Fernando's Adventures: June 2012

I decided to take Friday off from work and spend time with the family.   It was a beautiful day that we decided to go into the city. I took the family out to eat at Flo and Santos.   Alejandro and I first visited this place before the Mexico and Bosina soccer match.   They have a dish called Pork wings which is very delicious.   I have now been to this place 3 times and would go back w/o much hesitation.

Afterwards the family and I walked around Grant park and ended up at Buckingham Fountain.   This is a beautful fountain that everyone really enjoyed.   It started getting unbearably hot since there was not much shade in the area.   After 30 minutes at the fountain we walked back to the car.  After a 30 minute drive we met up with the Cartus estimater to determine how long it would take to box, load and ship our goods.   The wieght for all of our stuff came to 11,000 pounds. I'm not sure if this is a lot?  This  is the first step in our move from Chicago to Houston.

On Saturday we prepared the house for lunch with the Spamers.   Tanya had invited them over for Posole.   She did a fantastic job in preparing a meal that was enjoyed by everyone. After lunch Alex and I watched the France-Spain soccer game played in the 2012 Eurocup.   Spain ended up winning 2-0.   We then play FIFA 2012 on the PS3.

After the Spamers left Tanya and I cleaned the house, bathed the kids and rented a movie.   I also stopped by a place called Big Boy's Gyro.   This place offered up a decent Gyro but our favorite place in the city is still tops.

The movie we rented was This Means War .   This movie turned out to be a mega chick flick. I could not sit through it all and ended up taking a shower midway through the movie. I thought the movie was a little far fetched and it seems Roger Ebert is in full agreement with me.

On Sunday we went to Lincoln Park and Summerfest.   As we walked into the festival there was a Dave Mathews cover band on the stage.   They sounded very good.   Valentina played around in the kids area with bubbles and crayons. This was a really great way to spend an afternoon in Chicago.

Me and the kids at Buckingham Fountain

The family enjoying a great day in Chicago

Valeria, Cecilia, Sophie and Daniel enjoying each other's company

Daniel checking out the scene

Having a great lunch together

Tanya cooking and serving for everyone

Pork wings-so good

Tanya enjoying her meal

Valentina munching on some fries

Leaving Flo and Santos

Walking through Grant park

Daniel and I trying to stay cool

Tanya walking up to Buckingham Fountain

The great city of Chicago

Valentina playing near the Fountain

Tanya trying to make Valentina pose for a photo

This past weekend was another great one here in Chicago.

On Thursday I hosted my last Happy Hour here in Chicago. I held it at South Branch which is a bar that my friend Harley is an investor. It is a happening place along the river where the beautiful people of Chicago hangout. I really enjoy these outings and spending time with friends.

I took Friday off from work and spent the morning helping Tanya get ready for her eye doctor. We left the house and arrived to the eye doctor at 11:45 AM. Once we walked in we found out the appointment had been the day before at the same time. Tanya walked out very upset and had to return the following day. I tried to cheer her up by taking her to eat some pizza Neapolitan. We ended up at a place called Coal fire. Someone at the plant had mentioned this place and thought to give it a try. We ordered 2 different pizzas as we could not decide between 2 different types. It was very tasty but we both prefer the Neapolitan pizza from Denver.

After lunch we left to spend the afternoon at the Field Museum. While at the museum we went to the children's play area and then visited the new exhibition, Extreme mammals. Before leaving I bought a vanilla shake from McDonalds.

Once we put the kids to bed we watched the movie The Grey. Tanya is not a big fan of these movies and made it through 20 minutes before leaving to bed. I sat and watched the rest of the movie and thought it was fairly amusing. I'm sure wolves would attack if threatened but not to these extremes.

On Saturday Tanya got ready and went to the eye doctor, again. Her eyes seem to be improving but still needs to go back sometime this week to check on her progress. When Tanya got back home we packed the kids in the van and headed off to the Highland Games. I'm a fan of bagpipes and enjoyed the Highland Games in Denver so thought this would be worthwhile. I took the family to the Isaca suburbs. Once we made it to the games we had to pay $40.00 to get into the festival. I thought this was really steep but at least the money went to a charity. The games were great but the sun was scorching. A couple of hours into the festival the family was wiped out and fell asleep. Fortunately they fell asleep next to the bagpipe competition. I spent about 1 hour listening the bagpipes and miraculously Valentina and Daniel were able to sleep through everything.

On the way back the family and I stopped at Los Comales for Dinner. We got back home very tired but satisfied with another great day.

On Father's day Tanya woke me up with some gifts and a card. She got me a couple of shirts and a pair of workout shorts. Tanya then headed out to Lindo Michoacan to purchase Barbacoa for breakfast. Upon her return the family then sat down and had a fantastic breakfast. Then we all got ready to head out to Forest Park Beach. There we were going to meet up with our friends, the Spamers. After 1 hour of driving we parked and walked 20 minutes to the beach entrance. We met up with Alejandro and he walked us down to the beach area. Before entering the actual beach we had to pay $40.00 ($10 each including Daniel!!!). This place offers a fantastic beach, scenery and amenities. It was nice to see how the 1% live and enjoy their weekends. We spent the afternoon with the Spamers before heading back home around 5:00 PM.

Once we got back home Tanya made the family some dinner and I watched the Miami-Oklahoma NBA finals game (game 3).

This was another great weekend and Father's day. I'm very blessed to be able to do the things I do and enjoy the family that I have.