thE WindY CitY

Saturday was our annual train trip to Chicago for a little Christmas shopping. Usually we go in December but after having horrible weather the last couple of years we went a little earlier this year and we were so happy we did because it was in the mid-60's and beautiful. No ice, snow or wondering if we were going to have to cancel this year. Our group is usually anywhere from 10-20 people...cousins, aunts, uncles, moms, sisters, nieces. We eat lunch, shop, talk, people watch and then later on there's a little more eating, gossiping and shopping, it's a great day. This year my sister couldn't go and we were a little lost (literally) without her as she is the "Cruise Director" if you will....makes decisions, tells us which way to go, etc. And I'm wondering if she had been there if we would have gotten ourselves into the predicament we did at the end of the day. Let me just say that we were at the train station an hour early but somehow missed the boarding announcement (too much gossiping?), were not paying attention to the time and had to run from inside the station all the way to the train-everyone had boarded and we were yelled at by various Amtrak workers along the way, and not a nice encouraging yell, but yelling. It was pretty embarrassing-a big group running like that, carrying all those bags- and pretty humiliating realizing how out of shape I am too. BUT, it was a great day, it's a family tradition that I love and of course we really had something to laugh about the whole way home.

Can't wait until next year!