11 April 2011

It's Raining Visitors - Part I

~*~*~

When it rains it pours ... and this week there was a wonderful spring flood!

I received an email early last week from long-time cyber friend Desert Rat. Rat lives in Arizona, but she and her husband were coming to Chicago for vacation. Would I be interested in coming into the city to have dinner with them?

SQUEEEEEEE!

We made plans for me to take the train into the city Thursday. When Cam learned I was taking the train, he decided that he needed to take the train too. Fortunately, Rat does not have an aversion to gnarly 15-year old boys!

*NOTE* I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. I had my camera, but went with the convenience of my cell phone.


I tried to get Cam to lay across the tracks - I thought it would make a much more interesting photo - he was a party pooper!



My protector ... doesn't he look fierce??



Cam and I made the trek, got lost, called on my twitter friend Monkey to help us find ourselves (although not here now, he lived in Chicago for many years).


We had a wonderful dinner - I screamed out Jay's name when experiencing a foodgasm from this bleu cheese burger.


Rat didn't seem to mind ... she was playing with her food (yes, those are raw onions)!

We ended the evening with a walk back to Union Station, a visit to the restroom where they had DYSON hand dryers, a quick photo of Rat and I in front of the Nuts on Clark sign (which she promises to email) and then Cam and I ran to the train - somehow making it before it pulled out of the station at 8:30 (yes, we were those people).

A big thank you to Rat and her husband! It was a great evening and I feel privileged to have finally met them!

~*~*~

9 comments:

Mike said...

Cam knows better than to mess up a good shot of railroad tracks by sticking people in it.

Rat looks different in every picture of her. Is she a shape shifter?

Another Suburban Mom said...

That sounds like an awesome evening. And that bleu cheese burger looks great!

Deech said...

This is a WIN! We definitely need to make plans for the summer to have you come visit Arkham if at all possible.

Schmoop said...

Yay for fun and friends. Cheers Dana!!

Jay said...

Rat is just so freaking cool. And it's always fun to get to meet bloggers face to face and see the person behind the writing.

desert rat said...

That was SO fun! Cam was your typical fifteen-year-old (ah, yes, I remember those days well!). He cracked up the few times I forgot where I was and dropped the F-bomb. Ha!

We all had delicimous burgers, Jay - you would have LOVED them: Dana had beef, Steve had bison, I had turkey with some sort of curry fixin's... and Cam... had... [wait for it...] Nachos! (Way to be the rebel!)

Mike, I *am* a shape-shifter - and I have other special powers, too, so watch out! Ha!

Dana, picture on its way, today, along with a "catalog" of the ingredients in the medicine pouch.

Thank you, again, for making the trek into town. We LOVED IT! And YOU!

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

And whatever happened to Memphis??????

John said...

Mmmmmmm, foodgasm.

Sounds like an absolutely great time - friends, family, laughter & nuts. If that's not what life's about, I don't know what is :-)

Knight said...

That Cam is such a handsome kid. No wonder he gets into trouble!
I'm glad you had a good time. I'm terribly jealous that I never get to see you when I'm in Chicago. I shall have to remedy that.