Liv and Lil take Chicago

It sounds like a new name of a great new reality show, right?? Watch out, Kardashian sisters.

This weekend, my favorite twin cousin came to spend the weekend in my neck of the woods and we conquered the windy city, having a fantastic time in the process.
Yes, you read that correctly: twin cousins. Thats an odd term - I will explain it's origin. First of all, our dads are brothers. (p.s I saw this picture for the first time at my Dad's funeral and about died laughing -- and impressive feat given the circumstances, look at my uncles glasses!!!).

But perhaps more importantly, Olivia and I were born within about 36 hours of each other, within about 36 miles of each other, one magical mid-July weekend in 1990, and have been great friends ever since.

Here's a great picture of us at our grandparent's anniversary celebration at crystal mountain.

Here are some more great picture of us at my high school grad party.

 We're really photogenic.

When the two of us went off to college it naturally followed that we didn't see each other much, and since getting real life jobs and working on graduate degrees, that free time has become even more restricted. So naturally when we both had a free weekend this January we knew exactly how we wanted to spend it.

Trains converged at union station, where the adventure began. After hitting up a few ideal shopping spots (including but not limited to the Urban Outfitters book section), we caught the nearest cab and journeyed to the north side of the city to Beat Kitchen.

Beat Kitchen is this great little restaurant with a relatively intimate performance venue where we saw three performances:
- a coed duet act (a guy with a guitar and a girl)
- a soloist from ann arbor
- and Jenny Owen Youngs

Jenny Owen Youngs is friends with Regina Spektor, so obviously I was expecting a lot. And Jenny Owen Youngs did not disappoint. After getting back to DeKalb, I looked Youngs up on spotify, and if you haven't listened to her before, I recommend the "Take Off All Your Clothes" EP. She was great, and we had the best time listening to some good song writing, while being able to sing along with covers like "Ring of Fire" and "Colors of the Wind" (yeah. from Pocahontas).

The next morning our plan was to check out the ice sculpture exhibit at the Navy Pier, but 5 minutes in the beginning of the intense ice storm to follow was beginning in the form of giant heavy drops of freezing rain, so our ice sculpture expedition instantly turned into a game of "find the nearest Starbucks".

Overall, our Chicago adventure was a highly successful one! There is nothing like a fun weekend with family to recharge your week.

happy Monday!