My weekend with Natasha

After a week of talking with Natasha on the phone, she bounces off the idea of coming down to visit me the weekend of 10/20. I think it's flattering that she would go out of her way to visit me from MN. That Friday, she arrived at my house just as I was about to go in the house after work. I could tell this was going to be an awesome weekend. She got herself set up in the lounge and we headed out on our first date. I took her out to Ram's Brewery for some tasty food and then GameWorks for some fun & games. Q101 happened to be at GameWorks for some rock karaoke, but some of the people needed a lot of practice. We were able to hit up some games including good old skeeball and then hit the upstairs bar when the card ran out. Having a drink at the bar was great because I knew we would have lots to talk about. That night wasn't crowded, so there was an open table next to the window overlooking the main floor. We weren't able to stay up until closing, but had a fun time anyways. Natasha picked a great weekend to visit. Saturday, Gretchen & Rafael had a birthday party for their 2 year old daughter, Violet. I finally got to see Violet in Gretchen & Rafael's new house and Natasha was able to meet almost all my high school friends. It was great to see everyone again; there just doesn't seem to be a lot of chances for us all to get together. When the birthday girl's fun was done for the night, we went back to Gen's for a movie. Shannon & Brennan came along and a work friend of Gen's stopped by too. With it being Halloween, we had to chose from horror/scary movies. We went with the less gruesome movie, The Skeleton Key. A mild movie, but recordings of witchery chants are quite spooky. I wasn't quite sure what to do for Sunday. Natasha had a great idea and requested to see the Millenium Park. We took our time in the morning and then hopped on the 1 P.M. Metra train. Even though it doesn't run as frequently as the L, it is a much better ride. Once we got downtown, we found the free trolley and got dropped off near the Millenium Park. We entered the park at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion and worked our way around. Not many people were there, so I got some great reflection shots of the bean (the Cloud Gate). The BP bridge took us the long way around, passing by the lake and the Buckingham Fountain. After walking around in the cold, Natasha had another great idea and suggested to go check out the revamped Macy's to warm up. Since we had plenty of time until the next train, we wandered around checking out some of the niche merchandise. Unfortunately, it came time to go and catch our train home. We watched my camera's slideshow of the day's activities as we relaxed on the second level of the warm, cozy train.