An evening at Ravinia

My monthly trip to Chicago has come and gone (already!) and this time, my sister & her husband and a couple of their friends & I spent a wonderful late afternoon at the Ravinia Festival for the Yo-Yo Ma concert. For those not familiar, Yo-Yo Ma is a classical cellist, considered to be one of the finest in the world. Needless to say, a $15 lawn seat to see him play and hear his incredible music couldn't be beat! We got there early, and my sister's friend had already saved us a good spot on the lawn. Ravinia is this incredible, forest-like place with an outdoor amphitheatre, and therefore only hosts shows in the summertime. The neat thing about it is that it's such a versatile place to see music. If you want the full effect of the music, you can pay the big bucks for a seat in the bandshell. Or, if you want to share the evening with friends while enjoying a picnic under the stars and towering trees, the lawn is perfect. So that's what we did. The "picnic backpack" I brought along was a big hit, and we loaded it with all sorts of snacks and stuff to make some "gourmet" BLT's. A couple bottles of wine, some fancy cheeses & some Ghiradelli brownies... hootie hoo! A picnic-spread fit for kings. I always appreciate good food (and thankfully, so does my sis as a lot of the stuff we do together always includes some sort of excellent cuisine.) Anyway, the music started, and it was incredible. The most fantastic part of the concert was the more contemporary set, which, for lack of a better word or phrase that could accurately describe it, was the epitome of celestial. I laid down and looked up, and watched the bats skitter across the sunsetting sky. When the contemporary set started, it literally gave me chills. Music chills! Love it. The summer's-end locusts were so loud they were playing their own symphony in tandem with this particular set, which at times was like ocean waves, then a rainforest, and then this fairytale shimmery, starry, glowy sound that filled the entire park with music you could feel in your bones. It was amazing. There were thousands of people there, but you could hear a pin drop. What a great way to spend a Sunday evening!

Hello, beautiful butterfly.

On Monday (a much needed day off!) we slept in and lazed around for several hours before finally making something of the day. Since my sister is such a talented landscape designer (yes, yes, a shameless plug, so clicky clicky to see her work!) it's always nice to sit out on her back "deck garden" and enjoy the sun when it's not too hot and humid. After our homemade waffles, we finally decided we'd take a journey to the Peggy Notaebaert Nature Museum just off Lakeshore Drive. Another great place to spend the day! My favorite section of the Nature Museum was the butterfly house, a greenhouse-like enclosure which houses hundreds of butterflies from around the world. You can walk into the greenhouse and the butterflies are everywhere, flying into you, and sometimes even sitting on your shoulder... like my little friend here. This fellow looks rather drab on this side of his wings, but his anterior side reveals this brilliant, almost blinding cobalt blue. I felt pretty special that he (or she?) wanted to stop by and say hello. My friend, Staci, teases me about my self-proclaimed bug expert status... so I'm sure she'll get a kick out of this one! At one point, we were on the top deck of the rooftop garden gazing over at the solar-paneled ceiling, when we were stopped by a mini camera crew from the Chicago PBS stationand asked if the back of our heads could be filmed.
Apparently they were doing some sort of program on solar panels, and needed some "models" for the filming. We obliged. Dang, I should've quoted them my royalty fees for being an extra in a documentary. Next time, next time.

Next up, a quick trip across the street to the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool. Yet another great space to escape city life and emmerse yourself in a miniature forest with rock walls and a pond filled with beautiful lily pads and frogs. Within this park there's also this incredible sculpture/open-air building which is reminiscent of and echoes the work of Frank Lloyd Wright (another of my favorites.) Apparently, this particular designer was working at the same time as Wright, so this made perfect sense.

And last, but not least.... a late lunch / early dinner at my favorite Thai noodle place, Grande Noodles. I pretty much beg to go there every visit to Chicago. Three words: sweet potato maki! Here it is, in all its delicious, delicious glory.
Get your paws off my Maki!
My 24 hour trip went by in about one second. It's such a treat to get away and go on an adventure or two. I feel like a little kid in a candy shop! The reality check didn't take long after I found myself in the tail-end of Chicago rush hour traffic on 90/294. Blecch. My case of the "Mondays" kicked in on the way home..... but the mini vacation made it all worth it.