| This past weekend was amazing in every way. On Thursday afternoon, once we finally corralled my parents out of the house, we took off for Chicago for the weekend. The drive was surprisingly short and we got up there in time to grab dinner with Ian and Andrea at a little Mexican restaurant 10 steps from their new condo in Roscoe Village in Chicago. Their new place is so perfect! I’m kicking myself for not getting any good pics with my nice camera, but it’s a 3 bedroom condo in a charming neighborhood in Chicago near Wrigleyville. The neighborhood is teeming with strollers, newborns and toddlers – definitely an area full of young couples and kiddos. | Este fin de semana fue espectacular por donde se mire. El Jueves en la tarde, una vez que por fin pudimos hacer que mis papas salieran de la casa, salimos con rumbo a Chicago por el fin de semana. El viaje fue sorprendentemente corto y llegamos a tiempo para cenar con Ian y Andrea en un restaurante Mexicano a 10 pasos de su nueva casa en Roscoe Village, Chicago. Su nueva casa es perfecta! Me estoy pateando yo misma por no haber sacado mejores fotos con mi cámara, pero tiene 3 piezas y el barrio es muy lindo y cerca de Wrigleyville. El barrio esta lleno de coches y guaguas – sin duda un área llena de parejas jóvenes y ninos. |
| On Friday morning my mom, Andrea and I all went to get manicures and pedicures, then came home and relaxed for a little while Ian was at work. For the first time all summer I had a little leeway to read for fun, so I picked up the Hunger Games and they did not disappoint. Well, I haven’t finished all 3 yet but I was totally absorbed in the first one on Friday and finished it by the afternoon. For lunch, we finally got to go to Al’s Beef – I say finally because Javi had been looking forward to this meal since we planned the trip to Chicago. As usual it was everything we dreamed it would be and more, and afterward we headed back to make a batch of homemade sangria. On Friday evening we decided to stay home and watch the opening ceremonies in London while we played Puerto Rico and drank sangria, which was perfect. Colleen came to visit for a couple of hours and we had a great time relaxing in the condo, mesmerized by the opening ceremonies. | El Viernes en la manana, mi mama, Andrea y yo fuimos por manicures y pedicures, luego fuimos a casa a relajarnos por un rato mientras esperábamos que Ian saliera de su trabajo. Por primera vez este verano tuve tiempo para leer por entretención, asi que me puse a leer Los Juegos del Hambre y no me defraudaron. Bueno, todavia no termino los 3 libros pero lei sin parar el Viernes y termine el primer libro en la tarde. Para almorzar por fin fuimos a Al’s Beef – digo por fin porque Javi ha estado esperando ir a ese lugar desde que planeamos el viaje a Chicago. Como siempre, fue todo lo que sonamos y mas, y después fuimos de vuelta a casa a preparar sangria. El Viernes en la tarde decidimos quedarnos en casa y ver la ceremonia inaugural de los juegos olímpicos mientras jugabamos Puerto Rico y bebíamos sangria, lo que fue perfecto. Colleen nos vino a visitar por algunas horas y lo pasamos bien relajandonos en la casa, impresionados por la ceremonia inaugural. |
vacation nails
| On Saturday Andrea and Ian planned to take us to Lincoln Fest, so after a leisurely morning of reading and Olympics we took off on the brown line for the festival. We spent the afternoon listening to music, checking out the arts and crafts and eating fair food. Javi’s goals for the day were to eat fried oreos and drink what Ian and Andi called an Iceberg – a margarita that had two mini coronas upended into it. The bar called them Toro Locos and they were amazing. The fried oreos and Toro Locos were the highlights of the day and Lincoln Fest was a total blast! After the festival we headed home and, after stopping at a local pub for one last drink, collapsed on the couch for a last round of Olympics before sleep. | El Sabado, Andrea e Ian planearon en llevarno al Lincoln Fest, asi que despues de una manana de flojera entre leer y ver olimpiadas, tomamos el tren de la linea cafe rumbo al festival. Pasamos la tarde escuchando musica, viendo las exhibiciones de arte y comiendo buena comida. La meta de Javi para el dia era comer oreos fritas y tomarse un trago que Ian y Andi llamaban Iceberg – un margarita con dos coronas mini encima. El bar lo llamaba Toro Loco y estaban geniales. Las oreos fritas y los toros locos fueron lo mejor del dia y el festival estuvo sensacional! Despues del festival nos fuimos de vuelta a casa, pero paramos en un pub local a tomarnos un ultimo trago, para despues desmayarnos en el sofa a ver olimpiadas antes de irnos a dormir. |
my momma bought these for me to support Team USA!
Ian, Andi, Javi and I bought this for my mom for her birthday
and mom bought a puppet 🙂
| On Sunday we had brunch and took off on the road without my parents because they flew to Cali straight from Chicago. The drive home was one of my favorite road trips EVER with Javi because he let me read to him! He’s never wanted to do that before and I was thrilled to try to get him as hooked on the Hunger Games as I am. We made it exactly 50% through the book by the time we drove up to the driveway in Nashville. And he liked it! Reading aloud in the car made the time pass so quickly for me – perfect way to spend 8 hours on the road and a great way to round out the Chicago trip! | El Domingo tomamos desayuno/almuerzo y salimos a la ruta sin mi papas porque ellos viajaban a California directo desde Chicago. El viaje a casa fue uno de mis viajes favoritos porque Javi me dejo leerle! Estaba feliz de poder hacerlo y engancharlo en los libros de Juegos del Hambre. Pudimos leer justo la mitad del libro cuando llegamos a Nashville. Y le gusto! Leer en voz alta en el auto hace que el tiempo pase muy rapido – la manera perfecta de pasar 8 horas en la carretera y una gran manera de terminar nuestro fin de semana en Chicago! |
celebrating their 1-year anniversary – diamond earrings and diamond necklace! WOW!
Los Rodriguez Life 
10 responses to “Chicago Trip 2012!”
Young love! You all look like you had a fab time.
Thank you for the mini adventure, Chicago is a grand place. ajm
I love your momma´s birthday pashmina! I want to get one when I´m back in the States to have a piece of Chicago with me always. I also love Andrea laughing in the background of that picture. It makes me miss American interaction so much… Good to see that you are all well! Un beso para toda la familia!
I’ll have to ask her what the nonprofit was that sold it – she kept buying stuff from this particular craft tent (like the puppet and the USA earrings) because all of the items were made by local high school kids and the money went to their after school art program! It was great! un beso para ti y jorge!! btw I’m thinking YOU should start a blog to document all the Academia New York goings on! I LOVE the pics!
Too much fun!
I loved reading to Cullen in the car last summer on the way to Cali from MD. We read book two of the Game of Thrones series and, though I didn’t read every minute of the driving, it took us the whole trip to get through it because those are pretty long. It definitely made the time go by faster and gave us something to look forward to when we had to leave our destination get back in the car. We constantly had something to look forward to! I told your parents about it when I saw them in Seal Beach last summer and I told them I got the idea from watching Annie read to John on car trips. I have read to Cullen curled up in our hammock from time to time over the past year and we will definitely keep up the tradition.
We got the idea from my parents too! I have a very specific memory of a road trip about 15 years ago – my parents thought I was too young to listen to Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park so I pretended to be asleep so I could listen to my mom read it to my dad. I loved it – and then when I really did fall asleep I had nightmares of velociraptors! haha. I do think this is a new tradition though!
what a fine family time — it was fun just to read about it!
[…] and taking a quick weekend trip to Cali. Once late July hit it was a whirlwind of travel to Chicago, California and Colorado, seeing family, friends, relaxing and taking advantage of vacation time. […]
[…] started with a trip to California (and then I went back a few weeks later), then we took off to Chicago for a weekend to hang out with Ian and Andrea and see their new home. After Chicago we flew out […]