ChiTown Gardens

I just had a most wonderful weekend! It all started with a phone call to my mother back in January, to discuss what a hypothetical 65-year-old young woman would perhaps like to do to celebrate that auspicious milestone: a trip to the Bahamas? A plane ticket to visit grandchildren in Hawaii? A week in Vegas? Turns out, she wanted to go on a weekend to Chicago.

As it turns out that Chicago is one of my favorite cities to visit, I had to join in as chaperone.  Well, partner in crime may be more appropriate, but no matter.  It was a fun time had by all, from the people I rode in with on the train to the insane cab drivers who whipped us from place to place at Mach 1, expert waitresses serving us drinks and dinner, to the people sitting near us in the audience at the shows we attended each night.

 We were a hoot and a half, people.  Chicago may never be the same without us.

Since we had already ridden to the top of the Sears Tower and spent our meager wads of cash on Magnificent Mile a few years ago on a previous trip to the Windy City, this time we did "other" things.  On Saturday, we spent the whole day wandering around Lincoln Park, home to the zoo, the Lincoln Conservatory and the Alfred Cadwell Lily Pond garden.  Yes, I know:  I am a garden-dork and I am proud of it.  I think I'll put that on a bumper sticker.

Wandering through the Conservatory was like stepping into a tropical oasis.  All the textures of the plants, and the colors--it was better than any art museum could ever try to be, with all the loveliest paintings of flora and still life by the greatest masters of the world.  There is something about wandering in a garden, lush and damp, that makes me feel at home in even the busiest of metropolitan cities.