Life with MK: Chicago

Hello there! As promised, here is an update on my trip to Chicago this weekend. I left Thursday night and took the Amtrak into Union station. I stayed at a hostel called Freehand Chicago, which was overall great except there was someone in the bed I was supposed to be in every night, which was frustrating because I had to keep moving. The bed was comfortable though and as far as hostels go it was definitely among the better ones in terms of sleeping arrangements. Since I got in after midnight thanks to the infamous Amtrak delays, I pretty much just arrived and went to sleep.

Friday morning I woke up and got ready for the day. I walked around the area my hostel was in initially and went in a few stores for fun until it was time to hop on the Red Line up to the TSNY for my trampoline class. The class was great, except for the fact that I left with low back pain, probably from arching too much. I did however get my cradle (a trampoline move when you do a back drop with a 180º turn to another back drop, which is important for trapeze landing in the net as you get more advanced). After trampoline I went back to the hostel to pick up my flash drive, and then had lunch at Shake Shack, yum! I then took the bus to Uptown to get a quick 30 minute massage to help my back, which was wonderful. Thirty minutes is definitely NOT enough time for a massage, but is still great. I really liked the spa I went to and would definitely go back again if I lived anywhere near it.

After the massage I headed back to TSNY for my trapeze class. There were only 6 people in the class, which is my favorite size class as you get enough turns, but there is still enough rest. I worked on my swing, did a few back end splits, worked on my layout (very much still in the learning process), caught my gazelle, and did a shooting star. Overall a great class with a lot of turns. I also did an unassisted takeoff for the whole class very consistently, which was great! Progress definitely happening despite my three month break due to not living anywhere near a rig.

After class I headed back on the El and ordered takeout from Pizzeria Uno, which I ate in the hostel kitchen. I decided to grab a Coldstone for dessert, but they didn't have banana ice cream, so I got mint with oreo and banana and it was great, just no banana ice cream with brownie and peanut butter! I then headed to bed and watched an episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix.

Yesterday morning I got up and packed up everything (I really didn't bring that much so it was easy), and headed out. The nice thing about traveling with a small backpack is that I can bring it with me all day and not have to go back to get my bags! I hopped on the bus and went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free and open every day of the year. It was actually a really great zoo. Not huge, but has a ton of really cool animals, some of which I had never even heard of before like the Sichuan Takin, which is a large member of the goat family, but looks more like it should be in the antelope family. There were some very stupid people at the zoo as well, such as the adult who proudly exclaimed to her friend after seeing the pygmy hippos that, "regular hippos are carnivorous." First of all, why use the term regular hippos? As Christine said, as opposed to irregular hippos? Second of all, that is just blatantly wrong. They may be dangerous when provoked, but they most certainly are not carnivores. I can attest to that, having watched the hippo come to my campsite to graze every night when I was in Uganda and was blocked from getting to the bathroom so as not to become a hippo fatality. Anyways, the zoo was great and I had a lovely time.

After the zoo I walked to meet Katie for brunch at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reba. It was a nice little tapas style place that has delicious food. I had the shrimp and grits and citrus french toast with goat cheese butter and a waffle battered chicken sausage bite. Delicious. After brunch we walked around Lincoln Park and did a little mattress shopping and looking at Crate and Barrel and CB2. We also stopped in the Apple Store since her charger was broken. We then went to her studio and hung out briefly before I caught an Uber back to Union Station. Once there I grabbed some hummus and pretzels, a Oats n Honey bar, and a banana and then hopped on my train. It left only 1 minute late, but due to those lovely delays, arrived in Ann Arbor 40 minutes behind schedule. I will be shocked the day the Ann Arbor-Chicago route in either direction runs on time! I got home safely and went right to bed since it was very late. It was overall a fun weekend.

Enjoy the zoo pictures below!

Sichuan Takin

Mama and baby sloth! I missed the moment you could see their faces, but the sloths were as magical as usual!

Beautiful Jaguar

One of the African Painted Dogs

Francois Langurs playing. The baby was SO cute and small!

Monkey cuddles

Monkey lounging'

So obsessed with this monkey. All the monkeys here were having a blast playing around the enclosure.

This gorilla kept turning around and sticking his fingers under the fence so the zoo workers would play with his fingers. He also licked one of their phones through the fence.

Gorillas playing