Carrie Underwood Concert and Chicago

A very busy week, last week.  On the home front, I started preparing our newly renovated enclosed deck for painting.  That meant sanding the entire thing along with patching the countless nail holes needed to attach everything.  Such fun, since painting and the prep work is my favorite things to do. 

On a brighter note, Jo had a meeting in Chicago from Wednesday to Friday so I tagged along to see my sister and to get away from painting.  We took Amtrak down which is a really pleasant way to travel between Milwaukee and Chicago.  After checking in, Jo was off to her meetings while my sister and I headed out for dinner at Province.  A delightful place with good food, my scallops and short rib dish was wonderful, of course, that could have been the mashed potatoes.  We then took a leisurely walk back through town catching up on our latest doings.  Thursday, I headed out, on my own, to take in the Field Museum.  After breakfast at a local diner, I had a great time touring the museum for 5-6 hours especially since I didn't have to worry how long I took at each exhibit (as those who know me in museums, I tend to dawdle reading everything) and besides the gem room, mammals, and plants (fun fact, did you know that mangos and poison ivy are in the same family - apparently the bark of the mango tree contains a poison), I had to see the dinosaurs.  Still amazes me that something that big could roam the earth and find enough food to eat.  Thursday night, Jo was able to join my sister and I for dinner at a local Thai restaurant.  Friday morning, I lazed around while Jo was off to her meetings and then it was back home.

We arrived home in time to welcome Kathy and get dinner before heading to the Carrie Underwood concert at the Bradley Center.  She put on a phenomenal concert and it is clear why she has sold as many albums (or do you say songs now in the ITunes era?).  It also doesn't hurt that she is a truly beautiful human being.  Drew and Amy were able to join us for the concert and we all had a good time although my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.  The stage floating over the crowd was interesting both from a technical standpoint (how do you support it, make it turn, and add safety devices to keep it from crashing into the crowd) as well as giving a chance for those in the back rows to see Carrie up close.
 
Saturday, John (Kathy's significant other) joined us and we took in the Milwaukee Public Museum to see the pirate exhibit.  This was built around the finding of a sunken pirate ship off the coast of Cape Cod and the artifacts found in it.  It was very well done telling the history of pirates as well as the particular ship that sunk (although pass on the audio tour as I didn't feel it added much).   Certainly learned a bunch and we all came to the conclusion that pirates were some of the first socialists.  After exhausting ourselves with the museum we got lunch at Jo's new favorite restaurant in the Third Ward - the Smokeshack (prepare yourselves if you visit, she is likely to take you there) where we enjoyed their famous pulled pork.  The afternoon was spent resting and then after a great pasta dinner (I prepared it, I write this blog, so ergo, the meal was great) we spent the evening playing Sheepshead.

Sunday we hiked over to City Market for our traditional cinnamon rolls and then to John's aunt's house to see her postcard collection.  After everyone left, Jo and I collapsed on the couch to catch up on our backlog of newspapers.  And yes, I went link crazy in this posting.