Spring Break

Celeste and I just got finished with Spring Break...and what a break it was! It was so nice to take a load off, relax and go out on the town for a change. With Celeste due in less than 2 months, we fully appreciate these last opportunities to play.

Mom and Dad drove up here from TX and we had a leisurely Wednesday afternoon in Champaign. We ate at Crackerbarrel, saw Ghost Rider, and toured the campus. It was really nice to have someone else from the family actually visit the campus. We spend so much time there. It is our stomping ground, and it somehow feels that when your family sees where you work, they somehow understand more about what your daily experiences are like. That's why I wish I could have visited Austin and Sarah in Seattle. It's supposed to be beautiful country, it's the home of REI, and it would have been great to see where their lives unfolded for the last couple of years.



Well, on with Spring Break. We spent Thursday in Chicago at Navy Pier. That was a really fun destination. We ate this really good BBQ for lunch, and then just strolled around the pier. I love the whole imagery/lifestyle of living on the water in a city. It just has this desirable quality for me. It was the same in Venice as it was on the pier, and later in the week in New Jersey. There's just something remarkable about living right on the water, and all around you there are big buildings, high rises, and tiny, crowded streets. Celeste and I saw a marionette Macbeth production at the Shakespeare Theatre. It was really fun. You would think that real, flesh-and-blood actors would do the play better, but puppetry is such a unique medium for storytelling, that it truly was an enjoyably experience. And besides, when else can you get through Macbeth in only 90 minutes! :) It was great because the puppeteers were Italians, so the theater cast great American actors to do the voices. What a great gig that would be. Trained in acting and the arts, and you get to just sit and read for 90 minutes. Sign me up!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we spent in New York City (and New Jersey). We stayed at this great hotel right on the Jersey side of the Hudson. It was great. A ferry took us from the hotel dock to the NY Waterway terminal where complimentary shuttles dropped you off in different parts of Manhattan. "Our destination?" you ask. "The Theater District, of course!" Friday night, Celeste, Dad and I saw Spelling Bee. Celeste even tried to be one of the audience members that get to go on stage, but she wasn't selected. The show was really funny. Saturday afternoon Mom, Celeste, Ryan, and I ate lunch at the Met and spent some time there checking out the art. It was a really relaxing afternoon, and then that night we saw Hairspray. We were really nervous because we wanted to get the raffle tickets. They're only $25 a ticket and you sit on the front row!! That's a great deal. I'd much rather have "limited view" front row tickets than crappy balcony tickets. Well Dad and I both got our names drawn so we got our tickets and had a marvelous time. It was so fun to see Dad and Mom and the musical. They absolutely loved it!

Anyway, that about wraps up our Spring Break. It was so great to see Mom and Dad again. It was wonderful to have the resources and the time off to actually see some plays/musicals again. It was just an entertaining and enjoyable week that really hit the spot after a bitterly cold winter in Illinois!