Saturday (September 12th) was our last day in Chicago for the Wedding Weekend. James came over to the apartment, and we all headed to Jury’s restaurant. According to Shannon and Jo, Jury’s is well known for their burgers, and Shannon likes it because they are a rare place that sells hard cider (which he likes). It was a very pretty day, so we sat out on the deck in the back of the restaurant. Fair Irish Maine boys sat in the shade and were thus comfortable – most of the deck was shaded, happily. The burgers were quite good, and it was a very pleasant lunch.

Shannon and Jo decided that we had to try a nearby ice cream place for dessert, so we wandered over to Drew’s. Drew’s makes all-natural ice cream. I got a brownie with ice cream on it, and it was quite good, but if I go back, I’m going to get what Shannon got – an ice cream cookie sandwich. His looked really good.

By this point it was early afternoon, so Mer and I decided we should go. I wanted to stop by Mom and Marc’s place in Michigan for a few hours, and then try to make it to eastern Michigan to see our good friend Ellen. Staying with Ellen would make the Sunday drive home much shorter, and we would probably even get to go to church with her. I had hoped we would be on the road at 1:00, but it was a little after 2:00 when we left. We gave James a lift since we were going right by the University of Chicago area.

We got to Mom and Marc’s place about 5:30 (because of the time difference), and Mom and Marc and Kelly and Paul were just getting ready to sit down to a dinner of ribs and corn and other good stuff. Mom and Marc insisted they had enough and so asked us to eat with them, which we were quite happy to do. We ate too much, and got to chat for about an hour and a half, at which point I felt we needed to leave to have any chance of catching Ellen awake. We went out to the car and started to pull out when a flock of turkeys came wandering out. I had never seen wild turkeys before, plus they were wandering right in the road, so we stopped the car and got out and watched. They were funny little birds. They also delayed us another 25 minutes or so, so it was about 8:00 when we left Mom’s. It had been my original plan to be at Ellen’s at 8:00, but we were delayed in Chicago and I had spaced on the hour time difference. Ooops. And no, I had never told Ellen we were coming – I love surprising people. It does carry some risks though.

Ever the optimist, I was determined to drive to Ellen’s in the hope that we would get there about 9:30 and she would still be up. We made decent time, but it was almost 10:00 when we pulled into her driveway, and her entire downstairs was dark. However, there was an upstairs light on, so I tried knocking and ringing the doorbell. Mer felt as if we were probably going to wake her, and wanted to leave, but I at least tried calling information for Ellen’s number. Sadly, her number is not listed, at least not in Michigan. So, feeling a bit foolish about my bad planning, Mer and I wrote Ellen a note and stuck it on her car under the windshield wiper. We then proceeded to drive the rest of the way home, and got home about 1:00 or so. We later found out that Ellen had been awake watching a movie, and thought she may have heard a doorbell, but figured if it was a friend she would get a cell phone call. She clearly mistakes me for someone with the brains to have my iPod with me for all of my numbers.

We would have loved to stay with Mom and company or to see Ellen, but getting home late Saturday/early Sunday did allow us to sleep in and have a very mellow day instead of spending a good chunk of it on the road. Next time though, I won’t be such a turkey – I’ll bring my phone numbers along.