Illinois: Part 2

As mentioned in the previous post, I was in Chicago on Friday evening.  Late that evening after the fancy dining and candidate calibration, thus began the start of my weekend.  I drove north a bit to Jen-E's apartment, where I stayed for the night, and then we were headed southwest to hike at Starved Rock State Park.  It's a memorable rocky portion of land in the plains with sandstone canyons.  There was a fairly large group of us, and after hiking we had a picnic Saturday night.  That night Jack-E-L-O-K, Ramblin Becks, and I stayed in a hotel, went to Sunday meeting, and did some hiking again that afternoon.  Sound good, right?  That's the bare facts and mechanics.  Here are the memorable, colorful parts of the weekend.

1. Thank goodness for friends who are on the ball and generous.  We were supposed to bring something to contribute to the picnic Saturday evening.  I didn't really have much since I was in Chicago for work for the two days beforehand, but Jen-E let me partially claim her homemade brownies and cookies.  I did help her frost a couple cookies after all.
2. Awesome scenery.
3. Awesome friends.
4. I finally met the infamous AndyNips that I had heard about from Ananias' Ecuador stories.
5. Jack-E literally gave me her two cents' worth.
6. Homemade granola bars and cookies from Uncle Ducky.
7. I felt like my mom as I hiked along the path on Sunday.  I started doing some simultaneous arm exercises while walking.  I don't know why, but for some reason that reminds me of my mom.  I'm not sure if I've seen her do that exactly or if it reminds me of the Jane Fonda cassette tape she used to exercise to.  Anyway, the thought of it made me laugh for some reason.
8. Meeting new people too:  Kim, Karmen, the Bungee Cord family, and some others.  They weren't new as in just out of the womb, but they were new to me.
9. Making Uncle Becks laugh for about a minute straight.  I pulled out the old "your mom" line at the perfect time.  Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever used that line before, but in this case it seemed appropriate because it was so ridiculous.  And it was appropriate as evidenced by the huge laugh it got.
10. Being the "young" people at the morning meeting at Seneca.  We had some very nice fellowship that morning.
11. The continuing formation of plans to go on a mini tropical vacation before the year ends.
12. We found one teeny tiny trickling waterfall, but we have high hopes that there might be some great waterfalls to see in the spring.

I think that about covers it except for finishing up with some great pictures.

Part of the hiking group.  We were what you might call the "energetic" hikers.

Uncle Becks pointing out "her mom".

The sign said no scrambling on the rocks, but they didn't say anything about the fallen tree trunks.

Sunday afternoon hikers.

Not at meeting.  Ramblin' Becks using her yoga skilz to become one with nature.