A wonderful vacation.

I got back from a nice vacation to Omaha and Chicago yesterday. Talk about a good way to take time off and relax! My vacation actually started on Wednesday. I picked Carol up from the train station after my speed networking event. For some reason I thought her train would be arriving later and I'm so glad I checked the web before. I made it to the station with five minutes to spare. The Amtrak is never on time so I was not too worried. Carol looked good and the last time I saw her was at least five years ago.

On Wednesday, I showed Carol the Iowa State Capitol and went to Kathy's office. She graciously gave us a tour. Carol was impressed to say the least. We then headed to the Art Center, but it was opening at a later time. Since we were not going to wait for it to open, we pretty much headed to Omaha. The drive to Omaha takes roughly two hours and we just chatted all the way there. There was a lot of reminiscing of old times from elementary school which brought back memories for sure. Once we arrived in Omaha, I drove Carol to the arena so she could pick up the ticket for her concert that evening. Once that was taken care of, we went to the art museum. The art museum in Omaha is very managable since I went there a good number of time while I spent a summer in Omaha. We even got to go on a tour of what goes on behind the scenes of an art center led by a docent. After the tour, we walked around the Old Market district which is an Omaha must see. For dinner, we went to Ahmad's Restaurant. It's a Persian restaurant and the food was very good. There's a nice park right around the corner of Old Market so we walked around the park to digest some of the food we had. Then it was off to the concert for Carol. I told her that I would spent the time at Borders which I did. I got myself a book and just read it. Greg called me and we chatted for some time. It's always good to chat with Greg. Sounds like he'll be staying put where he is for at least another year. His bishop decided not to move him to another place/parish. Carol and I headed back to DM after I picked her up from the concert. She thoroughly loved the concert.

Thursday morning we went to a tea shop to get Jesda some loose tea. He loves his tea and that was Carol's gift to Jesda. The drive to Chicago was pretty much uneventful. However, it was extremely windy and both Iowa and Illinois was under a wind advisory. That's summer weather for you! We arrived at Jesda's place not too long after he got back home. We pretty much sat around and just talked before heading to the city for dinner. I told Jesda Carol needed to try some good Midwest beef so we went to a Brazilian Restaurant called Fogo De Chao for dinner. I've heard and read about this restaurant but have never been there before. For a meat lover like myself, it was divine and to die for. All different types of beef were grilled separately. In addition to beef, there were sausages, lamb, chicken and pork. How you go about the dining experience is there are guys who would come to your table and offer the meat. You basically them whether you desire the meat. If you do, they'll cut a piece and you put it on your plate. If you don't, you just wait for the next person to come with another piece of meat. It was definitely a dining experience. My fear was the meat would be not be cooked right. I was wrong. All the meat I had was cooked to perfection and it was utterly divine. As always Jesda picked a great bottle of wine to complement the meal. It was a great and memorable dining experience. Before going back to Jesda's home, we walked on the campus of Northwestern University which is probably a mile from his house. Lake Michigan is literally right next to the campus. So, as we were walking you got the breeze from the lake. Talk about a good way to end the day.

Friday morning I told Jesda and Carol I had to have Dim Sum. Jesda had some work he had to get done downtown so we drove to his worksite. Once that was taken care of, we headed to my regular Dim Sum shop and feasted on Dim Sum. Even Carol thought it was pretty good. The three of us then proceeded to park the car and walk to the Symphony Theater for the Chicago Symphony pre-concert talk. I thought it would be helpful for Carol to listen to the talk. All in all, the symphony did an amazing job as usual and the Korean conductor was really good. Once the symphony was done, we walked to Millenium Park. Friday was a typical summer day in Chicago where the sun was shining brightly, it was somewhat windy, but not too humid. Let's just say it was a perfect day to be walking around downtown Chicago. We had dinner back in Evanston at this most amazing French Restaurant two blocks from Jesda's house. Now, I've had French Food and utterly love it, but this was definitely right up there with the best. The price and portion could not be beat. Even the tiramisu was unique. The way it was prepared was not something I've ever experienced in my life and it was good, very, very good! I was in heaven ... I kept telling them.

Saturday was the day we met up with Rob, his girlfriend Heidi and went to Ravinia. In the morning, I drove Carol to a mall so she could shop for some cds. We went to Barnes and Noble just to pass some time then headed back to Jesda's place. The three of us did our own thing in the afternoon and before we knew it, it was time to get stuff ready for the picnic at Ravinia. I had brough cheese, wine and crackers and Jesda got some salmon and fruits. Carol got fried chicken. The doors to Ravinia opened at 5PM and we were in there by 5:30PM. The concert was not until 7:30PM. Rob and Heidi made it in just in the nick of time and we all just sat around, chatted and caught up with one another while the group, Bo Deans was playing. This was the first time I met Heidi and she's a relaly neat person. Rob and Heidi definitely make a good match. The concert was done by 9:30PM and we continued at Jesda's until 1AM which was late for all of us, but we had a blast.

The next day, Jesda and I met Rob at Sheil Center which is the Newman Center on Northwestern's campus. It was a pretty small church but the energy was definitely there. Everyone sang and participated at Mass. There's something about Newman Centers ... there's a certain vibe about it. I definitely had one of the better Mass experience. Talk about a good way to get the morning started. Carol did not join us as she took the train to Chicago to visit the zoo. I said my goodbyes all three of them and headed Hoffman Estates which is a straight shot west from Evanston to meet up with Lisa, Ryan and baby Matthew. They moved into their new home barelly three weeks ago and are getting some renovation done. I'm one of the the first people to see their new place and it's very nice. It'll look even nicer once the renovation is all completed. We went to a Bar-B-Que restaurant for lunch and just caught up with one another. They are such a cool family. I then headed back to DM but on the way stopped in Iowa City to meet up with Matt and Alicia. I told them that I was going to take them out for dinner as an engagement present. We went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner and we all had shabu-shabu (basically, the Japanese version of steamboat!) The food was good and it was nice to spend time with these two. Matt asked me to be one of his groomsmen at his wedding and I was honored to say the least. This is the first time I'll be a groomsman and am excited about it. Alicia rode back with me to DM. I heard all about their Europe trip and some of the wedding plans. Having someone in the car made the rest of the journey go by so much faster.

All in all it was a truly amazing vacation. For some reason or another, I've been in a funk the past two weeks and I'm still trying to pin point the reason (I've not found the answer, yet and may never know the answer) Going away, spending time with dear friend and just catching up with everyone was my antidote. I'm feeling much better now and believe it or not, in two weeks my three-weeks long vacation in Colorado begins. Yay! Life can't get more exciting than right now!