some latergrams of our mini-vacay in chicago, which was absolutely beautiful and perfect.

oh how i love chicago.

i tried to take my picture-taking down a notch while there. at least i took fewer than i take of everyday life. i guess this is because i was trying to be present in the moment. and in part because i hadn’t planned on doing a post of the trip. but i decided to share because this will probably be one of the only vacations we’ll take this year so i’d like to record it. and because it might make you think i’m cool.

we travel to chicago for pitchfork almost every year. on the first day of the festival i was feeling like i’m just too old to hang with these hipster kids anymore. by the last day i remembered why i need to keep doing things like this. i need these excursions to keep me young. these trips reach back into my past and remind me of what my youth was about. they remind me of my interests and let the elaine that sometimes gets trapped under no’s, don’ts, stops and be carefuls!

it certainly helps that we were kid free for the weekend. {thanks parents!}

traveling is one of my favorite things we do as a family but it was nice to have a weekend between just husbeau and i. well, add our best friends to that equation but they were kidless as well so we all spent some much-needed quality time together…talking about our kids. no, not really. and that is what was great. we spent time talking about things other than our children. we were like real people for a few days.

some highlights from the weekend: daughn gibson, bike rentals down to the navy pier, phosphorescent, bjork, late night convos with our friends, belle & sebastian, solo walk through lincoln park & along the lake, r. kelly {even though i tried not to like it because he’s a perv} glazed & infused donuts, waxahatchee, m.i.a, sunshine, cool chicago breezes and feeling footloose and fancy free. shimmy shimmy shake.

i want to end this post with some thank yous: thank you to my parents for watching darla. thank you to robin for letting us crash on her floor, thanks to sarah and jeff for being such wonderful friends and attending numerous festivals with us over the years, thank you to mike for a wonderful, loving weekend and thank you universe for making chicago and the pitchfork festival exist in the first place. i heart you all.