We invited Keith's family to Chicago for Mother's Day. We had done a Mother's Day weekend in 2016 before we had moved to Chicago. Margaret could make it, but sadly Graham had to hold down the fort at Nosa so we were one short!
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| Botanic Garden |
The family arrived on the Thursday night. It was a pretty tight turnaround: Keith arrived back from Spain the previous night, and Shawna was in Louisiana until Wednesday night as well. The house had been on the market the weekend before, but were were lucky to already be under contract so there were no people traipsing through the house while the family was there! Jena, Dick, and Margaret Ubered to the house, where we had champagne waiting. We celebrated the house sale on the patio before having a wine and cheese dinner in the dining room.
We decided to get some culture on Friday - motivated by the point that it was going to rain most of the day. So after breakfast, we went to the Art Institute. Margaret navigated the museum. Fortunately, the whole Dodds family has roughly the same attention span to art, so we could speed through each of the exhibits without anyone getting crabby. The next stop was the Starbucks Roastery on Michigan Avenue. Shawna met us here to help us empty our wallet for the most expensive coffee we could find. We then walked the next 10 minutes to the Hancock Tower to have a drink - though once we arrived, Keith came to the realization that they did not open until 5pm. Ugh! So we Ubered home to relax. Keith served everyone gin drinks before we went to dinner at North Pond - a Michelin restaurant. Dinner was excellent.
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| Art Institute |
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| North Pond |
Saturday morning Keith, Shawna, and Margaret walked/ran the 606 to burn off a few of the calories gained the day before. We had some cheese for lunch before going downtown for the "Open Your Eyes: Chicago's Underground Pedway & Other Secrets of the Loop with Inside Chicago Walking Tours." The dude was excellent and we saw some places we had not been before. After getting ready for dinner at the house, Keith served round two of gin cocktails before we went to dinner at Indienne - an Indian/French fusion restaurant. It was excellent.
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| Walking Tour |
Sunday we duplicated the 606 walk/run from the day before before driving north to the Botanic Gardens where we had been with Jean and Dick previously. While it was a tad cool, many flowers were in bloom and it was gorgeous. Keith then had to take Margaret to the airport for her flight home before we went to dinner at Pompette - the restaurant just up Damen from our house.
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| Botanic Gardens |
On Monday, Keith took his parents to the airport for their 7:30am flight - then came home to get the house fully cleaned up for the inspection! It was a great weekend.
