1,243 Miles Later--Part One

A few weeks ago Bailey and I took a road trip to Chicago with his parents. Here's a recap of some things we did.....

We started our drive on Thursday afternoon. Our first stop of the trip: Lambert's--where we ate a huge delicious meal.

Mrs. Connie and Mr. Jeff

After Lambert's, we drove a few more hours before stopping for the night. It took us a few stops before we actually found a hotel that had room. It just so happened that the Illinois state track meet was going on and most of the hotels were booked solid.

Friday morning we continued the drive to Chicago. We headed straight to Superdawg's because if you're in Chicago, you have to try a Chicago dog. Superdawg's is a drive-in similar to Sonic so we got to enjoy our meal outside.

The "superdawg." The superdawg comes on a poppy seed bun with mustard, piccalilli (tomato), dill pickle, onions, and hot peppers, and served with fries, of course. Mrs. Connie, Bailey, and I were all very brave and ate them fully dressed (well, I didn't eat the tomato, but I did eat everything else). And to be honest, it really wasn't too bad. I might could eat it again.

After Superdawg's, we headed to our hotel to check-in.

We stayed at the Inn at Lincoln Park. It was an older hotel but was pretty nice and had lots of character. We really liked the location and the fact that we could walk to Wrigley Field, which we did that afternoon. They had a continental breakfast with fresh pastries and bagels each morning which were fabulous!

We went down to Wrigleyville to see the stadium, do a little shopping, and take a few pictures.

Then we hopped on the "L" (Chicago's subway) at Addison (right behind the stadium, as you can see in the picture below) and headed downtown for the Magnificent Mile.

We walked around the Magnificent Mile for a while and then stopped in at Garrett's Gourmet Popcorn where Bailey and I got CaramelCrisp with pecans and his parents had the Chicago mix--CaramelCrisp mixed with CheeseCorn.

On one end of the Magnificent Mile was the Realtor building, which is the national headquarters. So we had to take a picture of it for Bailey. Then we went to dinner at the world famous Billy Goat Tavern. We went to the original one that is downtown, under the Magnificent Mile.   

The Billy Goat Tavern was made famous by an SNL skit that John Belushi was in years ago. You can see part of it here.

 

As we were on our way back to our hotel, we came across hundreds, maybe thousands, of bike riders. We asked a local what was going on and he said, "It's Happy Friday." On the last Friday of the month, people show up for a bike ride through the city to show that bike riders own just as much of the road as cars. We waited for the bikers to pass for 10-15 minutes, so that we could cross the street, and they had been going before we had even gotten there.

To be continued.....



Let's Play Catch Up

 I'm going to try to do a quick catch-up of what's been happening with the Hunt's......

 

We celebrated our birthdays, along with a friend's, at Paula Dean's seafood buffet...Yum!!

The next weekend Bailey took me on a "mystery trip." Just a time for us to get out of town for a night. We ended up in the large town of Sikeston, MO which is where you can find Lambert's--the home of the throwed rolls.

The leftovers of my dinner. Of course we ate waaaay too much but it was sooooo good. We did a little shopping at the outlet mall before we went to dinner and then stayed the night and headed home the next day to meet my family for birthday lunch at Kyoto. After lunch we headed back to my parents house where this was waiting on us....

My "birthday" king cake from Gambino's. Dad has had one shipped to me for as long as I can remember (probably since we lived in Baton Rouge). I like the plain old original king cake. They send it "naked" (without anything on top) along with the icing and colored sugars and you decorate it yourself.

The following Monday was my "birthday" (if you can call it that since I didn't technically have one--not being a leap year and all) and Stephanie had this for me at Girl's Bible Study that night

Sometime in the next week or so we celebrated with Bailey's family and had these....

They have the BEST cupcakes around! I've had AnnOlivia's and Muddy's and I think that L'oven's are much better!!

The next weekend I helped my friend Courtney decorate some tables for a ladies banquet.

Our "pretty" table

Birthday table

Up close of cupcake stand

Beachy table

We went with Bailey's parents and sister to Arkansas for the first part of Spring Break to visit Mr. Jeff's parents. We did a little shopping, lots of eating, and then one day we went hiking at Petit Jean Mountain.



And last, but not least, my quilting class has ended. Here is the top of my quilt. I am waiting for Chantay to piece the top, middle, and back together and then I will complete the binding.

As always, please forgive me for the quality of the pictures--many are from my phone and a few are taken from facebook.

Here I Go Again....

It's happened.....again. I've taken another extended break from blogging. I haven't updated on many, many things that have been happening at the Hunt household (anniversary, Christmas & parties, New Year's, snow days, Upward, etc.) and I won't even try to recap those things. So, what's been happening lately.....

I started my t-shirt quilting class a few weeks ago. We have cut apart the t-shirts, applied the stabilizer, cut the t-shirts into squares and cut the sashing and sashing squares. Here's a pic of it all laid out, ready to be sewn together.

Please excuse the poor quality, it was taken with my phone.

We were supposed to start sewing last week but missed class due to the weather. So we will start that this week--I'm so excited to start putting it together!!

We have never celebrated a big, huge Valentine's day (I personally think it's one of those waaay comercialized holidays) so Saturday we grilled out and made a yummy dessert.

We're really looking forward to this weekend--we're celebrating our birthdays, along with a friend that shares Bailey's b-day, by going to eat at Paula Deen's buffet.

Please keep Bailey's dad in your prayers. He spent about a week in the hospital with an obstruction in his small intestine. He is home now, but not any better. It looks like they're going to have to do surgery.

Boring post, but that's all for now. I'm going to try to get back in to posting more often.

My First Sewing/Quilting Project

A few months ago a friend of my mine, Chantay, opened a shop, "Cotton Treasures," downtown. She has been quilting for years but now has a workspace away from home. She sells fabric, "notions" (as her FB page says), quilting services, and some other things that she and some other friends have made. She is also offering some sewing/quilting classes. I am signed up to take her "Quilting with T-shirts" class that starts in a few weeks.


My sister has been helping Chantay with various tasks for quite sometime. She has my grandmother's sewing machine. I'd mentioned that I was interested in learning to sew/quilt so Olivia and Chantay decided my first project should be a tree skirt. (Chantay had just found a beautiful pattern for one!) So, a week or so before Thanksgiving I got started on it. Chantay sort of taught me step-by-step what to do. She was a great teacher. Here are a few pictures--in progress and the finished product.

The top of the tree skirt

On the long-arm machine which puts all three layers together and stitches the pattern

The finished tree skirt

The Last Month or So....

Here's a quick recap of what's been happening with the Hunt's in the last month or so......

We went to the Ole Miss-Auburn game in Oxford and actually tailgated (the only time this season).

My former roomie (who FINALLY got engaged at Thanksgiving--sooo excited for Scottie and Daniel!!)

Hanging out in the grove with friends

The next weekend we made a trip to Tunica to Paula Dean's Buffet for Kerry's birthday. We went on a Friday night so they had seafood too. Needless to say, we ate waaaay too much.

We ate alot!

The girls

He's my favorite :)

My forever roomies

The next morning we got up early to head to Jackson to see Anna-Blair run in the state cross country meet. Then we came straight home and got ready to go to a wedding. Of course, I do not have a picture of us at/or before the wedding. The following photo is courtesy of Mrs. Connie.

The next weekend Bailey and I drove to Knoxville to watch the Ole Miss-Tennesse game. The game was awful, to say the least, but it was a fun trip.

Neyland Stadium

The stadium is right next to the river. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. (As opposed to the other two away games we've been to when it was raining the whole time). 

 And then of course there was Thanksgiving break, which was thoroughly enjoyable. I didn't do too much of anything. I did, however, get a much needed haircut and I got carpet in my room. And, of course, I spent Black Friday shopping til I dropped.

A few Thanksgiving pics.....

And I'll leave you with a picture of our sweet dogs enjoying the warm weather while it lasted.