Home at Last!

The next morning my sister, E2, picked us up at our friends' apartment. She is in her third year of medical school and is doing her surgery rotation near their apartment. That afternoon she had to attend a lecture and my parents' house was on the way. It was also her birthday. I'd like to think that my presence made the best birthday present ever.

She took us up along LSD and Sheridan Road in her convertible and it was a lovely day. (I tried to get a picture but it is hard to take a picture from a moving car.) We finally got to my parents' house and my mom met us there on her lunch break. E2 opened some presents from my mom (my presents for her were still in the mail as I had sent them on ahead) and then when went to Jimmy John's for lunch (I was  unpleasantly surprised to learn that the sprouts had been replaced by cucumber slices).

The company and conversation at Tapas Gitana were delightful.

For dinner we went to Tapas Gitana and I spotted someone else wearing Lilly (this almost never happens in Maine)! Dinner was delicious! Their potato salad (Patatas Con Alioli) is the best and I had sangria for what I think was the first time. I also had the pleasure of trying fried artichoke hearts. But, they were all out of olives? How? Who knows.

          

On Saturday, we celebrated my sister's birthday by driving up to Illinois Beach State Park (just south of the retired Zion Nuclear Power Station. We drove up in my mom's new RV. (I feel very ambivalent about the RV and I think it is my mom's midlife crisis. When I have a midlife crisis I am getting an Astin Martin, not an RV.)

The Power Plant in the Distance Adds to the Ambiance

I got car sick in the RV so I was so happy when we got to the beach. My sister was sick because they work med students too hard so she ended up spending the whole time at the beach sleeping in the RV. My husband and I sat on the beach reading.

I walked around the beach and tired to take pictures of the skyline in the distance. I tried to go swimming but every time I got deeper than my belly button my diaphragm seized and I couldn't breath. Also, the beach was very rock and there was a maxi pad floating in the water. (I know Lake Michigan is gross but come on I'd never seen anything that gross at Gillson.)

#nofilter, All the Photos from my Phone Turned Out Lovely.

I planted an idea in my sister's head on the way back: Dinner at Walker Brothers Pancake House. We ended up going to the one in downtown Wilmette, along Green Bay Road, it is the oldest one and I think it is the nicest one since they don't make things like they used to anymore.

Carved Oak and Stained Glass
at Walker Bros.

Afterward, we went back to my parents' house and ate cake and opened her remaining presents.

She asked for confetti. She got checkerboard.
The monogramed crab water bottle
I got her is in the background.

The cake was from Deerfields Bakery as my mom and I could not plan far enough ahead or wake up early enough bake one. So we went to the bakery to buy her a cake. Deerfields Bakery has wonderful baked goods and my mom usually gets their super wonderful chocolate chip coffee cake for me when I come home to visit. This time I just got a real chocolate long john (I ordered a chocolate long john at a Dunkin Donuts in Maine and I got something that no joke looked like a turd, see the below photo for proof) and a chocolate chip sweet roll which was like a single serving coffee cake.

I asked for a chocolate long john in Augusta, Maine.
This is what they gave me. Would you eat this?
I did because I was hungry. It tasted much better
than it looked, which isn't really saying much.
But chocolate is never yucky even if its in a gross shape.