I momentarily forgot where I was again this morning when I opened my eyes, but was immediately reminded that the city awaited us on the other side of the window, 31 stories below:
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| sunday in the chicago atmosphere |
Departure mornings are always a test of initiative, memory, checklisting, communication and the ability to play travel tetris with your luggage, pillows, etc. so you can haul it all in one trip without the bellboy's help. At least that's how it was for us this morning, trying to drag ourselves out of bed, put ourselves together to look mildly human, pack all of our things in a makeshift sense of semblence and then leave the hotel room without leaving any
thing... behind.
It's a miracle we remembered where the car was parked.
As challenging as the check out process can be, the drive up to Southport Ave. was the complete opposite:
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| blue skies cruise, a marina and miles of happy people enjoying the day! |
Speaking of happy people, I think we were ALL happy when Britta descended from her apartment a few blocks away to join us for brunch at Southport & Irving! I'd told her I'd love to see her while we were in the city, but I really didn't expect her to come dressed just like Ali.. haha.
No seriously, I can confidently say that Britta and I hold the record for the shortest amount of time taken for two strangers to become instant friends, but Ali and Britta just came in a close 2nd. I mean the two of them practically dressed like twins, without even a chance to plan it.
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| instafriends! |
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french toast, ya'll..
southport & irving | chicago, il |
We ate, we laughed, and we snapchatted. Ali & Damanji are officially SC Assassins in my book; they both managed to get some fantastically troll-esque captures of me. Damanji took the liberties of drafting a side-by-side comparison, and I've gotta say, he's not wrong...
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| grampy troll... and cori. :0| |
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more snappy fun.. these are reactions to some of the questions our table
received in the span of the hour we were there.. |
After Southport, we traveled just around the riverbend!
CORNER.. to GingerSnap; it's a place Ali found online and committed us to because it says Ginger, and because she is the lens behind GingerSnap Photography. So it makes sense. Right? Right.
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| it's like the place was made for her! |
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| reunited!! |
In case you missed what I said about Britta & Ali dressing up like twins, there's this nicely posed sorority picture as proof:
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| twinsies! |
Damanji & I have been pretending all weekend that we're as hipster as we feel, so we seized this opportunity to do something hipsterish, in the doorways [to the soul] on this street, illuminated by the light of a thousand serenading high-efficiency lightbulbs. Or something.
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| you look so.... pensive |
Q: How many hipsters does it even
take to change a lightbulb?
A: It's a number you probably haven't heard of yet...
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| deep in thought about life, the universe, and probably donuts.... |
Q: How many kale smoothies did I drink before this picture?
A: I'll build you the answer out of upcycled pallets. Stay tuned.
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| yayyy for friends! ♥♥ |
We finally said our see-ya-later's to Britta, and loaded up for the trip back to Naperville. From there, it was quick hello's and farewell's to the family,l and then Damanji and I were back in our separate cars, bound respectively for STL & Cinci.
At least it was as beautiful day for a drive!
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| don't skip these, kids... don't skip these. |
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| almost there :) |
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| they're much prettier in the daytime! |
Happy birthday, Ali... I hope you had the best birthday yet, and I miss the fun already! It was such a fun weekend meeting some new faces and reuniting with the familiar ones!
See you on the flipside, blogbots..
xo | cmd
