Warning: This is really not an RV post, but bear with me - we had such a lovely time in Chicago that I have to share it anyway.
After what felt like a quick hit and run trip back home for a little over a week, we arrived back in Luling, TX yesterday to reunite with the moho. We had flown out of San Antonio on April 8, back home to Chicago for our club's Party in Parrotdise. We promised when we left that we will NEVER miss this event and we have no intention of ever reneging on that. What a time it was!
Upon arriving at Midway and picking up a rental car we heading to Geneva to stay the first 3 days at the home of our old friends Chris and Roger. On our first day there we all headed out for a local bar crawl through some of Geneva's fine watering holes and eventually ended up at Sergio's Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Surprise of the night - unbeknownst to us they had arranged for friends Dean and Terrie to be there also. The six of us had a lovely dinner and lots of laughs as we all caught up with one another.
The next day we headed out to Lincolnwood to visit with Chris and Roger's daughter Melissa and her family. Many, many years ago when I ran a home day care, Melissa and her sister were among my charges, so this tells you just how long we have all been friends. Dinner that night was at...drum roll please...Lou Malnati's Pizza! As faithful fans of the world's best pizza, which everyone knows can ONLY be found in Chicago, we had really been missing good pizza during our months on the road. When Chris was planning for our stay there she asked me if there was anything special that we wanted and I told her we just needed a pizza fix, so she arranged it. Way to go!
Thursday we drove into the city to spend the evening with our daughter Melissa and her guy AJ - we had a really nice dinner and drinks at Chief O'Neils, one of the Chicago's best Irish pubs.
On Friday afternoon we headed for our hometown Carol Stream to check into the Holiday Inn, where everyone involved with Party in Parrotdise was staying. We weren't even checked in yet when we started running into old friends. This is the biggest event that our Parrot Head club puts on in the whole year, so just about all of our club friends were there. After meeting up with the homies, we all made our way over to Flip Flops Bar and Grill - this is our old neighbor hangout, which happened to be hosting the kick-off party to start the weekend event.
The music that night was provided by Jay and Bobby of the Disorderlies,
It was a late night, but we all managed to be up early on Saturday to get the venue set up and decorated for Saturday night's main event. After that it was back to the hotel for a pool party, with music by Flip Flop Dave. It was hard to drag ourselves out of the pool and hot tub, but we finally did in time to grab some dinner and then get over to the Legion Hall where the party was about to start. The first musician up for the evening was Jim Hoehn for the warm up, and then - our very own Mr Myers band!
Our friend Todd Donnelly and his Mr Myers band have been our local hometown band forever. They play amazing reggae music, along with covers of Jimmy Buffett, Bob Marley and lots of others. They also have some great original songs (Rum Punch for Breakfast, anyone?) Among other places, they've played in Florida at national events, and even opened for Jimmy Buffett in Key West one year. We love those guys! They did not disappoint that night, and they kept the party going on into the night. I did not sit out even one the whole night but it was such a great time that I didn't even notice until we were on the shuttle back to the hotel that I was hurting all over!
The theme of the evening was Pirates of New Orleans and a lot of people dressed up in awesome costumes, while some of us slackers just dressed comfortably. Next year for sure! In any case, it was just an amazing night - great times with some of my favorite people in world. Nothing like coming back after an absence to make you feel loved and missed!
Sunday morning another one of our local musicians (and good friend) Frank Whiting played at the "Sunday Moaning" brunch.
Bill and I then headed for the south suburbs and Anita's house, where we spent the next couple of days. This allowed me to have a girls night out with my oldest friends in the world, the ones I walked to school with when I was 6 years old. How's that for long friendships?
Our last two days were spent in Downers Grove with Don and Cheryl and then we all attended the club meeting on Wednesday night. There were just a couple of people there that had not been able to make the weekend event, so we were able to see them as well as one more time around with the whole group. Fond farewells were then said, but as my new mantra states, it's not a goodbye - it's a "till I see you again." We'll be returning to Chicago in the moho by the end of July and staying for about 6 weeks at that time, so it won't be long before these bad pennies come rolling back again.
A huge thank you to all these wonderful friends who opened their guest rooms to us, and the many more who offered.
After arriving back in Luling yesterday, we spent the day unpacking and doing laundry. Today was grocery shopping and catching up on a few small chores. We're taking one more day here before heading out on Sunday morning, bound for Big Bend National Park. Next post should be from there.
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