Windy City withdrawl

I wrote this on Friday night but forgot to post it until this morning. Duh!

No, I didn't extend Memorial Day weekend into Memorial Day week. My lack of posting is (sadly) not because I'm packing my bags and moving to my friend Crystal's place on Lake Shore Drive, buying a Bugaboo and living a sleek, urban existence. I'm just lazy. We had an excellent time out and about in Chicago, and coming back to the reality of work (a lot of it), a dirty house and lots of shit to do has made blogging impossible. Never fear--that's what Friday nights are for now that I'm a parent. Who wants to go to the movies or happy hour when they can be in jammies in front of a computer by 8 p.m.?

We left a day early for the weekend so I could absolve my guilt, confess to my mother that I was coming in for the weekend and offer her a day in the suburbs so she wouldn't feel left out. It's not that I don't want to see her. We go to Chicago a few times a year to see family and friends, but we never get to see the city. A glimpse here and there on the way in or out of town, but I have been hankering for some adventure. And let me tell you, nothing says adventure like taking a stroller out on city streets. But I digress. We spent Friday with my mom and her friend Judy, who makes Clementine all sorts of fabulous clothes. It's true that some of the clothes ride on the tricky side of cute, but for the most part they are fabulous. I'm particularly in love with this impractical bonnet because Clementine really looks way too cute in it:



OK, so she also looks a little worried, like is she really going to make me go out in this?, but she really grew to like it as I kept forcing it on her head, wondering why I find it so fascinating.

We headed downtown Friday afternoon to stay at my friend Crystal's amazing place right on the lake. She's in Europe, so we got to pretend like we owned the place, which in our world means trashing it. We walked around her neighborhood a ton, found all sorts of great restaurants and shops and hit it all hard. I know Mama C-ta is thinking I went to Psychobaby to spend all my cash, but I was determined to find new frontiers. On Saturday we went to Roscoe Village (a 2 mile hike from Crystal's, but I wasn't yet ready to face taking a cab with a stroller). There is a cute restaurant there called the Kitsch-n on Roscoe that had a huge outdoor table for my brood and my sister's brood, and after we stuffed ourselves on fabulous brunch, we hit the shopping. There were lots of shops, and almost all of them were baby-oriented. I can't remember all the names, but there were children's clothing stores, a toy store, a gallery that sold stuff by local independent artisits (including some neat onesies), boutiques, denim shops, etc. etc. Some of the stuff was outrageous, but I skipped past the $113 jeans and found a few good deals. The best part was just walking around witheveryone.

Some Detroit friends joined us in the city later that day, and we spent some time wandering through vintage clothing stores and down city streets. Yes, I live in a city (Detroit), but it is nothing like Chicago with all its neighborhoods and spirit. I'm sure if I were more articulate I could put my finger on what it is that makes it such a damn fine city, but we had a great time just breathing it in. We braved the "L" with our stroller (no elevators in most stations, and it is no easy task to get the damn thing, even folded up, through the turnstiles) becasue it was waaay too hot to wear Clementine in one of our many baby carrying contraptions, and she was such a trooper that anyone we inconvenienced didn't mind. I'm not kidding. She was like to Goodwill Ambassador of the child-rearing set, waving and smiling at the world while we cut in front of them and did other things with the stroller that used to totally piss me off as a pedestrian. We hit the chic Armitage shopping district, went back and forth on Broadway for ice cream, shopping and sights and even dined in a Thai restaurant and creperie, all with the World's Best-Behaved Baby. I'm not just bragging here--travel is definitely this kid's thing.

But don't take my word for it. I have photographic proof:

Hanging out in Lincoln Park, swinging, cruising and charming joggers by the dozen

Pondering Lake Michigan, which was 60 degrees and way too cold to dip her toes in

Hitting the city streets even after bedtime because her parents still had more they wanted to see

Did I mention Crystal has a pool? This is Clementine's first real swim, and she loved it

So although the weekend felt epic and life-changing--I could really see how different my whole groove would be if I could actually WALK to a store or restaurant that doesn't sell Lotto and Liquor (the only destinations in my lovely vicinity)--this post can't really capture it. I just loved the feel of being someplace new, of really getting into it and not worrying too much about my tourist checklist.

But now we're back to reality and doing our best to make it work. And by work I mean I'm cruising the web at all hours trying to figure out how we can visit all sorts of new cities this summer on our very limited budget. Any suggestions?