Who's afraid of a little cold??

Jen came to visit this weekend! I have really missed her, and we have had the best time. I had a 4 day weekend thanks to an institute day as well as MLK Day. So, being the insane people we are we decided to hang out in Chicago. It was only 3 degrees below zero with a windchill of -20 or so!

So we bundled up, hopped on the train and spent a good four hours traipsing around the frigid city on Friday having a blast. All told we walked 4 1/2 miles and spent about four hours in places like Millennium Park, Pioneer Court and Navy Pier.

Of course, crazy people that we are, that was not enough. Oh no. On Sunday we talked Kim into driving us back downtown and spent several more hours running around Belmont Harbor, North Avenue Beach, the Museum Campus and Northerly Island. And we rewarded ourselves with lunch and drinks at Uncommon Ground near Wrigley Field.

Yes, we Chicagoans are made of hearty/hardy stock. And Jen? She is just a misplanted Texan. :)

Washington Street - does the bluish cast make it look cold?

Chicago is sooooooooo proud of Barack Obama!!


Cloudscape aka "the Bean"

Kelsey and Jen under "the Bean."

J. Steward Johnson's "God Bless America" at Pioneer Court.
Last time we saw this Jen and I were in Key West.
Slight difference in temperature!

I think the moose was at home in the cold!

Taken from the upper terrace at the north end of Navy Pier.

Stained Glass Museum at Navy Pier. Great way to warm up!

We were outside for 4 hours or so......except for coffee at Starbucks to warm up!

Kim and Jen at Belmont Harbor on Sunday.

Looking south from Belmont Harbor.

Karen's drink: Frida Kahlo: YUMMY!(vanilla bean vodka, omanhene fair trade chocolate, kahlua,spicy cinnamon-cayenne)
Jen's Drink: Tree-Tini: (organic ginger infused rain vodka, liquor 43, tart apple syrup
& apple cider)
BEST OF ALL? For every Tree-Tini ordered, Uncommon Ground plants a tree! Who knew a cocktail could help save the earth?

Kelsey's Drink. It was YUMMY! !
Haute Chocolat
(orange liqueur, omanhene chocolate, vanilla steamed milk,
topped with whipped cream, orange zest & nutmeg)

Hanging out at North Avenue Beach..... :)

Jen and Kelsey at North Avenue Beach.

Looking south from North Avenue Beach.

It was a gorgeous day!

While we were at Northerly Island the clouds started rolling in...

Jen at the Adler Planetarium.

Got an Ark??

You can't get there from here was the theme of the day. It is officially one for the record books. The Chicagoland area got anywhere from 6 to 8 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, depending where you live. Retention ponds and rivers were over their banks. Kirk Rd, Butterfield Rd, Route 34 and many, many others were under water. Main street in Wheaton at Roosevelt road had several feet of water covering it and all of the Hubble middle school campus. O'Hare Airport's baggage area was flooded, the blue line was shut down, part of I-90 was closed as was part of I-94 and they opened the locks and reversed the river to flow into Lake Michigan to alleviate the flooding in the city. The Deep Tunnel was filled to capacity by 7:30 am. At times the rain looked like the back side of a waterfall. Parking lots all over were under several feet of water and you had to detour no matter where you went. And towns all over the area are dealing with 2-3 feet of water in their neighborhoods. In Des Plains they are evacuating neighborhoods. Needless to say basements were flooded all over too - including our neighbors because his sump pump failed. Our back yard literally had a river running through it, down hill and on through the neighbors yard - taking all vegetation in it's path with it. There's still have a lake back there.....
We are still expected to have another 3-5 inches, again depending on where you live as the remnants of Ike reach us tomorrow. You wonder when you leave the house if you will be able to get back home.......
What a crazy, weird day. In 137 years of recorded weather stats here in Illinois there has NEVER been a rainier day...... or worse flooding.

Chicago Suntimes News Article

Edit: Cook County has declared a State of Emergency. Roads are closed all around the area. Rivers are above their banks at record high - the last record for the DuPage river having been set just 12 years ago. Lot of detours. We can't get to Winfield from here unless we go North Ave. Sections of 290, 88, 56, 294 under water. Just a royal mess. Flooding everywhere you look, but we have been fortunate that our sump pump held out and the basement did not leak. :) The river, and the new Gerber Lake are still in the back yard.....
...

Edit: After horrible messes on the expressways, including 94 being totally shut down and the only good way into IL from IN being the Skyway, and after lots of school closings - including Kim's, and after water not only in the basements, but several feet high in main floors, and after DesPlaines (including the ORIGINAL McDonalds) being totally flooded and only a handful of roads even being open, and after seeing motor boats and kayaks in the streets, and after 6 counties including DuPage being declared disaster areas......the sun FINALLY came out!!!!

Our backyard lake is mostly gone, our neighbors have cleaned up their flooded basement, schools are open again, and travel from town to town has become almost normal again. Unfortunately it's still not over for some towns like DesPlaines - rivers still are way above flood stage, but starting to level off. We officially got 9.something inches of rain in West Chicago in those 2 days.
It's supposed to be sunny all week. Hopefully they are right!