after a full 10 hours of sleep, we got up and headed a few blocks over to north coast cafe where i had an omlette that (cover your ears nashvillians) rivals any omlette i’ve ever had from the pancake pantry. it was called the yianni and i was mocked by my friends when i ordered it but when it showed up in all its spinach, feta and onion glory, we all knew who made the right choice. alongside some hash browns, two slices of rye toast and a great cup of coffee it was one of the finest breakfasts i’ve had in quite some time. definitely a place to check out if you’re in chicago.

after that we split up and brian and i headed out to do some shopping. i finally got to go into the container store instead of just nerdily surfing their site. and the highlight of my shopping experience in chicago: sur la table. holy crap. its seldom that brian has ever had to say that he can’t get me out of a store, but i think i might have shed a tear when leaving sur la table today. i got some great stuff, most notably a cake holder and some new measuring tools. YAY!

after a late lunch at home, we all tried to avoid being old people and napping until christie’s friends came over for the party. we walked over to the beach where i purchased a jumbo ice cream sandwich. yummy:

a note to shannon’s nashville friends: i just thought you should all know that he changed clothes before this party and wore something besides a white or black tshirt. apparently he never felt the need to dress up for us:

christie’s friends from chicago came over as well as donnie who happened to be in town. we stayed up until well after midnight (yes, midnight!) at which point:

1. shannon wished he was drinking more beer, but was too tired
2. brian wished he was sleeping, because he was too tired
3. i wished i was blogging, but was too tired
4. christie was still mocking shannon. never too tired for some of that.

after our final night of something we liked to call “air mattress wars” (we won’t get any more descriptive than that…) it was time to wake up and drive home, sans shannon. its always sad when you leave your friends behind, but lucky for us, we had some excitement to break up the drive home. we stopped in indianapolis to visit our friends philip and crystal (who are actually coming to visit us in nashville on friday!) it was great to see them and their new house, and we had a great lunch together. discovered that philip is also a new convert to running, with a really great reason for his running. check it out here. he was diagnosed with cancer a few years back and is running the chicago marathon to raise money for cancer research this fall. a fantastic trip to chicago ended on an even better note - next trip to chicago: october 7 to watch philip cross the finish line