The Rain, The Race, The Dragon, The Hawk.... And the Home Of Tomorrow.

That is a lot of stuff to cover in One blog post!   I better get busy!

This past weekend was so eventful,  I have already forgotten most of what happened!   Good things I have pictures... I think...  Of the things I saw and did over the brief 48 hour period.  It all seems like a blur because it was over so quickly.  Then again,  Time always seems to fly when you are having fun...  

At least I think it was fun.   Let''s get started!

So...Cheryl Signed up for a Half Marathon in Naperville, IL.  And she was kind enough to invite me to join her.   Thankfully, it was only an hour and a half away from where I am currently residing, so I did not have to begin traveling until Saturday morning.  This allowed me to experience a Football game at the local Lutheran Highschool.  Shoreland Lutheran got beat by Lake County Lutheran by nearly 30 points! ( 48-19 final)  It was cold, windy and rainy!  And I wore shorts to the game... because....  Arctic Infantry?   Call it:  "Practice being Miserable."  Because that was what it was.   I got wet,  and cold.  But at least I didn't have to stay for the entire game to realize the home team was going to lose this one.  Shoreland is a Very small high school and apparently, they have very few players.  Many are freshmen and sophomores and they end up playing both ways for offense and defense.   So... Not a lot of horses to draw from when injuries thin the herd.   But this was their last game for the season... and I got to watch it!   Half of it at least..

Off to Chicago!  Or Naperville, if you want to be specific.  Cheryl linked up with me at the expo and we picked up the packet for the race.   The race was in the early morning and the temps had not warmed up at all since the previous night.  Good thing I had all of that misery training from the football game!  

The race started at 7 AM... So there was very little else to do except run for a cheer spot and cheer her on.   I was able to get her at several spots because the race was a giant loop twice around the area/town.

While cheering,  I was able to get a selfie with one of the local Mascots.  Let no mascot escape from my blog trophy case!

Cheryl started too far in the back, and lost precious seconds trying to get ahead of many slower people.   Around the second loop, she finally started to catch her stride and move up from 19th female to 12th at the finish.  It was a close race for her with the #13 lady.   Who had the strangest stride of all of the females out there.   She ran as if she had a birth defect!  Yet she was FAST!   under 7.5 minute a mile fast!   for 13 miles!  She was ahead of Cheryl most of the first half and was right on Cheryl's heels at the finish line.  Handy cap?   I think not!

Cheryl won first in her age group and was pretty excited about the run.  She is now looking forward to a possible Marathon in the future.   We shall see before I make any projections on the blog.  But... there it is. 

After the race,   we went to IKEA for some meatballs and window shopping.   Cheryl found all of the windows IKEA had and checked them out.

She also wanted to show off her new corner office from her job.  

I never knew Kalona had high rise buildings!   Living in the city must be brutal.  So Cheryl wanted to check out the bedrooms for a quick nap.  

Visiting IKEA seems to have become a bit of a tradition as of late.  I think this is the most we have visited IKEA and not bought anything except the food.  Ok... A few minor purchases.  But no major furniture or housewares!  It's kind of fun going there even when you are not in the market for any specific thing to add to your small apartment.  It's also nice not having to worry about how you will be getting it home...

See the runners approaching?

One final note from the race:   While waiting near the finish line,  a Hawk dropped down on the bridge wall and sat there... watching the runners run by mere inches away.  I wondered, at first, if it was a duck from the river... looking for a handout or something.   But upon closer inspection, it was... in fact...  a Hawk! 

Domesticated?   I don't know.   Friendly?   I'm thinking yes!    He flew down by this kid who was sitting only a few feet away on the same wall.  Kind of a cool experience.

  I even went back after Cheryl had finished her race to show her.   By then, the hawk had flown up onto the lightpost near by,  but was still in the area!  A small crowd had gathered to check out the bird and not just the runners.  I suppose that might have been a little too uncomfortable for the bird.   But not enough to fly away completely.   Perhaps he was just curious.   Or maybe he was scared a runner might get hungry or something...

What kind of bird is that???

A long post.  And it is getting late.   Better wrap this up and try to get it posted before it gets too late.   I hope everyone had a great weekend.   Weekends seem to fly by now that both Cheryl and I have both have jobs.   And now that we have been living in separate states.  But for now....  Enjoy the moment.   Or at least the memory of the moment.   After all... Isn't that part of what blogging is all about?   Thanks for stopping in.