To Toot or not to Toot????

No, that is not really the question because the answer would always be yes, yes and yes. We spent four days in Chicago running around, shopping, creating and eating but what makes tootfest really toot is the laughter. The non-stop laughter, well except for Jane's brief ribbon moment, erased the cares and concerns of our everyday life and we simply lived for the moment. From our arrival at Midway greeted by Laura to our last deep dish the trip lived up to all to all the anticipation and hype.

Thursday started out with a trip to Portillos....hamburgers, chicago hot dogs, italian beef, chopped salad we had it all...and as you know from our Valley Ridge posts, a trip to Chicago is not complete without a feast at Portillos. Following in tradition's footsteps, we headed to LaGrange for the trek to Jackson Square Antique mall...you can see Laura and Kim outside with their treasures. Knowing my short attention span in antique malls - I headed to the hardware store for some wire and plexiglass and then to the bike store for a couple supplies.

Kim is pictured above tucked in the tootfestmobile that flawlessly guided us around the nightly chicagoland and later in the weekend to Indiana......oh no.......more antiques. After Jackson square we checked into our hotel, welcomed Trish to the party ...more fun was had at dinner at Buca di Beppo..then back to the hotel for evening art..........Friday off to bella luna a bead gallery kim has dying to visit in East Dundee. Deborah then guided us to Benedicts for lunch....it actually had a tree growing through the roof! Friday also marked the day Noreen was introduced to the tootfestees.....here is Noreen with her long time pal Liberace who she misses dearly....(yes, it is me but don't worry my own mother didn't even recognize me).........

Jane joins us in the evening, we head back to....you guessed it...portillos for dinner. Following dinner more creating....I carved the umbrella stamp you see here. Trish and Jane worked on swap projects, Laura on her alphabetica journal and Kim worked on Trish's journal.........

Saturday already, it seems as if we just landed. Anyway, we are off to another couple stores, Stampology, attempted to go to Carolina Moon but it was closed luckily Bodacious Beads right next door was open...then out for some Mexican....before we head back to our hotel so our resident book nut (Laura) can pick up the last Harry Potter books.....that girl has more books than barnes and noble...but she does inspire us all to read more which is always a good thing...back safely at the Embassy Suites our last night is capped off with Jane's ribbon dying demonstration....look at all those colors we had fun and made such a mess.

After checking out we were off for more antiquing in Crown Point, Indiana....oh no there are multiple antique establishments...but wait there is also a bar open, on Sunday and serving...but I resisted the temptation and meandered from person to person checking out their "finds of the day"........the shopping was topped off with some great deep dish on our way back to Midway...sorry no pictures it was gone too too fast!! We arrived back home about 1am Monday morning, Monday I was off to golf with a client, Wednesday off to Cleveland and back to CBus to lead a mountain bike ride..........finally able to get some words out here....but you better believe I would do it all again....I have been lucky to have had a couple of the best months...valley ridge to valley ridge to ann arbor to chicago...it has been quite an experience to spend time with some amazing people, so different in their personalities, different life experiences...I loved every minute of it and look forward to the next time our paths cross.........I'll leave you with a few random images of the trip.......