October: Month o' Travel (Part 1)

Week of Oct. 1: Texas Two-Step

Mr. E and I grabbed a quick HH at Le Tour on Wednesday evening before we headed off to our respective Texas destinations on Thursday. Mr. E went to the DFW area to visit G, G, & L along with other friends from the Midwest, and I flew to Austin for my second annual sister-time-to-remember-Mom visit. 

J and I stayed at the Kasa on 2nd Street in downtown Austin for two nights so that we could carve out some quality time together. We went to the Blanton Museum of Art on Saturday morning and had massages on Saturday afternoon. Although the temps were still warm during the day, the evenings were pleasant enough for us to spend time out on the corner balcony overlooking the river. And we even got to see a really cool drone light show on Saturday night as part of the music festival activities!

Week of Oct. 6: Art, Books, Alley Tour, Kamala, Badgers Homecoming, Fashion

I got to join the art tour of the Woman's Club of Evanston on Tuesday evening thanks to a personal invitation from C, who is part of the House & Grounds Committee, which organized the tour. I also decided to join the WCE to get more involved in Evanston, make connections, and take advantage of volunteering opportunities. I'll be part of the Community Outreach Committee.

On Wednesday evening, I attended an author's talk at local bookstore Bookends & Beginnings and followed up my book-related activities with my Mystery Book Club book group meeting on Thursday evening. Our book for this month was The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino. Overall, I enjoyed the mystery as a lively thriller with the interesting plot twist of knowing from the beginning who committed the murder but not knowing how the story will unravel. Mr. E and I then watched the film version for our weekly international movie night. Although the story was transplanted to China for production, the overall plot and characterizations stayed pretty true to the original Japanese novel.

Friday afternoon, we took a quick peek at another condo as part of our ongoing search. On Saturday morning, Mr. E joined me for the Evanston History Center walking tour of Evanston's alleys, which was a fascinating look at how the cityscape and use of alleys has evolved over time. Our tour guide was really engaging, knowledgeable, and passionate, so we're hoping to do other tours with her in the future! We really enjoyed getting a glimpse into the alleyways and learning more about the architecture, not to mention appreciating some of the hidden art along the way.

 
Then Mr. E headed off to meet up with M to drive to Madison for the Badgers Homecoming weekend. On Saturday afternoon, I went to hear Kamala Harris at The Auditorium Theater as part of her book tour. The ticket price included a copy of her new book, 107 Days, and the talk was inspirational overall but also made me sad to think about what could [should] have been. And unfortunately, there were some folks who had purchased tickets just so they could heckle her and disrupt the event, which was so disheartening since it really just highlighted how divided we are as a country right now.

On Sunday morning, I took advantage of the lovely weather to go for a bike ride up to the lighthouse beach. I had picked up my new bike helmet at Ace Hardware the week before so was all ready to go. And once I got back to the apartment, I was able to put the bike away in the secured bike room since we had completed the registration process with our management company.

Mr. E returned from Madison by early afternoon on Sunday, and then his mom came up from downtown Chicago to meet us for the Threaded Stories fashion show at the Woman's Club, which organized by local boutique cloth + home as part of the events for Chicago Fashion Week. One really unexpected and lovely aspect of the show is that two of the designers featured are or were colleagues of Mr. E's mom, and several of the other attendees knew her as well, so they all came over and greeted her either before or after the show. And at the end, as we were checking out the nibbles from NaKorn Thai Restaurant, we just happened to run into B, a friend of Mr. E's sister. Small world!!!

Our dinner destination with Mr. E's mom just happened to be NaKorn, since it's been on our list of spots to try. We can actually see it from our living room window! The menu is somewhat limited, but they were very accommodating about my dietary restrictions and helped guide us to appropriate choices, including the yummy sweet potato croquettes and crispy whole fish. 

Week of Oct. 13: Return to Sac, Louis Dental Work, Book Club, No Kings Rally

I had an in-person work retreat this week so returned to Sac on Tuesday afternoon, bringing Louis XIV along with me so that he could get his dental procedure done at his regular vet, Midtown Animal Hospital. He was my little sherpa with his carrier -- a book on one side and a bag of popcorn on the other!

I dropped him off on Wednesday morning and then met up with S at Roc & Sol for breakfast. My work meetings started that afternoon with a leadership team lunch at Fox & Goose followed by a strategy session for the rest of the day. Thursday and half of Friday were our full team retreat at the office, and I managed to fit in a haircut that afternoon before meeting J for dinner at Scott's Seafood on the River. S stayed with Louis all day on Thursday and visited him on Friday, too, to make sure that he didn't have any adverse reactions to the dental work, which had ended up being minimal, with no extractions. Yay! He settled right back into this typical Sac habits, including creating a snuggle spot on Mr. E's clothes in the closet and sleeping in the black kitty bed that I had brought back with us.

On Saturday morning, my monthly Sac Book Club met at my place so that we could have brunch and chat for a bit before heading to the No Kings rally at the Capital. Mr. E attended the rally in Evanston, which had a great turnout (overhead shot at bottom below) but nothing compared to the crowds in Sacramento! Totally understandable, given the difference in size between the two cities. Sac felt a bit overwhelming to me, but it was also amazing and encouraging to see so many people still committed to making their voices heard.

 

Louis XIV and I got upgraded to First Class for our return to Evanston, which gave me the opportunity to confirm that the backpack carrier can indeed fit under those seats. Good to know for the future!

I don't think it really made much of a difference to him, but I enjoyed having more space and a pretty decent meal with several adult beverages. Our arrival at ORD was a bit bumpy, so I was very glad to land and greet Mr. E at the ORD Multimodal Facility. He had rented a car for the weekend to take his mom to visit his dad's gravesite at the Veteran's Cemetery, so then he could meet Louis and me at the airport, which was especially nice since we arrived around 8pm. We had a leisurely Sunday together, including our afternoon pickleball class, and I was able to unpack and get laundry done before preparing for the next set of trips!