Meet the Parents

My parents visited this past weekend -- the hottest weekend this summer by far. I don't feel the need to post extensive details of their visit since, well, they're the ones who mainly read my blog. All things considered, we had a lovely time. They came in Saturday while I was teaching a class, so Wes picked them up from Midway and took them on a walking tour of Lincoln Park with Lucy. I had some problems with my kidney stone shortly thereafter that left me incapacitated on the bed for about an hour. Once the meds kicked in, we took a long walk south to the bottom of Grant Park to see the sights (which included the new dog park down there). We cooled off before a modest (yeah, right) dinner at Ditkas. Sunday we headed even further south to the Museum of Science and Industry. We saw the coal mine, visited a great exhibition on Da Vinci, went to U-505, and more. I had to leave mid-afternoon to teach a Sunday late afternoon class, but my parents stayed with Wes for almost 5 hours. It's really a great museum, and we would have spent far more time in the Da Vinci exhibit if we hadn't been worried about getting out in time for me to teach. That night we watched the Cubs blow a 5-run lead in a major way (giving up 2 grand slams in one inning) while enjoying a Giordanno's special, and then got some sleep.

Monday was supposed to include some more sightseeing, but that got bumped in favor of me having even more health problems (which will, for the good of everyone, remain herein undescribed). It was nice to have them here, to let my dad see the city where we're living and our apartment, and to just hang out. It's not all parents who come into town, sleep on an air mattress in the living room (I know -- we tried to persist, but with kidney stones, I was only going to persist to a point), and take themselves back to the airport on the El (including transfer) when I had to stay at home due to, er, circumstances beyond my control.

To my amazing parents -- we love you, and thanks for coming!