Sweet home, Chicago, at least for a little while. Had a good time catching up with all my Chicago peeps and playing with A's dog G. Unfortunately, he had hurt his leg a few days earlier, so our games of fetch were limited, but got better as time went by. The weather was perfect for baseball, and I needed to get in shape to play in a tournament over Memorial Day weekend, so I met up with my baseball peeps as much as possible. C and I started the month off with a nice game of catch at Winnemac, followed by dinner at Byron's Hot Dogs. Gotta love a place that has
Green River on tap.
In addition to playing lots of baseball, I got together with my climbing gals for a night of climbing and eating. And then there was eating at all my favorite neighborhood places which I hadn't been to in months. Mmm. Baseball, climbing and eating, yeah, that's pretty much the life! On a more practical note, I unpacked my car and left behind most of the winter gear. It's nice not having the car so packed, but I wouldn't exactly call it roomy.
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| G, hoping to get packed into my car |
After one last baseball practice, I got back on the road and drove to Ohio for Mother's Day, hanging out with my mother and sister for a couple of days before driving to Atlanta to visit my brother and his family. I picked up some of the stuff I had left there over the winter that I wouldn't be needing until the weather got better. I was supposed to meet some friends for bouldering and bluegrass festival at HP40, but the forecast called for rain so we skipped it. Not getting to climb was bad enough, but then I got food poisoning that same weekend. Ugh. Fortunately, the illness was short-lived and I was recovered enough to meet with my friends B&S from college, participate in the annual lunch at the Chinese restaurant to celebrate the last day of school, and eat some of J's delicious lasagna before I had to leave town on Thursday.
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| Pierre and Chunky |
My baseball team, the
Chicago Gems, was going to play in the
EWBC's Memorial Day tournament, so I started the drive to Baltimore on Thursday morning, in the hopes that I'd miss DC-area holiday weekend traffic on Friday if I only have to drive the last few hours. The highway in North Carolina had beautiful displays of
wildflowers, which made the drive more pleasant. My plan worked, as I had to get through minimal traffic on Friday before settling into the tournament hotel. I headed over to the batting cages to take some swings then came back to hang with my teammates as they arrived. The Boys were very excited to be sharing a room yet again with their friends B&C.
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| The Boys with their friends B&C |
It was great seeing all my baseball friends (both on my team and on others) and playing baseball all weekend. The women's baseball community may be small, but it's a lot of fun. I got a pretty good workout in just from laughing as we were hanging out at the Green Turtle Sunday night.
After the tournament, I hung out for a few days at my friend J's place in DC. Of course I took advantage of being in the one area in the US that has
Nando's and enjoyed a couple of lunches. We also checked out
Chupacabra, which had recently opened just down the street. Mmm.
May was a good month, but there was no outdoor climbing. It was time to get back on the road and touch some rocks.
