The Beach is Soooo EMO!

what a beautiful fall day---just perfect. it's starting to cool down. i wore a scarf for the first time yesterday and today im wearing my slippers as i type. im already thinking about a chicken pot pie (Lonnie's famous recipe!) that i plan to make for dinner. it's windy today (image that, wind in chicago) and the clouds are moody and hang low in the sky, the water rough and uninviting. the leaves are falling and the park is beautiful...

look at that face!

so, as usual i need to travel back in time and share with you some photos that adam and i took early last week. we went up to evanston for dinner--this was our way of enjoying adam's last free evening. he's now at school a good 12 hours a day sadly...but i guess that's the life of a successful chemistry grad! we had dinner, hopped on our bikes and began to head home---and then the most fantastic fog rolled in. it was awesome! holy moly, i tell yeah, you just can't take bad photos with foggy conditions! adam and i (well mostly adam) were running around excitedly snapping everything in our path. here's a couple of shots from that evening....

are we in the jungle or in chicago? 

day time or night time?

fog has the most amazing way of making scenes look otherworldly. the next time we have a fog roll in like this i am dropping everything, grabbing my canon and shooting until i run out of cards, batteries or fog, whichever comes first...

this past weekend adam's folks came in for a visit---it was his mom's birthday and they decided to celebrate with us! so on saturday we went to the Lifeline theater to see A Picture of Dorian Gray. unfortunately, this was not very good and the theater was FREEZING! the set was cool though (no pun intended) and i dig the story. anyway, we got dinner afterwards at one of my favorite restaurants EVER---Lula Cafe. they have the most amazing food--you can get anything from a PB&J (not JUST Pb&j, but the best one you will ever have!) to lamb meatballs or crispy pork belly. there are consistently affordable choices or higher end fare---there is something there for everyone. i used to live a block away from this place when i was in logan square (*sigh*) so i can vouch for breakfast, lunch and dinner. oh and the service? impeccable!

on sunday, we cruised down to the lincoln park zoo---have i mentioned that my neighbors are freakin' zoo keepers?! how great is that? angie works with hooved stock (camels, zebras, alpacas, takins) and jon works in the cat house (lions and tigers!!). so angie invited us to come and visit her in the barn where she interacts everyday with these amazing animals. angie was patient and enthusiastic and was glad to answer all of our questions---and she has the most amazing rapport with these animals. it was so fun to witness their interactions AND we got to feed and pet some of them!!! a perfect end to a fantastic weekend...

camel!!

look at those sweet feet!

cuteness times a million

wow

this is a takin (our favorite)--his name is Kubla and he is a goat-antelope from the eastern himalayas. i wanted to give him a big hug pretty damn bad.