The Best Laid Plans

For those who don't know my birthday is about this time of year... :)

And this year we got lucky! My tutoring center happened to be moving locations yesterday, so I got the afternoon off! And Alex gets out of class at one on Fridays, so even though it wasn't my birthday we decided to make an afternoon of it. He thought it would be fun to take me to the Shedd Aquarium, then wander around town and get some dinner after. Sign me up! I was so excited! Seriously, go look around at the website and check out the exhibits that they have. Not to mention, it was my first time going downtown in the daylight. We've kinda been slacking in the exploration department...

So Friday rolls around, and I spent an hour and fifteen minutes trying to track us down some tickets; which are a good idea to get ahead of time fyi, but are not on sale day-of... Mistake 1. So Alex gets home a little after 1, we eat lunch, do a few things around the apartment, and we're finally ready to leave at 3. Mistake 2. It took us an hour and fifteen to get there when it could have taken 45, so we get to the parking garage at Soldier Field at about 4:15, knowing that the aquarium closes at 5. We rush over and they are no longer selling tickets. Wop, wop......

I guess they weren't the best laid plans, but we had been excited for them. And in our defense, we both grew up in medium-large cities (populations of 608,000, and 600,108 according to the 2010 census), and our plans would have worked there. But we forget that this is Chicago: Population 2,884,382. Sooooo things work a little differently. 

Feeling pretty sorry for ourselves, we decide to walk around the Museum Campus there. For those that haven't been to Chicago, the Museum Campus is pretty awesome. The Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, The Adler Planetarium, and Soldier Field (Da Bears...) are all on the same strip of Lakshore, and there is a pretty neat jetty/peninsula to walk on. It also connects with paved trails to the park along Lakshore Dr. and where Buckingham Fountain are. These are pretty major Chicago-y places. 

So we walk along the peninsula and take some pictures:

Did I mention it was almost 80 degrees and gorgeous? All week? I try not to brag...

Then we walked to a Thai place about a half mile away. Ma & I was good! On the way back to the car we decided to walk through one of the statue parks to play, and take pictures of course... 

Can you see him?

And just then it started to rain. And rain a little more. 

We walked as fast as our full stomachs could to an underpass to ride out the storm. 

The Shedd Aquarium from the underpass. See all that water!? The storm lasted about 20 minutes, and by the time it was done we saw 3 building struck by lightning, including the one next to the Shedd! There was also 3-4 inches of standing water on that pathway...

Then the gutters started to well up with water from below. 

Once the rain quit, it made for an amazing sunset (with clear skies I might add)

And it turned the water the most stunning colors...

All in all, I'm glad we didn't get into the aquarium, because we probably wouldn't have been caught in the rain. :)

....But next time we'll plan better. 

20 up, 15 to go, and a Cornucopia

20 up:
I had my 24 week doc appointment yesterday, during which they did all the normal monitoring stuff, and it was also my glucose tolerance test. The stuff wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't as bad as everyone says either. Drinking something that tastes like a melted popsicle? I've had worse. The thing that wasn't so fun was stepping on the scale, having my nurse check my charts and say "Ooooooh sweetie". I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm up 19 pounds: 16 depending on which pre-pregnancy weight you use. At 25 weeks, that may be on the high end of the recommended amount, but really? I'm pregnant for crying out loud. I'm not overly indulging, I'm not laying on the couch all day long. Boo. But that exclamation will probably give me an anxiety attack now, so I'm cutting out my morning glass of orange juice, and switching back to herbal tea instead of hot chocolate should I choose to indulge in a warm drink at night. Booooooooooo.

15 to go:
I'm pretty sure it was last month that I peed on that stick. Yes it was in October, but when did it get to be March? This is going by faster than I expected, but I feel like I've been pregnant forever now that I've gotten used to the idea, and I feel like I will continue to be pregnant forever. Thank goodness this is not the case.

Cornucopia:
I love fresh fruit, but my husband does not. He pulls a face if I offer him even the most delicious bit of strawberry, or the crispest juiciest apple slice. Silly boy. I usually only purchase small amounts of fruit at a time because I know I will be the only on eating it; which means I probably don't get enough of the stuff during the week. Well at church the scouts sponsored some kind of fruit purchase from a guy who gets them fresh off the boat (they have not fallen off the back of a truck). Since the fruit is purchased by the case, that meant that some friends in the ward had extras, of which I was the beneficiary. So in addition to my modest supply of mini Gala apples, I now have a heaping bowl full of the freshest oranges and grapefruit you could imagine. It reminds me of a cornucopia because there isn't room in the bowl for everything, so I have apples and oranges on the counter top next to the bowl. At least this will be good for my new... regime. Because I'm not on a diet. Really...