Crosswalks to Nowhere

I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that Spring finally arrived in Chicago this past weekend. Our bulbs (those that made it through the winter, anyway) finally came up...

...our hostas are climbing out of the ground...

..and a robin built her nest in the crabtree right outside our dining room window.

I was also able to complete the first outdoor project of the year, building a new planter in the corner of the yard:

Now all we need is for the weather to cooperate, and we'll be on our way to all sorts of fresh veggie goodness. I may even drag out my old tomato sauce recipe.

What a great time of year.

We spent the weekend at a bed and breakfast on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. This was the view from our window.

The weather held out beautifully, with only a thundertorm on Saturday night.

We took the Skyway to the Indiana Tollroad on the way there, and thanks to the reciprocal agreement between the states, we were able to breeze through all the tolls with our I-Pass.

On the way home Sunday, we decided to take the "old school" way home-- we drove US Route 12 from New Buffalo all the way back-- we saw some interesting things along the way... but that's another story.

What a relaxing weekend.

On Sunday morning, we were part of the 20,000 people who swarmed Lake Shore Drive for the annual Bike The Drive.

We started out in Grant Park (Jackson and LSD) at about 5:45 am, and we completed the entire 30-mile path-- north to Bryn Mawr and south to The Museum of Science and Industry-- by 10:00 am. We took a leisurely pace because this is a family event, and there were a lot of people riding who haven't been on their bikes since last year's event. Our trip up and down the Drive also included a couple of rest and refreshment stops, along with taking advantage of some good photo ops. The good thing is that when we finished we weren't exhausted.

I've mentioned this here before, but there's nothing like riding along the lakefront with the cool air blowing around you and only the sounds of bicycle gears and tires in your ears.

Lisa rode her Raleigh C30 and I brought out the trusty Schwinn Woodlands. I haven't done any Spring prep on my Specialized Allez, but I have the feeling there may be an event in its future...

As always, it's a great start to the cycling season, and I'm sure we'll be on the bikes a lot this summer.