So Kari's aunt Joyce is a traveling nurse. As such, she gets her choice of where (and when) to work in various cities around the country - 6 weeks here, 6 weeks there, 12 weeks at home, etc, etc. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous; I'm incredibly jealous.

Anyway, lately Joyce has been in Chicago to be near Kari's cousins; helping Stephanie with the baby, ya know. And Kari just happened to be flying back (through Chicago) from math camp on Joyce's birthday. So, we all decided to celebrate!

Friday afternoon, Kari's parents and I braved the longest drive to Chicago ever. I don't mean long as in "road trip with the in-laws" long, cause my in-laws are awesome. I mean long as in, "htf did it take 10 hours to drive 5 hours away" long.

So right when we got into town, we swooped up Kari from her late flight and barely made our (already pushed back) dinner reservations. Dinner was at Itto Sushi with Harper, Hiromi, Dylan, Sarah, and Tag. Itto sorta looks like it's in an old Hardees or Burger King or something... but it's real, good, authentic, sushi. I gotta say that I think Miyabi 9 and Waterfront are just as good, so next time I hope we hit up Wabi again for some crazy rolls, ha.

After dinner we went back to actually say hi to family and crashed pretty hard. It was a long day for everyone.

Saturday, we woke up and split - girls went shopping, guys went drinking. Jeff, Jon, and I met Henson for lunch, who I hadn't seen in a while... then we basically spent the rest of the afternoon blaring Pink Floyd and drinking beer - while James watched, confused.

Once the girls returned with their bounty, we headed out for a fancy dinner to celebrate Joyce's birthday. It was my first time at the Chicago Firehouse; they served up a damn good steak.

After dinner, we smoked cigars and drank whiskey while talking about cars, drugs, and money (because we're gangster). Then, after everyone else passed out, a few of us went out to party, slept a few hours, had breakfast, then drove back to gay Iowa.

I mean gay as in we're one of the first states to support gay marriage.
But I also mean gay as in happy.
But mostly I mean gay as in - the border between Iowa and Illinois is not straight.

Aaaand I just ruined my blog. so uh... Pics of the weekend!