Wine, Wilco, and a boat.

This past weekend Wilco, my favorite band, was playing in Geneva, Ill. at the Kane County Cougar ballpark. Due to various reasons I decided not to purchase a ticket. Luckily, XRT was streaming the concert live from the ballpark! Luke and I decided to park ourselves in the back yard, drink some wine, and pretend as if we were at the show. It felt like our own personal Wilco concert. 

My other free time was spent crusin' Lake Michigan with a few friends. It always a good day when you can swim in the lake and float around. My favorite summer activity!

Friday Jam!

Though I would share a little song to jam to this weekend! Pack Up by Eliza Doolittle has been stuck in my head for a few weeks now. Lloyd Wade's voice in the chorus works so well with Eliza's girlie tune. I discovered it a little late but, as they always say, better late than never! Enjoy!

4th of July

Photo Credit

The 4th of July is by far my favorite holiday. I get to watch fireworks (one of my favorite things) and my hometown hosts a huge parade! What is even better than the parade is the fact that everyone is outside enjoying the day. Although the temperature was in the 100's yesterday (rare for the midwest) everyone from my town was still out celebrating the holiday. It is always fun to see what type of Americana fashion everyone is wearing. I thought I would share with you all what I wore yesterday!

Due to the weather I wanted to keep my outfit light and easy to wear. I wore this Free People slip - it is one of the most versatile pieces I own. Jean shorts are always a must on the 4th because I can sit on the curb and watch the parade without worrying about ruining my shorts. I then channeled my inner Rosie the Riveter and tied a red bandana in my hair. It was a perfect American-inspired outfit.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Art Institute

New Mexico Dining Room-Thorne Mini Rooms

Roy Lichtenstein landscape

Nichols Bridge

Goofin' before some pizza!

My wonderful dear friend Claire!

I have some wonderful news for my fellow Illinois residents...The Art Institute of Chicago is free on Wednesdays!  Luke, a few friends, and myself headed downtown to take advantage of the deal.

I visited my favorite exhibits - the photography exhibit (This Man Ray was my favorite) and the Thorne Miniature rooms! My next stop was the new Roy Lichtenstein exhibit. There were some of his classic comic style paintings but, what I liked the most were his still life's and landscapes. After leaving Lichtenstein I walked past the every so beautiful Nighthawks painting before heading over to the newly opened modern wing!

We only caught a few (literally two) modern exhibits before the AIC closed. Luckily, one of those two ended up being my favorite exhibit of the day. I REALLY recommended seeing Dawoud Bey's collection entitled "Harlem, U.S.A". They were some of the best photographs I have seen in a while,

We then headed out via the Nichols bridge (great view!) to grab some deep dish at Pizano's. It sounds like a touristy day but it is always fun to revisit some classic Chicago spots.

Golden Birthday

A few weeks ago I celebrated my golden 21st birthday on June 21st! For those that may not know - a golden birthday is when you turn the same age as your birthdate. Since it was my golden birthday I promised myself to only drink gold drinks and have a wonderful time doing it!

At midnight a few girlfriends and I went to the Leaning Tower of...Niles (I know its silly!) and popped some champagne before heading to a bar for my first legal drink. After a night of rest I woke up to the rest of my birthday! I threw on my cheetah print romper (as I mentioned earlier) and headed out for the day. 

One highlight of the day was meeting my dad and a few friends at our local brewery for my first legal beer! I then skipped back home for a dinner my mom cooked. She made delicious ribs, potato salad, and cut up some fresh watermelon. She even created beautiful center pieces based around my favorite flower, a daisy! After some ice cream pie I spent the rest of the night relaxing at home with some friends and family. It was truly a golden birthday :)

**Sorry for all of the mixed pictures. I lost my camera and have been working with my iPhone and a disposable camera.

Road Trip: Portland to Chicago

After Belize I headed out to Portland with my boyfriend Luke to pack up his apartment and drive his car home. With just one short day in Portland Luke and I decided to eat some good food and relax before our long drive home to Chicago. Luke's brother (an expert on Thai food - he lived in Thailand for a little) recommended the restaurant Chiang Mai. They had the most amazing food (and it was pretty cheap for how much food they serve you). We got the highly recommended Kao Soi - a traditional northern Thai dish - and it was incredible! I find myself craving it now. If you are out in the Portland area you should definitely go! 

When we left Portland we drove up to Seattle and then over to Missoula, MT to visit some friends. The drive was beautiful - full of green trees and snow dusted mountains. We stopped in Seattle to grab some lunch at the Public Market and to pick up trout to cook in Missoula. When I say pick up the fish I really mean have the trout thrown past our heads by the guys at Pike Place Fish Market (which you can see in the video!).

Missoula was filled with breathtaking views, good food, and even better friends. Most of my friends live/go to school out there so it is a treat to get to visit. After Missoula we headed straight back to Chicago - stopping only to sleep or to visit some tourist locations like the Mars Cheese Castle in Wisconsin and the Green Friend Giant statue in Blue Earth, Minnesota. I'll let the quick video above and pictures below speak for our road trip home!

University of Montana Campus

Yummy Artichoke sandwich at Scotty's Table in Missoula

Can you find us?

Belize: Island Edition

After saying our goodbyes to Ron, Al and the jungle we were finally ready to begin our journey to the  caye. All it took was a car, plane (very small plane...), and boat ride to get us all to Pelican Beach Resort (which I highly recommend) on South Water Caye. All of the traveling was well worth it because the island was beyond amazing. Itis the island that is in your daydreams  or the one that the doctor asks you to picture while giving you a shot 

Yup...Thats it! Pretty spectacular. 

As soon as we put our stuff down we rented snorkeling gear and swam out to the coral reef.  It was my first time snorkeling so I was a little nervous but I soon discovered it was as easy as everyone said it would be! I then spent the afternoon exploring/photographing the island and our resort.

Our cottage

View looking out from our cottage

The cottage's dock

Osprey that hung out around the cottage

Each day we would travel by boat to explore different reefs. We saw different types of sting rays, barracudas, and tons of fish (my favorite were the parrotfish). We even spent one night snorkeling which sounds more scary then it was. We saw lobster, crab, squid, bioluminescent plankton, and an octopus in the night waters!

If I wasn't snorkeling or swimming most of my time was spent reading, tanning and "hammocking". There were hammocks everywhere- on the beach, on our porch and hidden among trees. I think most afternoons I fell asleep in the hammock having only read two pages in my book. It was perfect.

Blurry-but captures our days perfectly

The last night on the island we ate a delicious dinner of fish and coconut rice. We spent the rest of the night listening to a huge storm roll in and loosing all of our money playing poker. Unfortunately, the storm got worse through the night so we were forced to leave the island while there was a break in weather. We traveled back to the mainland and then on to the airport. 

It was sad to say goodbye to such a beautiful vacation. I was so lucky that Luke's family decided to bring me along (THANK YOU SO MUCH!). We all said our goodbyes at the airport and headed back to separate states for the summer. Luke and I flew to Portland to finish packing up his apartment and then drove back to Chicago for the summer. I'll let y'all know how our drive back to Chicago was in my next blog post!