Michigan City Getaway

Last weekend Jayme and I went on a weekend break to Michigan City. We booked a lake house and went with two other couples. Michigan City is on the other side of the lake from Chicago. It only takes two hours to get there but feels a million miles from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

The house was absolutely amazing, it had a huge deck, grill, 4 person hot tub, a steam room and a view straight onto the beach and lake.

We spent most of the time sunbathing, eating and drinking! Jeff cooked some amazing food but we all pitched in and I even managed to get some Pimms and lemonade going which went down really well.

Its 4th of July Saturday (some celebration to remember the US winning some sort of war lol) so lots of partying to be done so I'll update you on that one!

Milwaukee WWE & Harley Museum

Early last week Jayme and I took a trip to Milwaukee, a smaller city North of Chicago. Milwaukee is most famous for two things, Miller beer and Harley Davidson.

On the Tuesday night however we were in town to watch the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) roll into town and present their Smackdown show. It was really good fun and after some initial scepticism even Jayme enjoyed it! There was some great pyrotechnics and we were even lucky enough to get a cage match! (Four wrestlers locked inside a 12 foot high steel cage). You will note that in the picture Jayme even bought her very own WWE t-shirt!

On the Wednesday we visited the Harley Davidson museum. The first bike was produced in Milwaukee in 1903 and has been a cultural icon ever since. In the pics I've included the Harley that Jayme and I designed and had e-mailed to us! It was really fun to look at some of the amazing bikes there!

MayFest - Deutches Uber Alles

At the end of May I took a trip to my first Chicago street festival. Every summer weekend different streets or blocks close of their roads and set up festivals with beer, food, music and other fun stuff.

The fest I attended was MayFest, a take on OctoberFest In Germany. It had brats, German beer, music and silly hats . . . . . oh and some lederhosen!!

http://www.mayfestchicago.com/

We met up with Katy and Brian and their son George, (who is also a blogger) and I managed to win him a White Sox teddy!! Oh and I got Jayme to wear a silly hat (actually only because she wouldn't let me wear it)

USA Vs Wales Rugby Union Game

On the 6th June the mighty men of Harlech came to town to play the USA rugby team as part of their US tour. The game took place at Toyota Field which is located in the suburbs of Chicago and is also where Chicago Fire play (Chicago's soccer team).

The game was a bit of a rout, 48-15 to Wales but on the plus side USA did manage to croc the Wales captain so not all bad news! Needless to say I was cheering on the USA! (The only time I would support Wales is if they were playing France). The weather was abysmal as usual but the day was saved by finding a guy selling Newcastle Brown Ale!!

Match report is here:

http://www.skysports.com/rugbyunion/match_report/0,20244,11069_3146084,00.html

Tom's Place

At the start of May I moved into my own place. Don't worry Jayme hasn't chucked me out yet! We decided it would be a good idea so we can have our own space when we need it. The apartment is very close to Jayme and is close to bars, shops and train stations. You can have a look at it here:

http://www.theenterprisecompanies.com/rentals_brewery.html

Amongst other things it has a workout room and two roof decks for summer drinking and getting a tan. The decks also afford an awsome view of the city skyline. I say about the roof decks with a wry smile on my face. This is because while writing this blog at 11am on a mid June morning, I have all my lights on as it is so dark due to a mother of all storms I can't see!

I have included some photos of the decks, the view and internals of my place.

Jayme's Dad's Surprise 60th In Pittsburgh

Last weekend Jayme and I went to her hometown of Pittsburgh. Now Pittsburgh was named after William Pitt (Dad: Older or younger??) and was home to the American steel industry before it collapsed. It has a negative reputation as a tough, gritty, blue collar town largely due to its industrial background. This however couldn't be further from the truth, its actually my favorite place I've been to in the States. It has a great sporting history, the American Football team is the most successful ever and the ice hockey team is currently in the finals.

The city is at the meeting point of three rivers the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio and is known as the city of bridges. Check it all out here: http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/

Anyway we were there for Jayme's dad's (Rich) 60th birthday. There were three parts to the surprise, number one was that he didn't know Jayme was coming into town! The second part was that he wasn't expecting Jayme's brother Wade to come to town!

After this Wade and I had the job of getting him to the bar where Jayme and her mum (Joan) had got friends and family together. It was a great time!

Couple of pics here to look at:

• Jayme, mum, dad, brother.
• Tom with JR and Chad who are two of Jayme's high school friends partners and great guys!
• Picture Of Pittsburgh

Jayme And Toms First Wedding Date!

On the weekend of the 16th/17th May Jayme was invited to be a bridesmaid at her friend Amber and Mike's wedding in Cleveland Ohio.

Jayme arrived a day before me but we met up for the rehearsal dinner at a hotel in the suburbs.

The following day Jayme was doing girly bridesmaid stuff so I went on a trip to downtown Cleveland with one her fellow bridesmaids boyfriends. We went to the rock and roll hall of fame which was really interesting. I saw a Cadillac that Elvis bought for his bodyguard. He also bought 12 others at the same time for his friends and family . . . oh and one for a girl who was window shopping at the dealership!

In the evening we went to a friends and lit up the fire pit and I had my first taste of (Toasted marshmallow and chocolate stuffed in between biscuits) YUM!

The next day was the wedding which was really nice. Jayme looked fabulous (I didn't look too bad myself). The reception was held at a golf course function room which was really pretty. I got to meet loads of Jayme's really close friends for the first time and had a blast!

After waking up (someone who shall remain nameless woke us up at 8.30am lol) we took a trip out to see Tanya & her husband David. Tanya is an old friend of Jayme's from college and had literally the day before had a baby boy. I had met them both in Vegas the year before. Cue Jayme being super cute with very very very small and cute Sebastian.

After a quick trip to grab a bloody on the riverside we took dinner at Melissa's parents house and flew home . . . . exhausted!!

Birthday Treat . . . . . . A Surprise Trip To Colorado - 5

NEIL YOUNG!!

As mentioned earlier Jayme got me tickets to see Neil Young. This was actually on my list of things to do before I die so that only leaves Watford winning the Premiership!!

Unfortunately the gig was camera free . . . . I did get a couple of snaps in between getting hassled by an over zealous steward but have yet to download them from my camera. We had great seats about 10 meters away to the left of the stage. He played loads of his old stuff, Cinnamon Girl, Everybody Knows (This Is Nowhere), Change Your Mind and his special version of All Along The Watchtower.

I also got the soundman's set list which was an awesome souvenir. I'll scan that in as well so you can check it out!!

Birthday Treat . . . . A Surprise Trip To Colorado - 4

I got woken up early on our final full day in Denver with the best surprise ever, Neil Young tickets! Yep the legend was in town and Jayme got us both tickets!!

But before we went to see him we had a full day so we hot-tailed out to Red Rocks. Red Rocks is a national park set around its main feature a natural amphitheatre carved out of . . . yep red rock! Its a very interesting place paleontology wise as well as geologically (Mum check it out).

The amphitheatre has hosted pretty much every music star there has ever been, check out the website if you don't believe me: http://www.redrocksonline.com/

The place is also home to some cool trails which were not so demanding (thank god) as the previous expedition! We wandered round watching out for mountain lions or bears which we didn't see.

Then back to Denver for NY . . . .

Birthday Treat . . . . . A Surprise Trip To Colarado -4

The same day as our mountaineering trip we drove into Denver. We stayed at the Hotel Monaco, this hotel chain has an interesting addition to its rooms; your own Goldfish in every room! We named ours Mean Joe, a reference to a Steelers (American Football) legend. This was largely due to it being Gold and Black the teams colours! http://www.kimptonhotels.com/pdfs/pet/06_Guppy_Love.pdf

We went to a great restaurant whose theme is dipping . . . yup dipping sauces! Its actually a really cool idea, you get three sauces per main and you get to choose them. Check it out here: http://www.vestagrill.com/

Oh and for the first time since I arrived I got to see a great American tradition . . . smoking manhole covers!

Birthday Treat . . . . . A Surprise Trip To Colarado - 3

After a late night eating and drinking Jayme and I decided to do something healthy and climb up a mountain at Chautauqa Park, (follow this link for our hike info) http://www.protrails.com/trail.php?trailID=69 Did I say healthy? I meant insane.

After speaking to Ranger Smith (actually one of his elderly female assistants and we never did see Yogi or BooBoo) we headed out onto the trail. Tip; When Ranger Smith or assoc. tell you its an easy gentle trail DON'T LISTEN they're just trying to show you that your an out of towner who's unfit, overweight and drinks too much!!

The trail soon turned from a nice cinder path to a mountain . . . like a real mountain, big wet rocks waterfalls and stuff. It's also very disconcerting when you turn round red faced and find that there is a fifty year old dad with his daughter strapped to his back overtaking you while you're doubled up dying of exhaustion!

It was all worth it in the end and we got to the top to see the Grand Arch with some amazing views as you can see! We could see Denver which was 40+ miles away!

Birthday Treat . . . . . A Surprise Trip To Colarado - 2

For my birthday Jayme took me out to a truly wonderful restaurant perched above Boulder called Flagstaff House http://www.flagstaffhouse.com/ Along with the views was a menu worthy of the best chefs in any city. I had a Beef Wellington with Fois Gras (Just remember the Geese love eating all that food) and got a special spun sugar birthday card!

Oh did I mention they have one of the worlds biggest wine collections (over 20,000 bottles) including every Chateau Mouton Rothschild with hand painted labels? Cheapest was $2500 so I didn't try one.

Birthday Treat . . . . A Surprise Trip To Colorado - 1

So for my birthday treat I got another surprise. A trip to Denver Colorado to see the Rocky Mountains.

Boulder

We flew to Denver airport then took a short drive to a town called Boulder. http://bouldercolorado.gov/ The town is home to the University of Colorado so its a young vibrant town with tons of great places to eat and drink as well as awesome scenery. It was also tulip festival so lots of pretty flower beds!

We stayed at the Hotel Boulderado (cool name eh?) http://www.boulderado.com/ and spent the first day on a car ride through the mountains to Estes National Park. http://www.estes-park.com/ This was amazing, including the weather which was freezing fog at 15 foot visibility, with some great views of the mountains when you could see them!

I saw loads of cool new wildlife. This is not a passion that Jayme shares so she thought I was mad when photographing birds, flowers, animals, trees and mountains!

We were also privy to some slightly worrying road signs such as 'In event of flash flood climb to safety' although as this was followed by 'Beware Rock Falls' I'm not sure whether drowning or dying in a rock fall was the lesser of two evils!

OK so some photos of:

• Jayme and Tom in front of Boulder Falls
• Boulder Falls Ravine
• Visibility (Or lack thereof) while driving
• Estes National Park Sign
• Boulder Tulips

Music . . . To Be Continued

Ok so a live music update . . . . . . have been to see so far:

• Mates Of State (Awsome husband and wife two piece) www.matesofstate.com
• Franz Ferdinand (You should have heard of these, very good live) www.franzferdinand.co.uk
• Rusted Root (Really cool band from Pittsburgh, Jaymes hometown, who even played a Neil Young cover) www.rustedroot.com
• Neil Young (Best singer-songwriter in last century, seen in Denver . . . check out seperate blog for info) www.neilyoung.com

Coming Up Are:

• Billy Joel & Elton John (Live at Wrigley Field Home Of Cubs Baseball Team) http://www.billyjoel.com/news/billy-joel-and-elton-john-tour-dates
• Lollapolooza (Chicagos very own music festival featuring SO many cool bands . . . . Killers, Beastie Boys, Kings Of Leon, Gomez, Artic Monkeys) http://2009.lollapalooza.com/

Easter Weekend

For Easter Sunday we were invited to Jayme's best friend, Melissa, for lunch. Her parents were there for the weekend and they cooked the most amazing fillet steak with homemade Bearnaise Sauce . . . . . YUM!

Jayme and I were tasked with making an appetizer and chose to do an Italian anti-pesto board. Needless to say it was up to Marco Pierre White standards and included great cheeses, olives, breads and meats.

For all those that love food I'll attach a photo to make you hungry!

My Surprise Party

Two weekends after arriving Jayme very sneakily arranged a surprise welcome to the USA party for me. It was such a surprise she even got me to buy all the food for the party as well as cleaning the apartment top to bottom! You can see just how surprised I was from the 'me walking in the door and crapping my pants' photo.

We all had a great time and ended up at one of the very numerous bars near to us!

Getting College Started

So after sorting loads of stuff out over just a couple of days I started at Kendall College (picture included) www.kendall.edu . I'm doing the Business program and it was an excellent enrollment day. I got given my schedule which rocked, I got Fridays off so long w/e's for the first term! We also got tickets for a White Sox game (Baseball in case you were wondering) which was my first ballgame. The weather was awsome and the Sox won (Perhaps I should go more often as they're not doing too well).

FLIGHT TO CHI-TOWN

My flight to Chicago was amazing. My BA employed Cuz Adam helped me out not only with a great deal on flights but got me upgraded!!!

Shout out to you Adam!! Much appreciated! Check out my chilling, feet up with a CHOICE of champagne photo!! (Sorry for the rabbit caught in the headlights face)