Birthday Sox game (6/12)

A second trip into/near the city - 2 days in a row!  This time for a Sox baseball game. Cheap tickets, what can I say.  Plus, I've never seen a Sox game before. Another plus, they are playing the LA Dodgers!

But first, my sister sent some bundt cakes to my workplace.  Yum!!

And right at about 4:30pm, we leave for the Sox stadium.  And yup, right back into traffic - just like the day before!

It's crazy to think it's going to take more than 30 minutes to go about 6.5 miles!

After we park, it's a short walk to the stadium.  There's SOOOO many people!

And actually, so many Dodgers' fans:

More waiting, but thankfully the line to get in isn't actually too bad:

View of the city skyline:

Daddy's not in this photo because he's a grumpy bear from all that driving:

So windy up here that Charlie almost lost his cap!

OMG, looks like we're in the nose-bleed section and it's so crazy steep up here!!

At least we're in the shaded section??!

This place is packed!

And the smoke from the grill is venting right above our heads. LOL!!

There's a section waaaay across the other side and some of them have taken off their shirts to rally the Sox on. Too funny!

The skyline at night. Love this!

There's a fireworks display tonight but we decide to leave the stadium before the end of the game. Well, we caught it on the way to the car at least:

Another long drive home:

Surprise cake in the fridge downstairs.  My sister had ordered it and had Bobby pick it up during the day while I was at work. Yum!!

Ps, can't believe the size of my arms. Must be from the GolfForever workouts!

Had to buy one t-shirt from the game :-)

Bobby bought a pair of these vases for me.  Says it's some sort of antique?!

Can't believe I am 50 years old this year!! Although, I think I was stressing out more when Graham turned 16 in May and is now learning to drive. That actually made me feel more old than my birthday itself!

In any case, now that I'm 50, I can now attempt to qualify for the US Senior Women's Open! It will be just 18-holes vs 36-holes and the yardage will be a lot shorter as well. So it's not all bad about turning 50 today. LOL!!

Visit into Chicago with friends

Our good friends from Dallas came to the city right before my birthday. We decided to meet by Navy Pier.  Need to take that photo just so we remember where we parked!

Cool bench by the Shakespeare theatre:

Navy Pier! Love the reflection from the side of this building:

Shakespeare signage:

We-fie.  I super LOVE this photo!

Us with Lynn and Heather:

They bought me a sash with a matching tiara for my birthday:

Happy birthday to me!

And actually, it was Lynn's birthday too!  Funny how we share the same birthday, and we met each other through work - I'm thinking since 2000?

View from the rooftop:

Rainy/cloudy day:

Maybe one day we'll go on these fancy boat tours:

With Bobby, city view in the backdrop:

Fun day by Navy Pier!  Thankfully it did not take as long to get home. That's probably the only thing about driving into the city - takes at least 1 hour and the parking is almost always so expensive. But in this case, definitely worth the trip to meet up with some good friends! 

CSO w/ Wynton Marsalis! (Jun 6)

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra had invited the Lincoln Center Jazz orchestra to play with them recently. What a treat!  Especially when tickets were only $25!  The only complain I had was probably not being able to see Wynton Marsalis on the stage.  He was tucked right in the middle and when he sat down, we could not see him at all :-(

Looks like it's a long day for Charlie.  This kid is still taking naps in the car. Ha ha!

This trip to the CSO is a little bit special - since my birthday is coming up!.  I decided to make it a little treat and eat on the 10th floor in The Thomas Club: 

Fancy first appetizer - some sort of egg plant. Might have needed some sort of balsamic maybe?  The soup and salad were actually quite good. Boys had mushroom soup and Bobby actually had a beet salad, which was yellow in color.  Who knew those existed?

Here's the burger!

Unfortunately, our main meals did not quite meet our standards.  Almost felt like they were under the heat lamp for a long time.  In any case, glad we were able to have this experience and hang out as a family!

Thankfully the desserts made up for some of that. The tart was quite good:

So was this other dessert - the panna cotta.  Yum!

Okay, time to make it downstairs for the concert!  Walking through another part of the CSO that we've never been to before. Fancy!

Ahhh, one day we'll make it across the street again. I love the Art Museum!

Found our seats! Or I thought we did.  Actually had to go to the Box Office and verify our seats as I could not load it up on my phone.  I wish we were still given the option of paper tickets!

No kissy-kissy!! :-P

Our seats from the main floor. Not too shabby for $25!

They sound amazing as usual!

The very front row are musicians from the Jazz Lincoln Center.  It's amazing how many instrument each musician played - saxophone, clarinet, and who knows what else. It was at least 3-4 instruments!

Wynton Marsalis was on trumpet - we could hear him play but couldn't see him. Great, no less. At least we can say we've heard him play :-)

Fun night!

Oh, we did run into a parking issue where I had purchased a pre-paid parking spot. But then I wasn't sure if it was the spot. Anyway, we double-paid for tonight but thankfully, the company was willing to reimburse us. All good!

Happy early birthday to me! :-D

Trip to Florida - LPGA PTE (May 12-14)

It was finally time to take my Practical Teaching Evaluation for the LPGA! After 4 semesters of online work, it's now time to fly out to Florida (Daytona Beach) to do the in-person evaluation.

Nothing like starting the day with spilling your milk while trying to pour it into your mug. Sheesh!

And actually, at this point - Bobby is out of town for work and I'm also leaving! Thankfully the boys were able to split up and stay with some friends/neighbors.  I love where we live!

Another dilemma when I get to the airport, the golf travel case would not lock properly!  

Thankfully, I had a band in my golf bag.  Perfect to go around the case nice and tight!

Time for lunch at the airport. I'm always a sucker for anything Asian :-)

Couldn't help myself - must travel with gummy bears. LOL!

And off we go! It feels so weird to be traveling alone:

  And it's raining in Orlando:

And phew, talk about humid stepping off that plane!

Cool mosaic on the floor while waiting for the train to luggage:

Ahhhh, the luxury of being a pet!

Finally got to my rental car!

OMG, took me a few minutes to try and figure out this car.  The gear change is on the side like the indicator. These new cars are getting too complicated!

The view from the top is rather cool though!

The speed indicator is projected on the windshield. It was rather distracting!  So glad I figured out how to get rid of it:

Thankfully traffic wasn't too bad to Daytona Beach.  This place must be like a zoo during the Daytona 500:

Made it!

OMG, the amount of bugs on the golf course.  Can you see them on the cover of my golf bag??

Finally time!  Thankfully we had a entire/full day of practice - being a student, teacher, and also an evaluator.

So the test consist of two 30-minute lessons - one for short game (chipping/pitching, putting, or bunker) and one for long game. All the students were volunteers from the Cranes Lake GC community.  Thankfully mine weren't too bad!  

Another part of my trip was also catching up with an old friend, Lisa.  So glad to see her after 20 years!

We were actually able to grab 2 meals together - dinner and then lunch the next day. Yum!

She even took me on a little tour to find manatees.  Well, we spotted some manatee poop first. LOL!

And the manatee "foot prints", as they call it:

There is it!! 

Maybe if I moved to Florida, I would get one of these mailboxes too :-)

Lisa drove me along the Canaveral seashore. Look at that tiny strip of land!

Okay... nudes on the beach coming up soon!!

I'm glad I didn't see any in and around the rest of the drive.  Ha ha!

Watch out for that turtle!!

I had to take this photo for Graham :-P

Atlantic ocean!!

Always time for ice-cream. And yes, I do believe that Ice Cream Solves Everything!

After 3 days in Florida, it's finally time to head home.  And I felt more stressed after than before the evaluation!! Why do we have to wait 2 weeks for the results??!

A quick view of downtown Chicago from the airplane:

Etihad Airways!!

Flight would have been quicker if it wasn't for this storm cell. Ha!

Well, after 2 weeks of anticipation, the results finally came in.  And I passed!! Phew! I think I was more relieved than anything.  Really did not want to do the re-take, although it would have just been the video uploads versus going back to Florida. I did hear it would have been another $500 though, so I'm glad there was no re-take!  

I'm now officially an LPGA Class A member. YAY!! :-)