Sunday, August 21, 2005

Live from Erato Wine Bar!!!

So HOW COOL IS IT to be surfing on my new wireless Axim PDA and listening
to Javier and enjoying a beer with good friends? AWESOME!!!!!

We enjoyed a yummy meal at Mangia, an italian place here on S. Grand Ave.
Then headed down the street to Erato to listen to Javier's Acoustic set.
We're celebrating Mr.Lacubrious's b-day weekend! Erato is a pretty nice
wine/beer/dessert bar. Javier sounds pretty good. The acoustics are not too
great, plus we had to sit in the back, but all in all, very pleasant. Even
though the guys ordered a hefe-weizen that was too clovie, so
Mrs.Lacubrious traded her Newcastle and drank their rejects!!!

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Chicago - Day Two - Continued...

Onward - post Goose Island...

  • Gave $5 to some woman who was $4.83 short to get her towed vehicle back.
  • Browsed the Crate & Barrel Outlet.
  • Wished we had a video of MrLacubrious in the wheelchair lift...too funny!
  • "Bite my ass."
  • Drove back to the Hotel, via Roosevelt Ave.
  • "I know this town like the back of my hand..."
  • "You're talking out the ass you want bit!"
  • Nap time & re-energize
  • Coyotes Mexican Grill
  • Gin & Tonics
  • Cicadas!!!



PLUS



Does NOT equal this...





MrLacubrious, you are our hero...

Chicago - Day Two - Fun in the Sun!

We spent a little time on Friday night trying to decide how we wanted to hit the sites. We decided to head right into Chicago. So after breakfasting at the hotel and plotting our trip (and me grabbing the maps!) we headed east and picked up Lake Shore Drive just South of the city. The sight of Lake Michigan was awesome. The water was a fabulous shade of blue-green that day. Tons of people were out walking, biking, running, dogwalking, etc. We stopped at Navy Pier (Can you say U-Turn?). Which turned out to be a pretty nice tourist attraction. Lots of shops, pubs, and fast food joints, harbor cruises lines, river cruise lines, entertainment and the like that you would expect. Most impressive was the Stained Glass Museum.

Beautiful...

What the heck is he doing?!


We took a 30 minute Shoreline Cruise around the harbor...it was sunny and pleasant and we got a great view of the city.

And Navy Pier...

Even Better...


Another view...

A lighthouse and blue water...



All of us on the pier...




After soaking up as much atmosphere at the pier, we decided to head out again. We originally tried to get to Uncommon Ground, but Wrigley Field traffic and parking proved too much for us to handle at that point. So it was renavigation (always fun) to Goose Island Brewpub. We were disappointed with the beer, but the food was pretty tasty. We were in the vicinity of Lincoln Avenue, which is the venue for the street festival that JMB was going to be playing on Sunday. So we had a better idea of where we would be headed...always a good idea with this group!

***A little side note here. MrLacubrious got a pretty good dose of the sun on this outing. Enough that he was being referred to as MrCrispy by yours truly. Oddly enough when he unwrapped a Dove Dark Chocolate later that night the little saying on the inside said "You know what? You look good in red."

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Chicago....And Other Navigational Terrors - Continued

7/29/2005...
"CD's in the car are one big ole tight pain in the ass!" That's why the Ipod is so much better. WKIM is our favorite station....and the 6 hour car ride to Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois was so much more pleasant. We arrived around dinnertime on Friday night...luckily we had excellent directions to the hotel. Oh wait, no we didn't. But not to worry, our navigational skills prevailed and between the LacubriousOnes 10 year old memories of traveling the same roads and the Jonezes driving and having the hotel's actual street address..we arrived with barely a u-turn at all!

Weary from travel, we freshened up at the hotel, but not until after a game of musical rooms, since, once again, online travel booking yielded us with rooms 3 miles from each other. (Even after MrsJonez called the hotel to make sure everything was good to go!) None of us likes to stumble too far to their room. We did get a couple of free in room movies for our trouble!

We headed to a local brew-pub known as Anyway's. A couple rounds of beer and some decent grub and we were ready to hit the town! Or so we thought...you see we needed to buy some beer for the room, and bothallofus forgot to bring speakers for the Ipod for in-room listening pleasure. So we decided to find a Walmart. We first stopped at Dominicks Grocery and selected some decent brews, headed back to the hotel to stow them in the fridge, then headed back out to find Walmart. We were going to ask the front desk for directions, but MrJonez jumped on google maps while stowing the beer and decided he could find it.....because "he knows this town like the back of his hand". I beg to differ. I will say no more on this topic. Other than this, 22 is not Butterfield and only by the grace of the navigational gods did we get the speakers.

Chicago....And Other Navigational Terrors

7/29/2005
Ahhh..Another trip, another JMB concert, another funny comment before we even get out of the driveway?! Now that MrsJonez has an Ipod and an FM transmitter, we're all anxious to get that hooked up before hitting the road. MrJones gets all freaked out when MrsJones attempt to wipe a bit of dust out of the cars power outlet dongle/splitter/thingy. He apparently was concerned for her well being (How bad can a 12volt system shock really be? Although, I hear it's the amps not the volts that you have to worry about...) Anyhow, MrsJonez defends her actions by saying;"I didn't put IT ALL THE WAY in there, I was just cleaning it!" Thus the theme of the trip is set!