to Do in Chicagoland created by Roger: Get your picture taken by the Monument to Standing Beast.

It’s a rather strange looking monument, but here’s to Standing Beast! I even made sure to walk around inside the monument to get the full effect. The full effect included obvious signs of someone relieving himself in the monument, which just goes to show you, there’s more than one standing beast.

We also stopped in for coffee at Intelligentsia – a shop I’ve passed many times and always wanted to stop, but for one reason or another, we never did. This time? This time we walked about 400 miles out of our way to get there. But it was worth it when I ordered my medium mocha and the angst-ridden barista looked at me out of his horn-rimmed glasses and said, “Sarah?” (Not my real name. But I don’t give my real name at places where they yell out your name. It, for some reason, creeps me out that random people would know my name.) “Sarah? Here’s your mocha.” And, with a final flourish, he handed me one of the best mochas I’ve had. (Besides mine. Which I’m sipping right now. Which is perfect. But doesn’t have that extra dollop of angst-y intellect, so I’ve got to give it to Intelligentsia on that one!) If you want to visit – there’s one east of the train station on Jackson. And there’s one about a block west of the exit from the South Shore Line on Randolph.

On your first weekend trip with people, you really try to be on your best behavior and so you do things like hold your pee for as long as you can so they don’t have to make a pit stop and you don’t eat a stinky snack like a Slim Jim beef stick in the car and you don’t want to make them feel they have to stay up til midnight watching baseball play-offs…oh, wait…you do do that one.  Anyway, I thought I did pretty well. I mean, look how well it all started out.

But then I saw this…

And, yeah, this little number…what AM I doing?

Ooohhh….*Wince*

I’m such a letdown to the family…

I kinda felt bad when I noticed those pictures. Couldn’t I have behaved a little more grown-up? Mature? Door County-ish?

Nah. You know what? I think I did just fine.

P.S. And, yes, as a matter of fact, I did make them make a pit stop.

We spent the first day touring the northern half of DC…and eating the northern half of DC.

Since it was 2/3′s first time, we showed them all the typical stuff you just have to do when there. Like:

Climb Cana Island Lighthouse:

Take pictures by the shore of Cana Island:

Discover Mrs 1/3  – otherwise known as JC – takes great scenic photos just like Mr MIP does! Yay!

Meanwhile, I can sit and relax while Mr MIP and his travel buddy take pretty photos of every bloomin’ leaf on the island.

“Hm…I really could use a travel buddy.” thought MIP.

On from the lighthouse, we stopped by Gallery Ten in Gills Rock to view our friend’s photos which had been displayed all summer and fall. Here’s me and Mr JC checking out Jim’s photos and looking for the deeper meaning in it all. (Secret: There is no deeper meaning.) If you want to check out Jim’s awesome photography, check his site at Points of Light.

And, of course, take a picture of this famous swishy road. (Swishy?)

By then, we were starving and had to…just HAD to get some food.

Mr MIP and I love to travel – but when we do, he always steals my camera and I have to wander aimlessly as he traipses all over looking for just the right shot. It’s another reason I like traveling with people – I have someone to talk to at scenic overlooks. But, hey, the payoff is I get these cool pictures back on my camera:

The kids and I returned from Pennsylvania and by Friday I was ready to escape again! This time it was Mr MIP and me and 2/3 of our friends. (We have three friends.) It was Mr MIP’s and 1/3 of our friend’s birthdays and it was also peak color season in Door County…what other excuse could you need to take a little road trip?

Here are some of my favorite things about Our Road Trip:

1. Nobody called me the following: Mom, Mommy, MOMMMMMM, Oh, Mom, Mommmmmy!, Mom-What’s-For-Dinner?  (If they had, it would have been a bit…um, awkward?)

2. We ate. We ate Walleye. Bagels. Lemon Chicken. Ribs. Cherry Pie. Cherry Scone. Chicken Parmesan. Eggs, bacon and hash browns. Chips Ahoy. Grilled Pizza. Fried Cheese Curds. Food. More food.

A cheese curd alien!

3. 2/3 of our friends didn’t know my third spiritual gift (after Teaching and Being Funnier Than My Brother) is making Road Trip Mix CD’s. Oh, yeah, baby.

4. Learning people’s timelines. Isn’t it cool that we all have a story?

5. Taking pictures of every bloomin’ thing under the sun. That’s what happens when you travel with me AND Mr MIP. You can’t ever relax. Cuz you never know.