Category Archives: mini trips

On Busyness. Maple Granola.

Posted in food, mini trips, relationships, summer by

My first instinct was to spell busyness like this: business. Then I realized that’s an entirely different word. This post is about business, the business of my life for the past few months, but business sounds very coat and tie and heels, and, well, I’ve been busy, but I haven’t been business. I’ll never be business.

Being busy. That’s where I’ve been. Busy living my life and not telling you about it. Busy testing cupcake and salad recipes for bridal showers. Busy being an editor again while being busy being a marketing director by day. Yeah, that’s right, marketing director by day, editor by night. I am a super hero. Busy running my brains out, racking up the miles, looking to 26.2 miles in November. Busy making pasta with fresh peas from my garden and drinking bourbon ginger ales. Busy cooking brats over an open flame.

Busy exploring my city like I’ve never lived here before. Busy following the signs. Busy drinking good beer, listening to good music, and watching fireworks explode in the night sky.

Busy doing all this with this guy who keeps me busy every day with thinking how lucky I am to have bumped into him in this busy sea.

Busy. Have to remember to stop and take a breath sometimes.

Take a breath and look up at the stars and the moon, dip your feet into a lake, watch relationships being built.

Enjoy a cup of coffee, or three, with the person you love while the sun shines down. Take a breath and remind yourself why you’re doing all these things that keep you so busy. This relationship, even though it requires some driving, is inspiring and makes me believe in so much again. That second job surrounds me with people who are strong and courageous in a way I am certain I could never be. They are my heroes.

The busy is worth it. Every second.

So maybe you’re busy, too. Summer can be like that. It’s a funny season. The air is hot and thick, and the days are longer. Everything points to slowing down, yet summer always seems to be full of activities, of trying to cram as much into these warm, lazy days as possible.

This summer I’ve discovered the best food: homemade granola. It’s not crunchy and granola as in you’ll be a hippy making your own granola in your oven. It is crunchy and granola as in it bakes up into clumps of sweet, oaty goodness that wants to be covered in almond milk, yogurt, fresh summer berries, and really eaten right from a jar.

Did you know that granola is ridiculously easy to make? It is, and I feel someone really mean and selfish has been withholding this beautiful knowledge from me. Granola takes one bowl, one spoon, a measuring spoon, and one baking sheet to make. It doesn’t even take measuring cups if you have a kitchen scale (and I say, get a kitchen scale, because it’ll make you love cooking even more than you already do, and it’ll make all your measurements so much more accurate. Deb convinced me with her cookbook full of ingredients in weights finally.) This granola unassumingly sits in your oven, filling your house with a cinnamon maple smell.

The hardest part will probably be finding unsweetened coconut flakes. (I found mine at Whole Foods in the baking section.) The second hardest part will be believing that you made granola that sticks together in lovely clumps. The secret is the egg white (or 3 tablespoons of water + 1 tablespoon of flaxseed if you’re the vegan type).

In between all of the rushing around I’ve been doing, I manage to always make batches of this granola. My big glass jar is always full of it. Trust me on this one.

I would like to give credit where credit is due. The food styling in these granola, yogurt, and blueberry photos was all done by my boyfriend, Karl. I got a ridiculous amount of pleasure watching him lean over the bowls and carefully sprinkle granola over yogurt and place berries on top without any guidance from me.

Crunchy Maple Granola
Straight from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Ingredients
3 cups (240 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup (50 grams) unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut
1 cup (100 grams) walnuts (or other nut of your choice), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (25 grams) toasted wheat germ
2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (120 ml) maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large egg white
1 1/2 cups (215 grams) dried cherries, cranberries, or other dried fruit, diced into large pieces

Preheat your oven to 300°.

Combine all ingredients but egg white and dried fruit in a large bowl, tossing to coat evenly. Whisk the egg white in a small bowl until frothy. Stir into the granola mixture, distributing it throughout.

Spread granola mixture in a single layer onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. (If you don’t have parchment paper, don’t line the baking sheet with anything. You’ll just have to do some scraping of granola bits when you wash the baking sheet.)

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes. About halfway through the baking time, use a large spatula to turn over sections of the granola as carefully as you can. (I break the big chunks up accidentally often and sometimes lose track of what I’ve flipped. It’s OK. Flip the majority as best you can.) Rotate the pan.

When the granola is evenly browned and feels dry to the touch, transfer the pan from the oven to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

Once it’s completely cool, break up granola into whatever size clusters delight you. Sprinkle in dried fruit.

This granola will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 2 weeks. It keeps even longer in the freezer.

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Race Recap: Lakefront Discovery 15K

Posted in mini trips, politics, running by

First of all, I’m just going to say please go vote tomorrow. Take advantage of the awesome privilege we have by just living in this country. And then, at the end of the day, remember this that my yoga instructor said today during class … The sun will rise and set on Wednesday no matter what happens politically or who wins. We’ll still go on living, getting up, eating, running, being friends with those who have different opinions than us. And, on Wednesday we can look forward to mailboxes and tvs vacant of political ads!

OK, so I promised a race recap in my last post. Two weekends ago, October 27, I headed up to Milwaukee to spend the weekend with my friend Heather and run the Lakefront Discovery 15K. Being near Halloween, costumes were highly suggested. Heather and I are not ones to shy away from acting a fool. We dressed up as a barmaid and a fairy princess (I swore the wings would help me run faster).

Barmaids and fairy princesses know how to run.

We snapped this picture post-race at the Milwaukee Ale House after party. Free beer? OK!

Before we celebrated though, we actually had to run. Ridiculous, I know. So we parked, stretched, and peed. I was convinced I needed to pee again. I’m a nervous peer before races. Now you know all about me peeing habits. Lucky you! We found a few of our Ragnar Dairy Queen teammates before the race began. (Running is like a little community! It’s making my world feel smaller!) The route started at the Italian Community Center and ran along Lake Michigan. I actually took the below picture around mile two while I was running!

Lake Michigan as seem from the Lakefront Discovery 15K in Milwaukee.

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Cranberry Pear Pie

Posted in autumn, baked, food, holidays, mini trips by

Do you ever feel like you’re going to lose it? If the dog puts her head sweetly on my leg one more time and looks at me with those puppy dog eyes. If the cat utters another single meow as she begs me to toss her duck tape football toy. If one more car drives by my house TOO LOUDLY. If one more part of my body, my leg, ear, arm, anything, itches. If one more insignificant item drops to the ground, and I am forced to bend down and pick it up. I swear to God I will explode.

I may or may not be on my period.

I may or may not be perpetuating that stereotype that women go crazy on their periods.

Dudes, this does not give you the green light to throw a girl’s period/pms in her face when she’s being “weird.” This is called a double standard. It’s cool.

It’s days like this that I should not have jars of Nutella in my house. Or half of a pie. But I’m so glad I have half of a pie in my house for two reasons. One, it’s a damn good pie, and I love a damn good pie. Two, it was a result of a damn good weekend.

My trips this fall seem to be coming at just the right times, just when I need distraction the most, when I’m getting too caught up in my own weird head. This past weekend I drove up to Milwaukee with the dog to do the Lakefront Discovery 15K with my friend Heather. More on the race in a later post.

Car rides with Mir.

Before my arrival in Milwaukee, Heather alerted me of a pie crust she had made that was waiting for me in her freezer. We had plans to fill it with nutella (that pesky condiment again), apples, and cherries, but somewhere between the free post-race beers, the dude in pink and purple spandex, the guy painted blue, and lunch at a lovely local restaurant called Cafe Benelux we changed our minds…cranberry pear would be a much better filling.

We didn’t start the pie until around 9 p.m., and if you know a thing or two about pie making, you know a pie takes about an hour to cook, and then has to cool. Completely. Like it’ll tempt you on the counter for another hour as the filling continues to thicken. So we didn’t actually eat any until breakfast the next morning. But let me just say that when we did….mmmmm.

This pie should probably end up on your Thanksgiving table. Who wants traditional apple or pumpkin anyway? Or it could just end up on your Wednesday night table. But you should really make it ASAP while the pears are in season. And, lucky you, fresh cranberries should be appearing in groceries soon in preparation for the holidays. If they aren’t freshly around though, just check your freezer section.

This pie is sweet and fresh from the pears and perfectly tart from the cranberries with just a touch of spice from the cinnamon. It’s this perfect combination. If, however, you do not like a tart pie, you can add more sugar. I just happen to like my pies kind of slutty.

You have all sorts of crust options! It’s really exciting. You have my personal favorite, a vodka lard/butter pie crust, a non-vodka butter and crisco crust, or an all butter vodka crust. Feel free to use all butter in that non-vodka crust if that’s your thing. Just sub the crisco with the same amount of ice cold cubed butter. Heather and I made this pie with a crumble topping. It’s way yummy. You can totes make this a double crust pie if you heart desires though.

So let’s make a pie, bitches, and get out of our heads!

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Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

Posted in autumn, dinner, friends, mini trips, running, vegetarian, work by

Last time I posted I think the season could still be considered summer. Now we are knee deep in autumn. This is totes my favorite season. Changing leaves, cool weather/perfect running weather, cozy food, and art contest prize delivery trips!

Michael and I ran in a 5K with a few of his friends earlier this month.

I have yet to run a race in my FiveFingers, a goal I set for myself in the spring to reach by the end of the summer, but this 5K was amazing. It was at Mallow Run Winery, a bit south of Indianapolis. Firstly, I’m super happy with my time of 24:25. Guys, that’s a 7:52 per mile average pace! That’s under 8 minutes! These are things I never thought I’d say about myself as a runner. Secondly, we got a free glass of wine after the race. Thirdly, we tasted various wines after our free glasses.

Fourthly, we bought two bottles of wine per couple and sat on the patio and enjoyed many glasses. Wine and running and friendly people are a good combo!

In the last month my magazine’s amazing art director and I have traveled to three cities to deliver prizes for our art contest. Do you have a kid? You should so enter! Multiple perks to these trips include: making the day of a kid and his or her family, giving money to art programs in schools, getting to visit awesome cities!

San Diego. We visited the San Diego Zoo. Oh mah Gawd, it was worth every dollar of the $40 we paid to get in! We ate cupcakes two nights in a row. We saw seals. We hiked on the beach And we saw Erica!

I went to high school with Erica. She moved to L.A. for college and is still there. I’m glad we’ve stayed friends despite miles and time. The kind of weird thing about this whole trip is that most of the time it was cloudy. I thought San Diego was sunny almost all the time.

Knoxville. We had a hotel…disaster…horror story…grossness…long story short, the hotel was terrible and we ran at 11:30 at night. Before we broke free from trucker hell, we wandered around downtown Knoxville. Jen had a contact emergency that took us to this little grocery.

They had growlers and eight beers on tap IN THE GROCERY. Like a little bar in the grocery with awesome beer! I died a little. Just one more reason the South is superior.

Kalamazoo. The Bell’s Brewery is located in Kalamazoo. Oktoberfest is in season. Have you had Oktoberfest on tap at the Brewery that it comes from? Holy amazing caramel-flavored beer awesomeness! We sat in the bier garden and enjoyed some pints. I left with a six pack of Oktoberfest and a variety six pack.

I just realized that I sound like a drunk. Wine. Beer. Beer. I am not a drunk. I am not a drunk …

So cozy autumn food. It goes well with Bell’s beer. It goes well with cool weather. Unfortunately we are having some sort of Indian summer during the days. 70s and 80s, what? I don’t care. I’ve been cooking roasted chicken, potatoes, and butternut squash (which, sidenote, is amazing, sweet, and creamy just diced, salted, peppered, and nutmeged, and roasted), vegetarian chili, and a new soup, coconut curry noodle soup.

This soup is coconuty, spicy, flavorful, and I love the slurpy noodles. I actually managed to eat most of the soup with chopsticks! As is, the recipe is vegetarian, but I’d say add in some chicken or shrimp if you so desire. One of my favorite soup perks is how it lasts for multiple meals. This one gave me two dinners and two lunches. Plus, it was insanely affordable. I got my ingredients at the farmers market and an incredible international grocery in town called Saraga. They have a whole aisle practically of curries. And all sorts of produce from around the world. And all of the exotic food that costs a fortune at the regular grocery cost half the price. I think overall, this meal, or four meals, cost me around $10. Seriously, guys.

The recipe calls for Singapore noodles, but you can sub any rice noodle. Laksa paste is a type of curry paste. I found a jar at Saraga, but if you can’t, just go for any curry paste available. As for vegetables, I used a carrot, a zucchini, and a red pepper.

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Days 24 – 28 – Photo time!

Posted in 30 Days of Creativity, baked, blogs, Lola, mini trips, Mira, photos by

I was out of town this past weekend. We drove to St. Louis to visit some of Michael’s family. No time to update the blog. Had to get creative with being creative! Oh my goodness do I love Instagram. If you have an iPhone, download this app. Between discussing Dick’s (and what it’s like to be inside one) with Michael’s aunt, uncle, and cousins, eating ice cream, playing kickball, and meeting grandparents, I was happy to have an easy way to be creative with my phone.

Day 24


Ted Drewes in St. Louis – delicious and apparently highly sought considering the lines custard.

Day 25 

I was missing my girls on Saturday. I took this picture just with my regular phone camera last week. On Saturday I played around with the various lenses on Instagram.

Day 26

We may have gotten a little turned around trying to leave St. Louis on Sunday, but I’m glad we did, because our detour took us right by the Arch!

Day 27 I made a pair of sandals, but I’m not satisfied with them just yet so no picture to show.

Day 28 I did some creative writing type work for the magazine. Yay work creativity!

And now you must do something for me. Go to HomeFries and download the Joy the Baker podcast. Do you know who Joy the Baker is? She lives in California and has a website where she writes about food she makes, her cat, boys, flashing people, and all kinds of other hilarious and awesome topics. HomeFries a project she’s started with a friend. The site has four podcasts, one of which is Joy’s. She’s joined by Tracey of Shutterbean, whose blog I only started reading recently. Anyway, Joy and Tracey talk about blogging, baking, and other random stuff like Pinterest (did you know I’m obsessed with Pinterest these days?) and work pool parties (a terrible idea!). Check out their podcast. It’s LOL good.

Cranberry Orange Cornmeal Bread/IheartNC

Oh my goodness. I always forget how entirely exhausting the holidays are. I get excited every year for baking, presents, family, and friends being home. And then I get caught up in this whirlwind of…baking, presents, family, and friends being home. It’s not a bad whirlwind at all. I mean, who am I to complain when I get to host a sleepover for eight lovely ladies at my house and paint our nails and make friendship bracelets?

I’m awfully lucky to be friends with these beautiful girls.

And why would I complain when I got to spend Christmas with my little family? Especially when they threw down in a huge way to put this under the tree for me!

Hello lover, we will be very good friends, I just know it.

Right before the holiday rush began, I up and went to North Carolina to visit one of my best friends in the world Bette. But I may have screeched about that on here earlier…

I don’t know if you have a place like North Carolina is for me, so maybe you won’t quite get what I’m about to say. But when I go down there, it feels just like I’m home, not like I’m on vacation. It’s like I’m just picking right back up in my other life, right where I left off last time I was there. It just…fits. So it’s no wonder that’s where I ran the second I needed to clear my head. And let me tell you, North Carolina never fails. Head? Cleared.

We spent most of our time in Charlotte, and one of our good friends from Raleigh even drove down to hang out! But, we also went up to camp. Talk about places where you just fit. We had lunch with old friends who are practically family in my mind. They care so much it blew my mind. Then of course the fact that people can care so little also blows my mind.

Anyway, Bette and I met at camp in the summer of 1995.

Some of the horses that we rode that summer we met are still there. We snapped some pictures with them.

Did you survive Christmas? Are you looking forward to New Year’s Eve? Is your belly so full of holiday food you may pop? Mine is!

Meanwhile, back at the Indianapolis ranch, a good month ago, I made some kickass quick bread. Cranberry orange cornmeal bread. I am BEGGING you to run to the grocery store right now and snatch up the last bags of cranberries you can find before the disappear. Please. I’ve become obsessed with cranberries this winter. They’re so deliciously tart and brightly, festively red. And they work so well with oranges, which are also in season during the winter.

So this bread is studded with cranberries, laced with orange flavor, and sweetened with cornmeal and honey. It’s just completely amazing. All day, every day, any time of day. Sadly, I took no pictures, but if you pop over to Joy the Baker’s site (link to her recipe to follow after the jump) you’ll see her photos, and I only made a few small changes.

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A wrap up

Posted in 717, high school, mini trips, religion by

Good God, have you ever had one of those weeks that just drains you completely of energy? Duh, I’m sure you have. I’ve had them at every job I’ve worked at (yes, even camp, where every day and week is not perfect, despite the idea you may have previously gotten from my camp ravings), in college both school and equestrian team related. So anyway, I had lots to blog about, but just haven’t had the energy.

We went to Chicago over the long weekend. We stayed with 717 member Marnie and hung out with her boyfriend Jannson. 717 member Samantha also came up. We really had a wonderful time, but I’ll go into that another time, because Samantha took some really great pictures that I want to share.

Wednesday night and Thursday marked the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana. I’ve been kind of bad about going to services this year. My excuse is that they start at 6pm, which is a difficult time to make on a Friday evening. Really though, it’s a poor excuse. Especially when I do enjoy going so much. I love the familiarity of the prayers and melodies. My favorite has always been the shehecheyanu, which you say any time something happens for the first time in the year. It’s like a little celebration and thank you of the good things in life. (Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam shecheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higyanu lazman hazeh. Blessed are you, Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season.) When I was in NFTY (that’s youth group), every Saturday night we had havdalah, the end of Shabbat service to bridge Shabbat and the coming week. We’d sit in a big circle, lights out, one person would have the glass of wine and the blue and white, braided havdalah candle, and one person would, of course, have a guitar. We’d sing, pray, and wrap our arms around each other and sway, and always end with the schehecheyanu. It was my favorite part of our regional or sub-regional events.

Also, check this out – CSA-style pastry delivery in San Francisco!

Just the things I’ve been thinking about this week. I’m going post a song now so check it out!

I Lurrrve You

Posted in cookies, mini trips, Mira, music, North Carolina, spring by

A list of my Right Now Loves

  • Conan O’Brien’s tweets, particularly “I just learned that retweets of my Bieber tweet mentioning Bieber actually help Bieber. Bieber, you’re a worthy foe. Bieber.” I also love Conan’s new beard. Oh what the hell, I LOVE CONAN O’BRIEN!
  • Spoon’s SXSW show (
  • Lady rocker Rachel Flotard and her band called Visqueen. Please take a moment to enjoy “Hand Me Down.” 
  • Spring having sprung! Warm weather is here, though who knows if she’ll stay. Windows are open, Mira is sunbathing in any and every sunny spot she can find, long walks are being taken, bike will be fixed up.
  • Six days until our Raleigh visit! I can hardly believe that two and a half years have passed since I moved from Raleigh back to Indy. This visit is long overdue. Hilary, Bette, and I will be reunited. Adam will enjoy North Carolina so much that we will not come home. (At least that’s how it goes in my mind…) I don’t have a whole lot of places to revisit or things I very much want to do. I just really want to see my friends, eat some Cookout, and go to a few choice bars. The fun I remember having the year I lived there really comes from just having really awesome friends.
  • Molasses chip cookies, which I would like to morph into cherry molasses chip cookies. (recipe to follow after jump.)
  • Plans to run the Race for the Cure this year instead of walking with the girls.

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Easy Silence

Posted in 717, mini trips, Mira by

I like that we can just sit on the boat and not say a word for 45 minutes.

Missed Connections

I’m looking for two stunningly beautiful women. One has long brown hair and a friendly smile. The other has short brown hair and four tattoos. I know they were both in Bloomington this past weekend, as was I, but we missed each other. We were all there, our little yellow house was there, but we were not together on the porch of the yellow house. All is not right in the universe. Everybody knows it sucks to grow up and everybody does and so weird to be back here. Let me tell you what the years go on and we’re still fighting it. {Ben Folds}

We went to Lake Monroe this weekend to play on Adam’s parents boat. Exactly what I needed. A few days away from work, parents, stress. I’d forgotten how much I love lakes and trees. OK, that’s a lie, I never forget how much I love being outside and away from buildings and cars and general busyness. All felt right as I paddled around in that lake, peeing without regard for anything, drinking beer, and floating away on my back as the sun blinded me. Saturday night Adam and I stood under the clearest night sky I’ve seen since camp. I spotted a shooting star and we marveled at the Milky Way. (I remember when I first spotted the Milky Way and realized what it was last summer at final party. I ran around telling everyone what I had seen, only no one was excited as me. This weekend I was thrilled when I got to share this solar tidbit with Adam.) I love feeling small in the midst of nature. I hate feeling small in comparison to people.

I have unfortunately discovered my favorite summer drink at the end of the summer: sangria. Best sangria ever at Plum’s in Zionsville.

Oh, bee tee dubs, Mira’s new favorite summer treat is cicadas. Yes, those nasty bugs that hum incessantly in a steady rise and fall all summer long. She eats the little fuckers right off of the ground. She sometimes even carries them in her mouth until we return from our walk to the apartment where she runs to her pillow to devour the buggie bug. Sick dog, sick.

Hippies, hipsters, and rock n roll oh my!

Posted in 717, mini trips, music by

Lollapalooza 2008.

Sam, Marnie, and I spent the weekend in music heaven. We’d talked about going for a couple of years and this year we’re finally all in the area at the right time. So we got our tickets and personalized our band schedules on Lollapalooza’s website. Generally speaking, when I have incredibly high expectations for something, especially a mini trip, I am usually disappointed. This weekend proved me so very wrong. I had the most amazingly wonderfully time with my two beautiful friends. We talked ourselves out about boys, old friends, gossip, work and tons of other random things. On top of the fabulous company, we had fabulous music. Two days of band hopping in the most incredible setting. Every time I looked up at the Chicago skyline that surrounds Grant Park, I was amazed. This festival full of dirty, music loving people plopped down in the middle of a huge city. It’s pretty cool. Prime people watching. Plentiful tattoos and dreds.
Friday night Sam and I got into town just in time to meet Marnie outside of her apartment and book it to Grant Park to see Radiohead. They’re a pretty diverse band and I was very impressed with the show. (as a side note, I’ve never listened to a lot of Radiohead.) We then met up with Jannson and some of his and Marnie’s friends plus Meredith and spent the night dancing and singing at a bar called the Hang Up. We didn’t get to bed until 5AM. When the girls of 717 party, we do it right!
Saturday morning we woke up with a little bit of our voices gone (what happens when you try to talk in a really loud bar) and kinda hungover. On our way to the park we stopped at Walgreen’s where Sam bought Bounce sheets, which are supposed to work like bug spray when rubbed on your arms and legs. Not sure if they kept the buggies away but they smelled really good:) Our Lollapalooza line up for the day was as follows
Dierks Bentley (yeah country at Lolla!)
MGMT
Explosions in the Sky (OK, kinda, we heard them as we stood in line for the bathroom/ice cream)
Okkervil River
Broken Social Scene
Wilco
Wilco was great. Also really enjoyed MGMT and Okkervil River. Despite the hangovers and minimal hours of sleep the day was still good. Thank God we went to bed at a decent hour that night. It made all the difference on Sunday I think.
Sunday morning we had breakfast with Marnie’s old roommate (most amazing cheese grits I’ve encountered in the north!) and then took off for the last day. Line up
What Made Milwaukee Famous
The Whigs
John Butler Trio
Amadou & Mariam
Iron & Wine
Gnarls Barkley
The National

I really enjoyed all the bands we saw on Sunday. What Made Milwaukee Famous was a really great accidental find. John Butler Trio absolutely blew me away with incredible guitar picking and jamming. The National, well they’ve been my new favorite band lately and they did not disappoint. Unfortunately Sam and I had to leave to get home and missed Kanye West. Even more unfortunately we screwed up the I65 detour and ended up driving all the way to South Bend on I80/94. Awesome.
I’m dragging a bit today thanks to getting to bed at 4AM on top of all the walking and sitting out in the sun we did, but it was all so very worth it. I can’t wait to really investigate all the new music I discovered. Yay for my ever expanding music collection! Can’t wait for Lollapalooza 09 ladies!!