Chi-City Fun (a very Swedish post)

A couple weeks ago Alex and I headed across I-70 and up I-55 to spend the weekend in the Windy City. We also met Alex's parents and brother for the weekend of fun. As a way to celebrate his dad's 50th birthday (which was last October btw...he turns 51 on Friday!) everyone decided the Anderson men should have some serious male bonding time at the Ryder Cup...especially since it was practically in our backyard. Or, you know, at least in the Midwest. Alex will cover his Ryder Cup experience in detail in a separate post, but for now you get to hear about my Chicago escapades!

While the men were out gallivanting at the golf tournament, my mother-in-law (Anna) and I had a blast shopping and visiting with friends and family members that live in Chicago. On Friday we met up with my old SWeven pal Bur (also known as Rachel Taylor) for some shopping at the Aurora Outlets. We snatched up several great finds (including a replica of Goldie the Watch for my friend Shannon...read more about that on her blog) but the deal of the day was at the Ecco Shoe Outlet. I found a pair of flats that retailed for $120 but were on sale for $50, PLUS they were having a buy one get one 50% off sale. BOOM! 2 pairs of shoes for $80. I'm still excited about the bargain two weeks later.

I forgot to take a pic with Bur, but here's an old
shot from our pre-married days circa 2008

After a day of shopping, Anna and I found the boys and then headed to dinner to see another set of old friends...Richard and Christa Payton. We've known Richard and Christa for a long time. Alex and I actually met through Richard our freshman year (he was our PA in the ResHall). Then we introduced Richard to Christa our sophomore year. That's how we roll. Making love connections since 2004.

It was great catching up with the Paytons

On Saturday the men headed back to the golf course, so Anna and I visited Andersonville. That's right, I married into a family that has a township. Jealous?

We even have banners. We're famous.

Ok, so maybe I'm not directly kin to the settlers of Andersonville, but it is a neighborhood in northern Chi-town with very Swedish roots. (For those who don't know, Alex is from Oakland...aka the Swedish capital of Nebraska.) Anna and I met Alex's cousin, Rachel, for an authentic Swedish breakfast at Ann Sather. In addition to Swedish pancakes, Swedish potato sausage and Swedish meatballs, they had the most delicious cinnamon rolls. And each roll was approximately the size of a softball. Yum with a capital "Y".

After breakfast Anna, Rachel and I walked around Andersonville visiting the various neighborhood shops. We also stopped and got our pictures taken with the village dala horse. Because a town is not truly Swedish unless it has a dala horse. (Oakland has one, too).

Anna and I with the dala horse.

Can you tell Alex's cousin Rachel is a Husker?

On our tour of Andersonville we ran in to a few particularly cool places and things. First, we stumbled across this awesome place called the Andersonville Galleria: a 3 story building with over 100 different independent artists and merchants. One of the booths had these fantastic graphic representations of several Chicago neighborhoods, including Andersonville. This was a must-have and will look great in the living room (when we finally get around to framing and hanging it).

Later we walked past a puppet show, performed out of a trailer hooked to the back of a bike. So random, yet so awesome.

Finally, we stopped by this comic shop aptly named Alley Cat Comics (you had to walk through this tiny alley to get to the store).

The shop itself was fine, but the true prize was running into Batman. Yep, Batman. There was this random guy (or maybe it really was Bruce Wayne) dressed as Batman perched atop one of the neighboring buildings.

Batman, in the flesh.

Perched in the shadows, observing Gotham...I mean Andersonville.

We had a blast spending time with Alex's family and then topped off our weekend-o-fun with a (not so) quick stop at Ikea on our way out of town. I'll spare you all of those nitty, gritty details, but we did walk away with a bunch of swag for the house. And I'm super pumped for Kansas City to finally get an Ikea in a year or so. It will definitely beat driving 5+ hours to the nearest Swedish mega-store.

There you have it. A very Swedish post...as promised!