Heath's Random Thoughts

The Middle Port In for a Visit

So, this weekend my middle brother Luke came into town to visit, collecting the prestigious honor of being the first out-of-town visitor to visit our new abode. He came into town early Friday evening and we put him up in the office/second bedroom for the weekend. That evening we went out for pizza at Gulliver's in Rogers Park (Chicago). Its a little neighborhood nugget that we found not too far from home with great pizza and a very eccentric decor. The place is decorated from floor to ceiling with thousands of antiques and old lighting fixtures. Seriously you could look around for hours and constantly find something new. To top off the evening we went back to casa de ChamPort for a little Guitar Hero tourney. We started off playing Dance Dance Revolution but Luke and I were not coordinated enough (or too tired) to get the hang of it so we switched to Guitar Hero Encore. After that we hit the sack.

The next morning we let Luke sleep in for awhile and then we when to Potbelly's for lunch and then made our way out to Clark Street Beach in Evanston around noon. The beach wasn't crowded the sun was out and the lake was warm. It all combined for a beautiful day at the beach. We spent a lot of time in the water swimming around and playing with a new toy Kelly found online called a WoBoBa ball. It is made in such a way that you can bounce it off the water. Later in the afternoon the wind kicked up and we got some good size waves coming in so we went back into the water to play. By about 4 PM we decided to hit the showers and go get some grub. As we were heading back to the apartment we all noticed how red each other were and realized later that we should have applied some more sun block. At least Kelly doesn't have to worry about those weird tan lines she got during her triathlon the weekend before. We were all seriously burnt!

After our showers we decided on dinner at FlatTop's Grill in Evanston. If you never have been there they have a buffet of vegetables sauces and meets that you put in a bowl and drop off at the counter and they cook your collection up on a giant grill and bring it to your seat when it is done. In the past I have had some good experiences at this place but our experience that night was not great. By the second round of food Luke found a hair in is mix that grossed everyone out. On top of that my second round of food did not come until well after Kelly and Luke had stopped eating. After the hair and the wait I was no longer hungry. We decided to get out of there and try and make the 7:40 Bourne Ultimatum at the local theatre. Before we left Luke decided to make a sign on his place mat complaining about the hair in his food where he strategically placed the hair on the sign with a circle around it and arrows pointing at it! I wonder if they got the hint?

From there we made haste to the theatre where the movie was going to start in 5 minutes. By the time we got to the counter the woman tells us that the show is sold out. This was surprising to us because it had been showing for a week at this point. The next show wasn't coming on until 9:45. We decided to hangout in downtown Evanston until the next show. Luke and I decided to buy the tickets for the next show in advance since the first one was sold out and it turned out that was a smart choice. We killed some time at Urban Outfitters and then headed back to the theatre 30 minutes before show time. We bought some snacks and made our way down to the theatre only to find a line outside of the door 30 minutes before show time. Finally, we got in and found decent seats. The showing sold out (thank goodness for buying tickets in advance and showing up early). Fortunately, the movie was really good. After that we decided to head back to the apartment. Unfortunately, I lost my parking ticket so I had to pay the maximum to get out of the garage, but I was tired and didn't care at that point. We closed out the weekend by sleeping in Sunday and then Luke had to leave early because he needed to get back for an open house for a house he was thinking about buying. Kelly and I just worked on getting my fish tank moved from my old place to our new place. We also had to do some minor fish surgery because my catfish got his fin all stuck in the net. He seemed to be doing ok this morning.

Labels: Family, Leisure

posted by Heath @ 4:23 PM