A little R & R

Mira here. This weekend, my sister, Rose, and her husband, Robert, came from Lansing to visit! We had such a nice time hanging out. Lucy and Mom, lil' Justin's two grandmas, shared him over the three days, so Rose and Robert, who started their spring break at Michigan State on Friday, got to leave all real responsibility at the state line.

Friday night was extremely cold and windy, but we got warm (after waiting for the bus for 40 minutes!) by doing a little salsa dancing at a little place on North Clark (not too far from where we live). On Saturday, we slept in forever, then had a late lunch at El Borinquen down in Humboldt Park, a place Rose knew from visits to a friend who used to live nearby. It's a neigborhood Puerto Rican restaurant whose specialty is the jibarito, a sandwich made with fried plantains instead of bread. Actually, the jibarito was invented at El Borinquen. Pretty cool. Rose and Robert actually went to Puerto Rico for their honeymoon in August and looked all over for her favorite sammy while they were there, but it was not to be found!

We did some more waiting outside in the cold that afternoon (in front of this lovely poster) on our way to Michigan Avenue to walk around:

Just steps away from (and literally below) the fancy stores on the Magnificent Mile, lies the famed Billy Goat Tavern. You may recognize the name from the legendary Curse of the Billy Goat placed on the Chicago Cubs in 1945 or from the Saturday Night Live skit. Anyway, it's a dark little place with cheap food and probably all the original signs and menu boards.

From the Billy Goat, we made our way to the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts to see ComedySportz, a hilarious improv show Goose and I first experienced in Spokane when our friend Mike Moore was doing sound for them. I am so terrible at explaining or repeating anything funny that I've seen or heard, but let's just say that we laughed a whole lot. I am so impressed by the kind of creativity that improv folks possess!


This morning we had a really nice service at church for the second Sunday in Lent. It was so great to share that part of our lives with Rose and Robert and introduce them to lots of great folks.


They headed home after that and Goose and I had a long fabulous talk over coffee with Kristin and Michelle, two of the greatest, craziest church folks we've met since we've been back in Chicago.

Such a nice nice weekend.