Grandpa Tom died earlier this week, which brings us back home to Chicago. In spite of the negative circumstances, it is always so fun to come here, be with family and see the city. We're staying with Uncle Mike and Aunt Pam again in Palos Heights. They let us crash here whenever there's a funeral or any other event that brings us home with little notice. Dad took Andrew, Andy and me to the city today. We decided to go to the Field Museum. It took us a few tries to find the parking, so we took a nice detour [View Full Entry]

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Last night, Andrew and I went very slowly to Hollywood Studios after I took a long nap. My muscles refused to allow me to go on any rides, so we decided to check out the 3D Muppet Movie. Enjoyable and cute, it came complete with water effects. Andrew led my not-very-mobile self to a quiet part of the park, where we found murals of San Francisco and New York City. He indulged in a frozen margarita, which I sipped on a bit, and we people-watched until the park closed a little bit later. This morning, I woke with sore leg [View Full Entry]

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I love Epcot! Andrew's goal was to eat his way around the world. Mine was to photograph him as he did so. We started out in Mexico, where we joined up with my Aunt Gerry and Wayne. We took a boat ride "tour of Mexico" and got to smell delicious food from the Mexican restaurant. Andrew decided to stop for a churro, but, to get the said churro, he first had to run across the marathon path. Hazardous! The next stop after Mexico is (naturally) Norway. Andrew bought a pastry from Norway that basically tasted like a plain tortilla. Yuck. [View Full Entry]

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I ran the Walt Disney World Half Marathon! With a stroke of good luck, my injured calf only bothered me slightly. We started out just outside Epcot, and I could hardly believe the race I'd been training so long for was actually here. They started us out with fireworks and away we went! Mom and I were dressed in our Minnie Mouse ears. Near us was a man dressed as Buzz Lightyear and another as Woody, complete with a giant, foam cowboy hat. There were also three women dressed as the fairy god mothers from Sleeping Beauty and a group [View Full Entry]

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My parents and I arrived last night in Orlando and stayed the night at the Hyatt in the airport. It's nice, but we haven't seen much yet. Andrew arrives here in a few hours, and from there, we'll head to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and pick up our race number at the Sports Complex. I can't believe our half marathon is already here! Starting this morning, we're focusing on carbs so we'll have enough energy for the race. Hello, oatmeal and toast! I can't wait for tomorrow, but I'm also so nervous! We'll meet Uncle Mark and Aunt Marti and [View Full Entry]

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Andrew's plane landed in Orlando at 2:20pm, and by 4pm, we were eating a casual dinner at Mara. Mom and I are carb loading, so I had juice and couscous salad in addition to a small house salad. I also bought a bagel for tomorrow morning. We set out for the Magic Kingdom after dinner. Dad bee-lined it for the Hall of Presidents, only to find it was shut down for renovations and updates until July. He looked so disappointed! Instead, we spent our time at the Haunted Mansion, which was cute, and Space Mountain, which had all of us [View Full Entry]

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Our last day in California! I'm not going to lie; I'm excited to be heading home to a soft bed. That, and my stomach hasn't been right since the whale watch hell tour. Still, it's so beautiful here, I know I'll miss it. Yesterday, Andrew and I walked along Grizzly Creek and skipped some stones and found a few frogs and tadpoles. The swimming area of the creek looked too fun, so we hiked back to our campsite and got on our swimsuits to enjoy a swim. In the end, Andrew's the one who enjoyed it. The water was so [View Full Entry]

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Mmm, the redwood forest. Andrew and I camped at Grizzly Creek Redwood State Park last night. It's a cute campground next to Grizzly Creek. There are blue birds all over the place, and we've also spotted many ground squirrels and even some unidentified burrowing rodent right in the campground. The campground has a nice, rustic feel, but with nice features like running water and showers. Outside of the campground, we found a trail this morning. It ran about a mile through the state park, sometimes even under fallen redwoods. I'll admit, there were a few more spiders around t [View Full Entry]

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I'm not going to lie; it felt wonderful to leave San Francisco behind us. We headed north on the 101. After nearly taking out some pedestrians, we found ourselves on the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge is, well, very long, which means my dad would hate it. It was also beautiful and covered in a thick, cool fog. From its streets, we could look back on the city. We didn't have to go too far from the bridge before the temperature started to finally rise. At 70 degrees, we put down the top of the convertible and cruised through the [View Full Entry]

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This morning, Andrew and I had breakfast in the sleepy little town of Carmel. It was an English restaurant called the Tuck Box, and we enjoyed some authentic scones and tea. I'm glad we took that time to relax, because entering San Francisco was an adrenaline rush. I had my nifty little binder full of Mapquest directions. Thankfully, they led us right to the Grand Hyatt; then we discovered there was no parking. We had to drive on by the Hyatt and follow a maze of one way streets to find our way back. We skipped many streets because they [View Full Entry]

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