Today has been Exercise Day here in Chicago. Earlier, we rode bikes along Lake Michigan and just a bit ago we went swimming in the pool. And we’ve only had brunch for food today – it’s almost like a health spa or something! Anyhoo, I’ll get into more detail (or you can read elsaf‘s journal entry instead) about my trip thus far.

Yesterday, judiang and I slept in. Elsa arrived around 11 and then we were able to go off for food. We decided to have dim sum for brunch. So it was off to our favorite dim sum place in Chinatown – Three Happiness. Since we weren’t having dim sum on the weekend, they didn’t have the carts moving around serving stuff. We had a piece of paper with lots of photos of foodstuff and got to pick which things we ate. It was kind of cool actually knowing what we were choosing for once. And we chose well – lots of yummy stuff!

After brunch, we headed over to Trek Bikes on Michigan Ave (not far from Judi’s apartment) so that Judi could purchase a Trek bike. They didn’t have Navigator 3.0’s in stock (the bike Judi rode when we biked last weekend), so she tried the other comfort bike that they stocked. Even with a couple of different adjustments and also sampling the unisex bike, Judi decided that she really just ought to special order the Navigator 3.0. I bought her a bell in celebration (which she’ll have put on when the bike arrives later this week). On our way back to the flat, we stopped for ice cream at Marble Slab. I got a double chocolate malt – tasty tasty!

Back at the apartment, we snoozed. Actually, Elsa and Judi snoozed while I played World of Warcraft. I wasn’t going to actually play, just check on auctions, but with Judi sleeping, I thought “well, I’ll just go do this…” and then “she’s still asleep, I suppose I could start this…” and then I finally had to pull myself away.

Once we were all awake and not gaming, we headed off to Navy Pier to Bubba Gump’s for supper. The goal was to get the dippin’ shrimp – only they don’t have that right now. Bummer. So I got the Shrimper’s Heaven meal, which had coconut shrimp, breaded shrimp, peel & eat shrimp, and shrimp tempura as well as french fries and slaw. Tasty tasty! I also ordered the chocolate chip cookie sundae for dessert. Yum! Elsa and Judi enjoyed their meals as well. (I think Elsa goes into more detail.)

We returned to the place around the middle of the Parade of Nations for the Olympic opening. Alas, we missed the really cool stuff, but we did get to watch the parade (which I always love to see) and the lighting of the torch (very cool – but Barcelona will always win with the archer). While we were watching the recorded opening ceremony, I was also watching a live badminton match between Ireland and Germany on my laptop. I’m really excited by all of the coverage that NBC is going to do for this Olympics.

This morning, Judi was up at a reasonable hour – surprise surprise! She had a grill scheduled for delivery between 8 am and noon, so figured she should be up. So at 9:30, we walked over to the Bongo Room for breakfast. As with my last Bongo Room trip, I opted for the BLT eggs Benedict. Very yummy! I also had a hot chocolate. Judi made a major faux pas by buying a double espresso from Starbucks before coming into the Bongo Room. Tsk! Her excuse is that Bongo doesn’t have soy milk. Yeah, yeah, whatever. 😉

When we returned, they still hadn’t delivered her grill. So we vegged and geeked while we waited for the grill delivery. And when they did deliver, Judi and I headed downstairs to meet the delivery dude, only to have him tell us they’d already sent it up to the apartment. Returning to the apartment, no grill. But the phone rang and it turns out they were on their way up. They dropped it off in her kitchen and then we were FREE!

We headed off to Millennium Park to rent bikes for a bike ride around the Lake. We decided on a 2 hour rental, which made them $20 a piece before taxes. Nice. We got Trek Navigator 2.0’s for the ride and rode towards Navy Pier (and then past it). It was a very pleasant ride. Although it had been cloudy and threatening rain, when it was time to rent the bikes, the sun came out and it was very sunny and pleasant. I don’t think we could have asked for nicer weather for our bike ride.

After we’d been out for about half an hour, it was nearing the halfway point of our rental period. So we turned around and headed back, not knowing how long it would be to return (there was more uphill, we thought). Turns out, it took less time to return to the park than we figured. But we opted on finishing anyway – especially since we’d all attempted going up one of the steep hills by biking. (I did it, but it wasn’t easy! Even Judi made it 3/4ths of the way up – you go gurl!)

There was one more steep hill to try, which I also successfully did – but once again, it was hard the last 3 feet or so. Go me! Right after we turned in our bikes, Judi and I booked a place in tomorrow’s 2pm Segway tour of Chicago’s lakeside. That should be fun! And shortly after, it started to rain. It sure was nice that the weather cooperated for our bike ride. Now we just wanted it to cooperate for our planned swimming venture.

We geeked for a short while before putting on our swim suits, and when we got to the pool, it was lovely outside again. There was sun and there were clouds, but it was warm enough to be in the pool. We stayed in for about an hour (long enough for us all to get wrinkly fingers). Now we’re all here updating our blogs. (I’m the last to finish.) The plan is to get supper at Ma & I, the Thai place near Judi’s place. Then we go off to see Jersey Boys at the Bank of America Theater (what Judi says was once called the Schubert Theater). Should be a fun evening!