JULIE ADVENTURES TO CHICAGO AND BACK!!! With Special Guests: Kerianne, Aliya, Noel, Molly, Crash Kings, OK Go, and She & Him

NOW - is the awesome part where i get to tell everyone about my journey. GET EXCITED.

GET SO FREAKING EXCITED.

it's taken me a loonnnngggg time to upload all these photos. like, over an hour. but that's also because the internet is slow tonight.

ANYWAYS! let's just get going, right?

you are about to experience a PHOTO JOURNEY to the Midwest! I had never been before. Driving by myself... just me and the Prius.

I was driving from Western New Hampshire to Willoughby, OH, which was just outside Cleveland.

Estimated Driving Time (EDT) = 10 hrs.. I had a 15 hour playlist on my iPod all set up and ready to go. (that included 3 copies of the Crash Kings record.) I was driving WEST on Route 4 until I hit Route 7.

You know what you drive through when you go west on Route 4?



YEP! Killington, VT! The childhood winter-home of Tony and Mike (of Crash Kings, duh!!!) Tony told us (the audience) at the Providence, RI show. And even though I don't ski, I have been very excited about this ever since. I mean, they have a HOUSE up here! A mere 45-ish minutes away from ME!

AND, the winterlicious Crash Kings song, 'Come Away' was written about skiing at Killington.

Don't really know where this is going...only to say that I am awesome. I guess that somehow relates... :)!


And, driving through southern Vermont is really pretty. I had never been down Route 7 before. And the map showed that Route 7A ran parallel to 7, but was more scenic, so I took that way.




AND THIS WAS MY FIRST HOLD-UP:


the now infamous "loose donkey." That donkey held up traffic for a while. Like I said, people were actually getting out of their cars to help the donkey along. I was basically sitting in my car, laughing and thinking, "wow i can't wait to blog about this." so - that's the donkey.




THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE!





and then i made it to New York!!!!




where I spent the next many hours of my life. BUT! It was all new to me, so it wasn't bad. I had never driven much north of NYC and much west of Lake George. So, that's a lot of unexplored state.

New York is big. and driving from end to end takes a while. But, there are well-placed rest stops.


AND FINALLY!!!!!!!!



Hey! It's my old friend Pennsylvania! The last time I was here it was for a Crash Kings show! The one in Philly. Awesome! Where Tony demonstrated the trumpet noise he imitates at the end of 'My Love.' (OOOHHHHH yeah i still think about that a lot.)

I drove through Erie, PA, which was very exciting, as it is the home of the classic Tom Hanks film, 'That Thing You Do.' I kept imagining the scene where Liv Tyler hears their song on the radio for the first time and runs through the town with her headphones, all excited. I LOVE that part. I also imagine that's what it was like for Crash Kings the first time they heard their song on the radio....

AND THEN IT BECAME A NEW ADVENTURE, as I entered.......



OHIO!!!! I had never been here before!!!! Officially the Midwest? Their sign says there is, "so much to discover!" Who knew?!



I passed this sign as a Crash Kings song was playing. I got excited. Even though it's the Andover in Ohio and not in Massachusetts. I guess I was just excited about life in general and making it to Chicago!

So, then I finally made it to Willoughby! My lovely hotel room with a KING SIZED bed! All to myself! Well, and Buck too. Yep, he traveled with me, as always. I figured, 'why wouldn't Buck want to see the Midwest?" Same as when I figured, "why wouldn't Buck want to see Ireland?" He's a good stuffed turtle to travel with. And something familiar and comfy.

I blogged that night, which I hope you all read. Went to bed too late. Got up too early. Left the hotel by 8am. Stopped for gas. Google-mapped my way to a Dunkin Donuts. Got a coffee and bagel, which I immediately dropped cream-cheese-side-down on my sweater, which I'm sure you read about. And then was on my way to CHICAGO!!!



This was when I thought I might die in a tornado. Look at that sky! So great.

I loved watching the landscape change! Again, I had never been to the Midwest before, so this was very cool for me.

This is what the Midwest looks like:







Yep! Just how you imagined it, right?! Me too!!


I was still a long way away....




AND THEN IT WAS TIME FOR ANOTHER NEW ADVENTURE!!!!!!



"....here we COOOOOMMEEEE!!!!" (Did you read that already, too? How the Phantom Planet song, 'California' came on as soon as I left Ohio? And I belted the whole thing but switched out 'California' for 'Indiana.' It ROCKED so hard.)





WELCOME TO GARY, INDIANA!!!



It's a giant machine. It's like that photo, times 100. THAT'S Gary, Indiana. It's pretty smoky and depressing. I am now sure that I could probably never live in Gary, Indiana. It would have to be under a pretty awesome circumstance that I would move to Gary.

Sorry, Garyans. I'm not a fan. If you live in Gary, why not just move the 20 miles and live in Chicago? You could still work in Gary! The only thing that should live in Gary are machines.





AND THEN I MADE IT!!!!!!!!




AND I SAT IN TRAFFIC FOR ALMOST 2 HOURS!!!!!! It was lame. But, I got to look at the skyline for a long time. That picture is like, 1/3 of the skyline. It's pretty big.

But once I got off the highway, I made it safely and without trouble to Kerianne's house! Kerianne was at work, but ALIYA was there!!!! It was so great! I ate a sandwich! We caught up. Oh, it was lovely. And then we took the El downtown to meet up with Kerianne, her husband Noel, and Aliya's brother Sam for delicious Thai food!!!




Chicago reminded me a lot of Providence. Like, a lot. The way the river cuts through the city. It was so pretty.





Thursday night we ate Thai food. Kerianne had to go back to work, so Noel and I took the El back to their house. Aliya and Sam went off to see some fancy theater production and then spent the night at Sam's FRAT HOUSE. (you should talk to Aliya if you want the recap of that experience.)

I went to bed early that night.

Woke up on Friday excited and ready to go!!!! Kerianne was home! The AT&T guy had been to the house and now they had internet! All while I was asleep! So great. We made breakfast and sat and talked.

For those of you who don't know, I met Kerianne (and Aliya!) when we all went to a Ben Kweller concert together (with Jenny, too!) in Boston. Kerianne and I kind of instantly became best friends. THEN, Kerianne left for a semester in Ireland, where she met her husband, Noel! And the reason I was in Ireland ONE YEAR AGO was for their grand Irish wedding in which Aliya, Elizabeth and myself were bridesmaids and Joe was their awesome photographer.

AND - the five of us lived together at college for one amazing year. MOD 16! (a.k.a. Mod Four Squared.)

And now that I've explained who all these people are, let us put some faces to names:




self-timer photo #1billion. YES! so, from Left to Right: Kerianne, Noel, Julie, Aliya. Front: Molly, who reminded me so much of Ruby Tuesday it was incredible.

That picture was with Aliya's camera, I just stole it off Facebook. :)

So!

Friday: Kerianne needed to drop off insurance paperwork at the YWCA, where she works. So, we drove into the city, parked illegally with the flashers on, I sat and guarded the car while Kerianne ran up to her office. The car was fine. And then we left!

Drove into Lincoln Square, right near their house! Walked around a lot, got some delish German food for later.

Then went home! Met up with Aliya again! Cooked a delicious dinner: Coconut curry with chickpeas, mushrooms, onions and peas over rice! YUM! also with bread cheese and other cheesy things. Because we all love cheese. It was a great supper.

Then very sadly, Aliya had to depart for her Landmark conference, which was going until Sunday.

But, Kerianne's friend Audrey, who I had met in Ireland last year, came over after! We all went out to a local bar to watch the Blackhawks game. And drink lots of beer and yell at the TV.


Saturday: was the big day. The totally confusing, sketchy-seeming Q101 Jamboree, which Crash Kings were playing at. They weren't releasing the schedule until the day of the show, which was so lame. And Crash Kings were only on the "side stage." Not even the main stage. Ugh, it was annoying. And we weren't sure about parking, and ticket prices, and then the tickets were sold out and they wouldn't let you buy them online anymore... So I called the place and asked and the lady said we could buy them at the door.

There were many confusing things about this concert. BUT ONCE WE LEFT, around 2:30pm, things went smoothly. Arrived at the HUGE MIDDLE-OF-NOWHERE venue around 3:30. Bought tickets. Went back to the car to sit inside and eat the sandwiches we had brought from home.

One of the things it said on the website was "Absolutely no tailgating." And there are a million people tailgating. Openly drinking beer with their trunks up. Finally, people start coming around policing the tailgaters.

Me and Kerianne have the trunk up for one minute to put our purses in, and the guards come over and say,

GUARD: You girls aren't thinking about tailgating, are ya?
KERIANNE: Nope, we were just putting things in the trunk.
GUARD: Because tailgating is NOT ALLOWED.
KERIANNE: Yep... we're heading in now.

ONE MINUTE our trunk was up. NOT EVEN one minute. How long does it take for you to put something in your trunk? That's how long it was. Whatever. That guy was lame.

SO - we head over to the side stage. Flobots are just ending. The crowd of people walks away, and we end up getting pretty close to the stage.


AND, HEY! Look at these familiar faces!!!!!




It's Tony!



Jason! (love this shot of him with the drum figure)



And Mike!!

Let's just enjoy these, shall we?






Love that one!




And I don't really like this one, which is why I posted it. It's too controlled! It's crazy! Like, who gets a picture like this of Tony? Who!? Nobody! Because he's ALWAYS going rock-crazy! EXCEPT for this split second where he looks like a classically trained Clavinetist. So weird.

Also, his shirt looks strangely like the new Crash Kings merch. I'll post pictures of both. Not in this entry, but soon. You'll see.








Aliya and I were talking on Thursday and she was like,

ALIYA: So, tell me about Crash Kings!
JULIE: Okay! .......What do you mean?!
ALIYA: Well, all I know is that they're very sweaty.

Loves it. At least someone is paying attention to the sexy sweaty photos.



During the end of 'You Got Me' it started drizzling. Yep. YOU GOT ME. The sexy song! Ohhh...it was so perfect. Like, it just had to rain because it was so sexy.

AND THEN, people started a mosh pit. And crowd surfing. LAME. SO LAME. And Kerianne and I just happened to be on the very edge of the moshing. It was horrible, actually. My feet got trampled. And you could no longer focus on the music because you had to worry about your safety.

And the worst part? There were security guards lining the front row of the stage. Did they do anything? NOT ONE THING! Did they try and stop it? Nope, they just looked on. They definitely saw it happening. MULTIPLE TIMES. And how long did we have our trunk up before that guard came over? YEAH!!

They are super strict about tailgating, but allow moshing?!?! HOW does that make sense?!

And right before they played 'War Pigs' I said to Kerianne, "Ok, this one is going to get bad." And so we moved way over. You shouldn't have to worry about being trampled to the ground.

Also for this show, Tony was swearing left and right! Like, all over the place! F-this and F-that everywhere! Oh, Tony. Sure, I would say it's at least once per show (except at Earthfest, where it was zero), and I'm okay with that. I guess being a person who tries her hardest not to swear, I always notice it when other people do. It just doesn't sound very normal.

And then he dedicated '14 Arms' to the Blackhawks and the crowd went WILD!

TONY: Fuck the Flyers!

and again, the people went crazy.





Tony told everyone that they would be signing things at the Merch booth, so go find them there.

So, we headed out to find the merch booth. We walked to the main stage merch booth and asked them where the side stage merch booth was. The kid pointed to the direction we had just come from. So, we walked back. When we walked back to the side stage, Tony was out talking to fans. So, we loitered!!!

And then Tony saw me and gave me a big smile and started laughing,

TONY: Oh my God - WHAT are you doing here?!

and I explained that I was visiting Kerianne...

KERIANNE: (to Tony) I live here!

... and that while I was planning on being here, Crash Kings were also going to be here, which was rather perfect. I also introduced Kerianne as "the newest Crash Queen," to which he smiled at. Tony was very happy and as always, so appreciative that we made it to the show.

I asked him about the moshing, since I had never seen it before at a Crash Kings (or any) show. He said that people had started doing it in Jacksonville.

Then, he had to go to the merch booth to meet with less-cool fans. I felt I held it together pretty well. It's definitely easier to just go up to them. The first time I talked to Tony (at Great Scott in Boston) it was like torture standing there awkwardly waiting for them. And it was like, 'will they just come start talking to me if they see me standing around.... or do I have to make the first move!?' But now that part is normal. It's just like, Oh, it's Tony. or, Oh hey, there's Jason. Jason's definitely the easiest to approach. :)

Also, while we were talking to Tony, Mike came over and said,

MIKE: Tony, do you have the keys?
TONY: Uhh...no, Jason has them.

which I thought was cool. Really, anything they do is cool, so....yeah. So, then Tony told us and surrounding people that their merch booth was at Gate 5, so to go find them there.

And once again, Kerianne and I set off to find Gate 5. We looked around. We walked around. We asked people. We asked the Crash Kings roadie, Josh. Finally, we decided to go ask the scary looking guys who were working the main gate.

They told us we needed to go AROUND THE WHOLE MAIN STAGE to get to the side stage merch booth. HOW did that make sense? It didn't. It still doesn't. It was like a 15 minute walk from the side stage to the side stage merch booth.

The whole walk we were giddy about talking to Tony. He has this affect on people. Kerianne was very excited that he knew where I was from enough to be surprised that I was in Chicago. I was also very excited about this. It was my first show without the normal group of people, especially Ryan, and I was worried he might not totally recognize me. BUT HE DID! And it was amazing.

And ohhhh, he's so pretty.

So, once we finally got over to the merch booth, it was just Jason. He saw me and gave me a big hug, again, surprised that I was there. I introduced Kerianne again and we all lamented the lameness of the location of the side stage merch booth.

JASON: Yeah, I had to walk the whole way around!!

Which made me remember in NYC when he told us he was annoyed the bouncer in Portland asked him to leave when the club was closing. It makes me happy to know that they haven't quite made it that far... where everyone recognizes them and they don't have to walk the 15 minutes to their own merch booth.

Although maybe Mike and Tony were able to drive over? I don't know. Anyways, I love Jason. He's super nice.


So we waited around for a little bit to see if Mike or Tony would come out, but we must have missed them since it took so freaking long to find the merch booth.

We walked back to the side stage, where OK Go was just starting to perform! We stood in the very back for a while, but gradually moved closer and closer as people started to leave.

This is what the band looks like! Who knew they were such cuties?!



Hey wait, I'll find out their names.

OK - Damien is the lead singer, Tim is the bassist, Dan is on drums and Andy is on guitar and keyboards!!! So, I just decided that Damien can be Aliya's boyfriend.

Also, it doesn't look like any of them are brothers, so unfortunately, the band won't be joining us on the Bro Tour 2011.

Also - they are from Chicago, so that's why they said something like, "it's great to be home!" Which, probably was pretty self-explanatory, but Kerianne and I were both like, "Hmm, I wonder if they're from Chicago?!"




OK, so here we have Tim, wearing a lovely baby blue suit, accented by a pink shirt.




And, DAMIEN!! I liked him. I think him and Aliya would make a great couple.




And, Tim again! I think he's probably the most recognizable of the band. Love that suit!




And, Damien and Dan!




SUPER CUTIE = Andy on guitar and keyboards! I really loved him. And his red orange suit.






They were great! I had seen OK Go perform once before at UMass during my 3rd year at Hampshire. They were great then, too!

And - if you haven't seen their most recent music video for the song, 'This Too Shall Pass,' you should really go check it out.

And during OK Go, Mike came out to the side and was talking to people, and Kerianne and I went back over to say hi. I don't think Mike remembered me, but accepted the hug I gave him (that's right, I gave HIM another hug.) He was drinking, and kind of just said that was exciting to see everybody.... But we love him!!!!

While we were talking to Mike, Jason poked his head out from the backstage curtain and smiled and waved at me. And it was the cutest thing I've ever seen Jason do! He's a great man.

And then we went back over to watch OK Go, and could see Tony TOTALLY rocking out!! It was great. Like, so great. He was standing in the backstage area behind the curtain, but the curtain was kind of sheer, and there were big gaps in between the panels. So, you could totally see him. And it was really great to see him getting so into the music, just like I do at their shows. And he was singing along and everything! Aw. Another great man.

Mike was standing next to Tony, but less rocking out and more drinking.

AND SO NOW, while I think I have your attention, and before we move back into the 'reality' section of the trip, I would like to share just a few more pictures with you that I think you must see.

Most of them were taken by my friend Margie, who lives in Kansas City and attended the shows in St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri which were the two nights AFTER I saw Crash Kings. She really got some great photos, and since I can't stop looking at them - figured you might enjoy them as well.

And this all will pay off! I promise. Because when I was with Kerianne at the show, as soon as they came out on stage she said to me, "I can't believe I'm actually seeing them in real life and not in your blog!!" It was great!

AND EVEN BETTER - I got a text message yesterday from Kerianne telling me that Crash Kings are playing in Chicago again at the end of July and she thinks she's going to go!!!! Newest super fan? I think so. SO EXCITED that she enjoyed them. But, how could you not? And we listened to the CK record the whole way to the show (and the whole way back), but before that, Kerianne had never heard their music.

So - when I reach my new goal of attending a Crash Kings show with each and every one of my readers, you too will become a fan. And that's a blog promise!

OK - here are the pictures. NOT taken by me! But by other super awesome people :)





Ah yes, this is what Tony on the Clav mostly looks like. Not that other guy I have a picture of. Who was that? Tony imposter.







One thing about this picture that doesn't have to do with his hair, is that I think he looks really tan. The Pacman shirt photos are from The Blue Note in Columbia, MO. Yeah, this photo is amazing.

When we saw them perform, I kind of thought that Tony had some unnecessary hairography going on. (Anyone watch GLEE? The episode on hairography? Yep.) But, I love this picture. What a great moment to capture!!



This photo also makes me very happy because you can see Tony's face, which is a rarity during a performance. Also, he is smiling. Which automatically makes everything in the world better. Was this during War Pigs? It looks like he's saying something, and during the claps in Mountain Man, there are no lyrics.

AND BY THE WAY, remember in NYC when me, Ryan, Jo and Kelley all did the Mountain Man claps just like Tony does in the music video and he looked down at us and shouted, "YEAHHH!!!!" ?? Remember that? Well, during the Chicago show, TONY DID the claps on stage! Which was something I had never seen him do before! Was he inspired by the Crash Queen Claps? Probs.




Ok now for this photo, we have to reign in our imaginations and be civilized. Either that - or let the imaginations go crazy wild. Yeah, my brain automatically goes to the second one. It's like a muscle memory thing: I see a picture of Tony, brain automatically goes crazy wild. If you've seen Tony live, or seen video of him on the Clav, you know that he gets pretty intense. It's actually pretty sexual watching him, because he's just throwing his body all over the place. Which, I have no problem with.

Anyways, this picture is great in many ways.




And this picture is from Pointfest, which was the day after the show we saw. Notice the main part about this photo.......RED PLAID. It's the shirt. And it's a great photo of Tony wearing the shirt. Also, it semi-looks like a shampoo commercial because of how voluminous his hair looks.

I can just hear the lady's voice, "Going to be rocking out at a concert? You don't want hair that falls flat! Try new Herbal Essences Maximum Rockstar Volume Shampoo and Conditioner! Our exciting new formula maximizes your hair's natural volume, while giving it shine and bounce, so you can looks great under those stage lights! Bring out your inner rockstar with new Herbal Essences Maximum Rockstar Volume Shampoo and Conditioner! It'll rock your world!"

And can you believe I don't have tv? I mean, WOW. Did that sound accurate OR WHAT?! I'm kind of impressed with myself right now. I could write shampoo commercials!

Anyways, the point is: what a hottie.

And this concludes the section of the blog where I force you to look at Crash Kings photos in order for you to continue reading..... :) Come on, you love it.


SO AFTER the show, we drove back to Kerianne's house where Noel was waiting. Kerianne didn't have much time before she had to go into work, so we all hung around for a bit. Kerianne left for work around 10pm. Noel went to bed shortly after. I heated up my leftover pad thai from a few nights before and watched an episode of Friday Night Lights. Great. Then I went to sleep. Great day.

It kind of took me awhile to fall asleep because I had a second wind of Crash Kings excitement when I kept imagining Tony's face light up when he saw me. Yeah. I have a feeling that keeping that image in my mind can get me through any tough situation.

So we woke up on Sunday and made plans to take the El to the Belmont stop, where there are lots of hip, trendy places and people.

We went to this store called The Hollywood Mirror and I bought two scarves! The sign said, $4 each or 2 for $6. So, I got two, but the lady only charged me for one! She said, "I cut you a deal." It was awesome. Chicago loves me!

We walked around, and then decided to walk down the street to Wrigley Field! Home of your Chicago Cubs!!!





Harry Carry. The announcer for the Cubs for many years. Not to be confused with Harry Canary, the popular ZOOper Star character. Yep. Shameless ZOOper Star plug.





Awesome! Wrigley Field!!!! It was exciting to be there, even though I've never seen a Cubs game. Kerianne is a huge Cubs fan, so it was great.




And across the street is the Cubby Bear, which was the bar that sponsored the side stage at the Q101 Jamboree. The side stage that Crash Kings and OK Go performed on. So, I got a picture.

Then we walked back and got frozen yogurt! I got coffee with raspberries mixed in. OMG it was so good! Totes delish. And then we took the El back home, where Aliya and Noel were waiting for us!!! Yes, Aliya was back!!

We had dinner reservations for this Ethiopian restaurant called Demera. I had never had Ethiopian food, but it was so great! It's like the ultimate communal eating experience, so you really have to like the people you're eating with. Everything they make is a stew, and so you order a bunch of things, and they bring it out on this giant platter which is placed in the center of the table. There's no silverware. They give you a basket of this spongy, sourdough tasting bread that you eat all the stews with! You like, dip and pick up the food with the bread. So interesting, and super delish. So much fun!

Went back home after. Hung around. It was Aliya's last night, so we stayed up late, watched Little Children and ate tasty things. Aliya's friend Serena, who we all knew from Hampshire College, stopped by around 10:30 or so to give a quick 'hello.' Nice to see her.

Then we all went to bed. We were waking up at 5am to drive Aliya to the airport. :(

It was a sad time. I'll hopefully see Aliya this summer when her family goes to Maine for a bit and I always drive over and crash the party. They have their annual Whoopie Pie Tasting Contest, which I was lucky enough to be a part of one year. So great.


(Hey remember that picture of Tony leaning way back?)



When Kerianne and I got back from the airport, we immediately went back to sleep. Nice! Woke up around.... noon? Showered. Got ready to go out for lunch. We were going to the Vienna Beef hot dog place so I could experience a real Chicago hot dog. I didn't even know there was a special kind of hot dog associated with Chicago!



That's it! The very hot dog that I ate. Except, I took a bite of those peppers and they were waaayyyy too spicy, so I took them off. Sorry, Chicago, I can't handle your peppers. But, the rest was really good! Unlike anything I had ever tried before. A Chicago hot dog includes:

- tomatoes
- a pickle spear
- mustard
- onions
- sweet relish dyed lime green
- celery salt
- poppy seed bun

CR-AZY, i know. If you eat ketchup on your dog, you're pretty much ostracized from society. And, I wanted to fit in. I'm happy I tried it.

After the hot dog, we took the El into downtown and got off at the spot to pick up a WATER TAXI!!!!

For the price of $2 you can take a water taxi up the Chicago river!!! In looking back at these photos, I realize I took way too many. Being on the water taxi was so excited, I guess I felt I needed to capture every second.





Note the Blackhawks flag.




Hotties on the water taxi!!!!







So great, right?! It was super fun. The best way to travel the city, definitely. And so cheap! I decided that I want to get my water taxi driving license. And that will be my job when I move to Chicago. I've always wanted to be the Captain of something. Water Taxi Captain. How awesome would that be!?? I wonder if water taxi captains can marry people?

So we got off the taxi at the John Hancock Building. Not to be confused with the John Hancock building in Boston.

Here was the deal: we could take the elevator to the top floor, 100, pay $15 and walk around the observatory.

OR

we could take the elevator to the 95th floor where there was a swanky lounge, and sit and order a drink. Now, all the drinks were like, $12, but, it was like view + drink = same price as just view.

so, we chose the option with the drink. :)


Oh, the view wasn't bad either...




Sears Tower! But not called that anymore. It's the Willis Tower! It looks kind of exactly like the John Hancock building, so I was getting pretty confused. But, they're on opposite sides of the city.




LAKE MICHIGAN!!! That rounded roof structure is the planetarium.





Navy Pier!! It's this pier with theaters and restaurants and a ferris wheel!!!






Great shots, eh? I think so. It was so cool being up there. And, we didn't have to wait at all to get on the elevator (Kerianne says there's usually a wait), which was great. And then! We walk into the lounge and the host is practically waiting for us and says,

HOST: We're just opening up this section... Table by the window?

So, we got the most perfect table in the whole place. Like, they waited until we were there to open up the best part. So great!

We stayed there for a while. It was hard to leave because it was so pretty. Kerianne said she had never been there during the day, so it was cool to be able to really see everything. Finally though, we left.

Took the El to meet up with Noel. Ate some great sandwiches. Then, we parted ways.

Kerianne and I were off to Millennium Park to see a FREE She & Him concert, Noel was heading back home.

So, She & Him. This is the band that actress Zooey Deschanel is in with a guy called M. Ward. I am a fan of their music. It's different, it's familiar. Catchy.




Millennium Park! Most notable, "the bean" sculpture with it's mirrored surface. Lots of people take a picture of their reflection in the bean...






Cool, right?




Lights on a building!! The whole city was super excited about the Blackhawks. And (spoiler alert) THEY ENDED UP WINNING!!!! The Stanley Cup!!! Good for them! Well done, Hawks.




Um, just two hotties waiting for the show to start.

The place was PACKED. Like, THOUSANDS of people. It was insane. Every inch of grass and chair was full. But then! We found a tiny nook!! And we made it our own. We couldn't see the show from here, but it was good for waiting purposes.

We sat there while the opening band, Hollows, performed. An all-girl band. They were pretty good. Reminded me of Los Angeles girl band, Rocket, who I love.

And then She & Him came out!!!!! A little while in to their set, we decided to get up and try to find a better spot where we could actually see Zooey.

Oh, this is what they look like:




I chose the hottest picture of Zooey I could find. I figure it was the least I could do to my male readers after posting all those Tony pictures. :) Yeah, she's a total hottie. And She & Him played with Crash Kings a few nights before this in Milwaukee, so for a moment I was nervous that Tony and Zooey would fall in love. But then I remembered that Zooey is married to the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie and I felt better.


So, this is the view we had!!!!





M and Zooey!!!! On stage! In real life!




Here is a close-up picture I found from this blog/review of the show. And here is a link to watch She & Him perform my favorite song, 'Change Is Hard', on Craig Ferguson!




Zooey also played keyboards!!! She was great and super fun to watch. Whenever she had a tambourine, she would jump up and down or run excitedly around the stage.





Millennium Park!





Giant sculpture above and around the stage.




Great show!!! For realz. I really want to be a She & Him backup singer. Either that, or a water taxi captain. :)

So, we went home after the show. The El was packed, but we made it home safe.

Kerianne's bro Tyler was staying the night at Kerianne's house when we got back! Nice to see him. We all hung around. Kerianne and I watched a Zooey Deschanel movie on instant Netflix. We ate cheesy delicious things.

Then, I packed up my stuff and got everything ready so I wouldn't have to do it in the morning, when I had to leave. :(

Tuesday morning, we woke up and it was pouring! We decided to brave it and head out to the local farmer's market anyways. Kerianne bought eggs and mushrooms!!! It looked great.

Then we came home, made breakfast, hung around for a few last moments, and then I had to leave. My goal was to leave by 10am. But that was pushed back until 10:30. And I think I finally left around... 11? Maybe 11:30.

I was sad to leave. What an awesome trip I had!!!!







Another king sized bed awaited me in Buffalo. I was sooo happy to see it. It was a long, rainy day of driving. And the check-in lady at the front desk was from New Hampshire too! So, that was nice.

The motel was definitely not as nice as the first one I stayed in. Seedier. Dirtier. At least it was only for one night.

So, Tuesday was June 8th, which was the day the new Rooney record was being released!!!! I didn't have a chance to go buy it then, so I looked up directions to the nearest Target and planned to go the next day. Targs was selling the record for $7.99 until June 12 and I wanted to get in on the action.

So, Wednesday, June 9th, I woke up, showered, re packed some things and checked out! There were two police officers questioning two teen boys in the lobby. It looked pretty sketch, so I was quickly out of there.

Drove to Targs, which turned out was like, 3 miles down the road! Bought the record!!!! Drove back, stopped at Dunkin for a coffee.

DUNKIN LADY: You want mocha coffee...with raspberry?
JULIE: Yep! It's my fave.
DUNKIN LADY: Hmm...that's an interested combination...I'll have to try it!

and then I was on my way!!! Again, it was pouring the whole day, which was a bummer.

I wasn't quite sure the route I was taking to get back home, so at one of the rest stops closer to Albany, I said, "okay, I'm just going to put my address into the GPS and go whichever way it tells me to!" and I did!

I drove through Saratoga Springs and Lake George.




This barn was cool, I thought.




back to Vermont!!!




watching the landscape change was cool, again.






and there's my exit!!!! Back home.

Really nice to be greeted by my dad and Ruby Tuesday. She missed me so much!!!! I missed her a lot too.

AND - that's the night the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup!! My dad told me that the guy who scored the winning goal was from Buffalo, NY, and since I was coming from Chicago by way of Buffalo, I think I was the good luck charm. Yep! Totes.

Anyways - WHAT A GREAT TRIP, RIGHT?!?!?! I got to see some of my best friends AND BONUS, also got to see three bands perform!!!!

OH - and update on the Rooney record::: IT ROCKS. Wow, it's so good! Like, really good pop songs. I'm happy about how much Louie Stevens is featured! Sometimes, I kind of forget that there is a keyboardist in Rooney. But, not this album! It's great. My fave song is 'I Don't Wanna Lose You.' Love it. Also, I love the song that Ned wrote and sings, 'The Hunch.' Suuuper catchy!

AND MORE GREAT MUSIC? Yep, it's true.

MY FRIEND DAVE, who sometimes comments in this very blog, has put out a record of his folk-pop songs and you should absolutely check them out.

I listened to the record last night and thought it was great. Track 5 through the end are my favorites. Especially, 'Samesame.' It's a great CD. It sounds like Dave is becoming quite the local celeb in Colorado Springs. I think he should open for Crash Kings when they are there in July. Brillz, right?!

So definitely check out that music.

Alright! I think that about does it.

My plan for the weekend includes possibly going to see River City Extension in Portland, ME tomorrow (saturday) night!! I really want to bring Kara, and she really wants to go, but it's 21+. I'm trying to think of a stealth and legal way to get her in. I might call the place tonight and try and cut a deal.

ANYWAYS :

TOTAL TRIP MILEAGE = 2048
TOTAL AVERAGE MILES PER GALLON = 50.2

Hope you enjoyed your photo trip to the Midwest!!! I certainly enjoyed reliving it all. Can't wait to go back!!!

Have a great weekend! I'll talk to everyone later! Take care, be well, drive safe. :)


Love,
Julie