Dave, Part Deux

Saturday, September 18th.

Okay, I just finished our blog from yesterday. Now, to get today down and I’ll be all caught up!

It is now 3:30 in the morning, so try to hang in there with me. I hope this all comes across in English, but I make no promises.

We crawled out of bed this morning for just enough time to confirm that our feet were bruised on the bottoms. Yesterday took a toll on us and we weren’t ready to face the day just yet. Thankfully we didn’t have any morning plans, and so we laid in bed and watched the rain pour down and the bolts of lightning streak across the sky. Once we were ready to emerge for the day the rain had let up and we headed north again, this time to a little diner a few blocks away. I was craving eggs benedict, and this place delivered.

After breakfast we hopped on the El train to head to the south area and check out the college, a frank lloyd wirght house and maybe some other things. BUT a combination of motionsickness and some rough looking people/projects that our train was going through had us turning back before we made it all the way south. I didn’t realize the EL train would move so much more than the Subway, but that thing rocked back and forth and made me one miserable girl in no time. So, we hopped on the train going the opposite direction and headed into downtown. We went to Pfitzer park and checked out the giant eyeball. Very cool. Kind of creepy, but cool none the less. Then we hit up a dunkin’ donuts, a drug store for motionsickness pills and a gas station for gingerale. I figured ONE of those three things had to cure me!

We spent the afternoon checking out Downtown, (OMG, I’ve never seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and it just came on the TV…and it is in Chicago! I’m looking at exactly where we were today! So cool!!!), we did some shopping and then headed back to the house to rest up before Dave part Deux.

Now, we didn’t have the up close and personal general admission tickets for this show…instead we were in section 216, otherwise known as BFE. Thankfully we had insurance, and weaseled our way back into the gen admission section! We weren’t as close as the previous night, but we also got there right at showtime and were just happy to be in gen. admission at all!

Jason was good, again. Then it was time for Dave. My fingers were crossed. PLEEEEEEEEASE DAVE, we traveled 2k miles, show us what you’ve got!!! He came out, and started the show on a strong note, good song, good energy…and then…it just kept getting BETTER! The show tonight, AMAZING! Easily the best we’ve ever seen. He played so many great songs and was 100% into it. We’ve seen him on his last night on tour before and his whole demeanor changes. It is kind of like the last day of school…before you graduate. So happy to be done, but so hard to say goodbye. Dave sang, and danced, and played his guitars, and sang some more. The really cool thing about this show, and about being in the gen admission section (this show sold out in less than 5 minutes) was that we were surrounded by his fans. His real, honest to goodness, fans. At one point he played the very beginning of a song, and before he could start singing, the audience belted out the lyrics and sang the ENTIRE song to Dave as he played. It was beyond cool!!! His face was priceless, he was just in awe. It was PHENOMENAL!!! The whole show was excellent and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat!

After Dave said goodbye and the lights came on a guy approached us asking if we’d e-mail him some of the pictures I had been taking. We said of course and got his info. He thanked us profusely, we talked about Dave, how good the show was, and other small talk and then he said “you guys wanna grab a beer or something with us?”. US was him, his wife, and another couple they were with. We said “sure” (we knew we had nowhere to go after the previous night of people-gridlock). So, we followed them to a reggae bar down the street. We got in, no cover charge (I think it was their “white guy discount” cause we were the only white people in there!! Hahaha) and they bought the first round. We listened to the music, danced, drank and moved on down the road. Next we ducked into an Irish pub and scored a sweet corner spot, and then a table with room for everyone. It was perfect. John and Courtney are from New Jersey and Gretchen and Dave are from Pennsylvenia (I think, I’m really sleepy). We also met up with Josh, a kid they met the previous night who had driven up from Memphis for the shows. The seven of us sat, drank, talked and had a BLAST. We drank until the bar closed…which is 3am out here. What a fun group of people!! I love when nights work out like that, nothing you could have expected or planned on, but awesome none the less!! We exchanged info, and all promised to keep in touch.

Now, we’re finally home, exhausted, sore, tired and totally happy. Kevin is passed out and I’m ready to join him!

I can’t help but wonder where Dave is this evening and if he’s thinking of me too. 😉

Hello Boys!

Friday, September 17th

I’m writing this on September 18th, well, 19th technically. It is 3am and I’m ready for bed, but I’ve sadly fallen behind on my blogging, so I’m going to try to play catch up right now!

On Friday we decided to lay pretty low because we were going to have a long night on our feet at our concert. We left the house just before one and walked north to Oz Park which is created in honor of the creator of Wiz. of Oz, or something like that. Cute little neighborhood park with sculptures of Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow and Tin Man. We went through Oz park and then over to Lincoln park. Lincoln park is big, and has a free zoo smack dab in the middle. We perused the zoo, saw some cool critters, giant spiders, giraffes, meerkats, rhinos, bears, seals, and other things here and there. It was really neat to see all of these exhibits just in the middle of the park, just stroll through, say hi to a polar bear, and be on your way!

There is also a large flower conservatory that we walked through before deciding it was time for lunch. Lucky for us, America’s Dog was just down the street. We hit up our new favorite spot for 2 dogs, a Chicago dog and a Regular dog plus pickle (Kevin was living on the edge!) and a heap of curly fries. YUMMY!

After our dogs we walked back down to the house, changed our clothes, and headed out to Wrigleyville. We’re about 3 miles south of Wrigley Field and decided to hop on the Subway to get to the park. We weren’t the only ones with this idea! The two billion Dave fans all seemed to be on the subway as well as all of the commuters just trying to get home from work (yes, we headed out at 5, later than we had hoped). We couldn’t squeeze on the first train, but luckily forced our way onto the second.

Once at Wrigleyville we joined the sea of people and floated along Addison Street to the front of the stadium. There is a web cam there, so we stopped to wave at Angela and Jordan who were waiting on their computer at home to see us. Technology is so cool!

You don’t really realize how big a ballpark is until you’re standing in center field! We joined the other loyal fans down in the general admission pit and were fairly close considering what a late start we had gotten. I’d say we were 60 or 70 feet from Dave. Would I have liked to be closer? Of course. Heck…even if I were sitting on the stage with him…I’d STILL want to be closer. But as far as concerts go, I was closer than I had ever been before!

Jason came out first. He cracks me up. Such a free spirit. Bare feet, tea and cantaloupe sitting on stage waiting for him. And, holy crap, can that boy sing! He was charming, entertaining, sweet, talented, and I loved seeing him!! After about 45 minutes he cleared the way for Dave. The crew came in and made the appropriate changes. 45 minutes after Jason left, Dave began. Oh happy day!

Now, I hate to be a Debbie Downer, and even though I’d be happy listening to Dave sing the ABC’s to me, I have to say that the show, Dave’s show, wasn’t all I had hoped and prayed for. It was, lackluster. He seemed tired, drunk, hungover…maybe all of those things combined?! I mean, the crew is talented, and Dave is, well, DAVE. But both Kevin and I left the show that night feeling like something was just missing. Oh well. What could we do? Just hope for better stuff tomorrow!

After the concert THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of drunk Dave fans poured out into the streets of Wrigleyville. We joined them, as we had no other choice, and walked down the street in the direction of our house. We walked until our feet could carry us no furthur, and then we ducked into a Mexican restaurant and sat on the patio. Long story short our waiter was drunk, forgot our order numerous times, brought me a salad and then asked “what, you want dressing with that?” but eventually we got our food, it was good, our feet were rested, and we were ready to finish the journey home. Luckily we stumbled upon a taxi dumping drunk people off somewhere, and so we hopped in and were home in no time at all. Exhausted, sore, and wondering how we were going to do it all again in 20 hours we called it a night.

“If You Can’t, You Must!”

Thursday, September 16th

We awoke this morning to a cloudy sky that soon opened up and dumped rain on the city. Thankfully we were still in bed when this happened and not walking the streets yet. We finally crawled out of bed at 9:30 and decided to take the subway down to the John Hancock center (the 3rd tallest building in Chicago) which is at the beginning of the Magnificent Mile (one mile of supreme shopping and sightseeing).

Once out the door the rain had subsided and it was just below 70* with blue sky peeking through the clouds. The subway dumped us out just a few blocks from John Hancock and the moment I got a glimpse of the building my palms started to sweat. Kevin knew he was going to head to the top, and I had considered it yesterday, when I had viewed the building from 2 or so miles away, but suddenly it looked a lot bigger than I had realized!

We headed down to the lobby (we passed a church that looked like a mini-Notre Dame on the way along with other amazing bulidings, Chicago is an architects dream!!) of the Hancock Observatory and it was virtually empty! No line, just buy your tickets and head on up. Crap. That meant I had to make a decision then and there. After about 5 minutes of going back and forth, arguing with myself, shaking, etc, I decided I could NOT do it. I was too afraid and felt sick. So Kevin bought a ticket, grabbed the camera and headed up on his own. 😦

I stood in the lobby feeling beyond disappointed in myself. It was like the London Eye and the Eiffel Tower all over again. Epic FAIL! I tried to reason with myself, “it is safe, it is fine, etc…” as did the lady at the ticket counter “you’ll be fine, the elevator is fast, the space is wide open…”. Then, as I stood there I remembered my new favorite quote “If you can’t, you MUST”. It took me about 10 minutes of repeating the quote to myself…but eventually I ran up to the ticket counter, threw down my credit card and said “hurry up, before I change my mind!!!”. Kevin had texted me from the top telling me how amazing it was and offering to come back down to get me. I told him to stay put, and that I didn’t want him to do that.

So, there I was, all alone, big girl panties in hand, heading up to the 94th floor allllll by myself. I got in line, and waited for the elevator. The attendant asked me how I was doing, I said “crappy, I really don’t want to do this!!!” and he laughed at me. I felt like I was getting on Tower of Terror all over again! He reminded me that the elevator is the fastest in the nation and that I’d be at the 94th floor in only 40 seconds! I’m not sure that helped his case.

Thankfully three other people got in line so I wouldn’t be making the journey alone. Turns out the couple was from San Diego, were super nice, and willing to talk to me the entire 40 seconds to keep my mind off of the trip. The attendant hadn’t lied. The elevator was FAST. My ears popped half way up, then again, then again. We were moving! When we got to the top the doors opened and all I could do was focus on looking for Kevin. I forced myself to NOT look out the windows, and I just scanned the room. It is a giant “doughnut” room, 360* views, and I couldn’t find him ANYWHERE. So I decided to walk around the building. NOTHING! I freaked out. Called his cell. No service. WTF?! Was he in the lobby!?! I headed back to the elevator and spotted him around the corner. RELIEF! He was staring out the window and I ran up and grabbed his back, he turned around and I SWEAR to you I haven’t seen him look at me like that since the day I walked down that hot, hot aisle in Vegas. Heck, he may have been even MORE impressed that I showed up on THIS day!!! I did it. And you know what, it was beyond amazing up there. The view of Chicago is unlike any other. We spent at least 45 minutes working our way around the observatory, spending a lot of time looking in each direction. It was spectacular.

We headed back down to earth, hungry and ready to shop. We perused the Mag Mile for a big, hit H&M, Forever 21, Columbia, and some others and then were starving and had to eat. We stumbled upon this great place called “Soupbox”. A huge variety of fresh soup and salad, both for $11! We walked in and the place smelled fabulous. We had a few samples, Red Lentil and Veggie Soup, Beef Stew, Chicken Tortilla, Potato and White Cheddar….how does one decide?! Well, then we tried the clam chowder, WINNER! Two bread bowls of soup and side salads please!

After lunch we finished walking the Mag Mile. It was fun, but not necessarily Mag. We decided that it would have been more Mag had our budget allowed us to shop to our hearts content, but we had bigger and better things to spend our money on (food, duh) so we left the Mile empty handed and headed to Downtown.

We crossed Michigan St. Bridge and walked along the river down Wacker Drive. I can’t tell you how beautiful this city is. I had pictured it as crowded, dirty and full of brash people, but none of this is true! The city is practically spotless, beautiful and everyone we have encountered is beyond friendly. I ❤ Chicago!

We cruised through downtown, shopped some more, checked out historic buildings like the Macy’s on State Street, The Chicago Theater, got a closer view of the Sear’s Tower, and made our way to the Art Institute of Chicago. On our way to the A.I. we passed “American Dogs”. I just happened to have a groupon for that spot, free dog, fries and a drink! It had been a few hours since lunch, so eating again sounded like a plan! It was about 5pm and these dogs hit the spot! I had the Chicago (veggie) dog which had Mustard, Onions, Relish, Pickles, Tomatoes, and Sport Peppers. DELICIOUS. Best hot dog ever. Kevin had the regular dog with cheese, ketchup and relish. C’mon K, live a little!!! Haha.

We ate our dogs and headed to the A.I. We were across the street from it when the mob of people came into view (this was free night!!). The line stretched down the stairs, around the corner and half way down the city block. CRAP. We went back and forth, should we just come back and pay tomorrow? No! We sucked it up and got in line with the masses. After about 5 minutes an employee walked by and said “there is no waiting on the other side of the street”. Sweet! We headed to the other side and practically walked right in.

I should let Kevin tell you about the A.I. I mean, I like art, think it is cool to see the famous pieces, etc…but that boy loves him some oil on canvas. We got to see lots of famous pieces and artists. Waterlillies, Haystacks, American Gothic, VanGough, Monet, Renoir, Rothko, Pollock and Cezanne to mention a few. Very impressive collection, and a stunning building. Any art lover would be happy to spend a day here I’m sure! We spent just under 2 hours and were good to go.

The sun had set and we decided to walk through Millennium Park again so I could see my “jelly bean” at night. It was gorgeous, of course. This has to be my favorite spot in Chicago. I just love it. There was a live band playing near by and we spent some time just staking in the sites. After the sky darkened we hopped on the bus and made our way back up to John Hancock. We had upgraded our tickets earlier that day so we could return at night to see the city after dark. Again, it was breathtaking.

After the Hancock we headed over to the famous Giordino’s for deep dish-stuffed pizza. The wait, an hour. But, you can pre-order your pizza so it is ready just about when you sit down. So two beers or so later and we were in our booth waiting for our pizza. I had opted to get the medium, because, why not!? That was probably a bit of overkill. I had no idea how big this pizza really would be. It had to weigh at least 10lbs, probably more! It was HUGE. But, totally delicious. The sauce was yummy and the crust was this buttery pastry, not your typical dough. Mmm. We ate 3 of the 8 pieces, had the rest packed up, and grabbed a taxi back to our house.

It was about 10:30 when we walked in the door. We had been on our feet, exploring the city for 12 hours, and were completely exhausted. I took a shower in the most amazing shower I’ve ever been in (I’ll have to write a blog just about our house here!!!) and then passed out just after midnight.Somehow Kevin managed to work until 2:30 in the morning.

We both woke up at around 10 this morning. Kevin was bummed we slept so late, but I reminded him, all of our vacations do have to be exhausting alllll of the time! He agreed, and we both got out of bed and realized how sore we really are!!! We’re old. Haha. f

Today we’re taking it easy. We’ll walk over to Lincoln Park, there is supposed to be a great zoo there, and probably get more hot dogs for lunch (I have another coupon). We have to save our energy, because tonight is the night!!! The reason we’re here to being with. Tonight is night one, of two, that we’re heading to Wrigley Field to see Dave Matthews and Jason Mraz play together. Tonight we have general admission, so we’re going to get there early to get as close to the stage as possible and will be on our feet alllllll night long…so we’re pacing ourselves!

If you’ve made it this far, I’m impressed. Today my shout out goes to my Mom and Angela…they are the glue that is keeping our little life back in Sacramento together while we’re gone!! Poor Angela had to field calls from Nana all day yesterday…hahahaha…gotta love Nana! She is doing well and her leg seems to still be moving in the right direction. When I talked to Nana yesterday she told me that the Dr. gave her leg the “thumbs up” yesterday. Yay! Hopefully she’ll be home soon. And Mom, poor Mom is stuck with our pack of dogs who are keeping her busy I’m sure! Thanks ladies. You rock!!!

Now, I think I’ll go have some cold pizza for breakfast.

The Giant Jelly Bean

As you probably know from my previous post, I woke up WAY too early this morning. I gave up on sleeping just after 6am and spent a couple of hours online doing research. Thankfully it paid to be up WAY too early! Those few hours let me not only plan our day, but also landed me a list of “free museum days” and a buy one get one free architecture boat tour. SCORE!

Once sleeping beauty, er, Kevin decided to greet the day (around nine) we got ready and hit the town. We’re about 4 blocks from the Subway/El Train which is super convenient. We used the red line today, the underground train. Haven’t been on the elevated train yet, looking forward to it though. We hopped on a train heading south and (with one small detour, getting off to catch the next train cause the guy next to me was doing something strange with his hands, staring at me and mumbling like a freaky terrorist…and no, it wasn’t Kevin! I refused to stay on w/ that weirdo! Yes, I’m strange like that. Ha). went past downtown to the, crap, I think we were in the south loop area today? I can’t remember (hence, I need this blog if I ever want to be able to remember our vacations!). Anyhow, we hopped off of the subway, grabbed a trusty Starbucks tomato mozzarella sammich and were on our way to the Field Museum.Yes, we traveled 2,000 miles and ended up at Starbucks. But, have you had the sammich? So good, and the perfect brunch on the go!

The Field is at Museum Campus which is a big park right on the water. This was our first encounter with the lake, it is amazing to think it is actually a lake! It is huge, beautiful and a lot more blue than I had expected. I love it.

It turns out that today was “free day” at the Field! We probably wouldn’t have checked out this natural history museum without the free pass, but I’m glad we did. As we entered we were greeted by “SUE”. The largest T-Rex skeleton ever discovered. She was pretty awesome! We perused the museum, and the whole time kept saying “Darren would die here! Darren would love this! Darren, Darren, Darren…!”.

After the Field we headed towards the planetarium and stumbled upon a stand alone bike rental kiosk. If you aren’t familiar these are basically bike banks where you swipe your credit card, take the bike,  and return it to any of their locations when you’re done. Very cool. We decided to rent 2 bikes and head along the water north, up to Millennium park. It was about 70* and a little overcast, but overall perfect weather for a stroll through Chicago.

We rode through Grant park, stopped for some photos at the fountain, then headed up to Millennium Park. Once at Millennium (just about 75 minutes later) we turned our bikes in and walked through the park. The park is super cool There is a huge, very transformer-esque, open air music venue, the giant jelly bean and the super cool crown fountain. All were unique, impressive and fun to see!

After the park we headed even further north, up Michigan avenue, to Wendella boat tours. We did stop along the way for lunch, we ended up at Noodle and Co. We ate there in San Diego in July and loved it and broke down and went there today, promising ourselves we’d try something new SOON!

Once lunch was done we kept towards Wendella, took a small detour into the Gap where I got a new jacket I’ve had my eye on, it was on sale plus I had a gift card…SWEET! Then off to our boat we went.

The river here in Chicago is AWESOME. It had a Venice like feel because the city seemed to rise right up out of the river. There were buildings everywhere, all unique and with their own story. The tour was informative, relaxing and a great way to see the city. Did you know, they reversed the flow of the river?! We’re hoping Darren will explain it to us when we get home…cause even though the guide went over it, we don’t fully understand still.

Once the boat was over we headed back to the subway, hit Trader Joes for some snacks, then back to the house to rest up before dinner. We had planned on going to a jazz club for dinner and some music, Buddy Guy Legends, but it turns out they are closed tonight for a private event. Bummer. Though, I was sort of relieved. This meant less effort had to be put into the evening, and considering I was running on just about 4 hours of sleep, this was music to my ears. I laid down to read some Chicago stuff and was out before I got through one paragraph. Kevin worked (good husband, sucking it up and making this vacation happen even though he has work to do…I ❤ him!) while I slept and then we headed out to a local sushi bar at around 9:30 for a late dinner. The food was fine. Nothing amazing (I miss Sushi Deli in San Diego!) but absolutely good, affordable and great service…so we were satisfied. We found ourselves a sweet little ice cream spot on the way home, picked up some scoops, and decided to call it a night.

Something funny…I’m blogging on the sofa, t.v. on, and I SWEAR there was just a commercial for Reno. RENO!? Who in their right mind would travel 2,000 miles to go to RENO!? I feel bad for whatever poor sucker falls for that ad. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love me some Reno…but that is only because I live 100 miles away. Anything more than that, and forget it!

Oh, not sure if you’re familiar with the recent publicity my company has received (if not, google Michale Lyon, he is the owner of my company, Lyon Real Estate). It has been quit the PR nightmare, and our new president has been thanking us for sticking w/ the company through this, my direct boss, who I love, has been telling us to remember that we are the company and we can pull through this and to just keep our heads up and focus on business…etc. Well, this has been going on for a few weeks now and today I received a mass e-mail from my boss (not approved by our company) saying he was resigning! WTF!? So, it looks like I could be looking for a new brokerage to work for soon as the fallout from Mr. Lyon seems to be spreading, and fast….ahhh! I’m really pissed, I love(d) my company and firmly believe(d) that they were the best of the best in our area, only to be potentially brought to our knees by one man. UGH. I can’t wait to get the inside scoop when I get home, or maybe sooner.

Alright. I think that covers our day. Tomorrow we’re…we’ll…you’ll just have to come back and read all about it tomorrow…won’t you?! Nite, nite!

Blog-complishment!

I just managed to change the time setting on my blog! Allllll by myself! HUGE accomplishment. That’s right technology…Nicole 1 – Technology 3,254,547! I’m makin’ a comeback baby!!!