Spring is a coy thing in Chicago

Spring arrived in a brief glorious moment two weeks ago in Chicago. Bewitched by the 80+ degree weather, Dan and I joined our fellow Chicagoans in pretending like this wasn't Mother Nature's joke. Hey, here's awesome weather, oh wait. Just kidding. It's back to the 40's and 50's. Haha. Blame the lake effect, right? They blame every bizarre weather pattern on the so-called "lake effect."

Like other cheerful, winter-crazed Midwestern denizens, we engaged in summer-like activities for that one pseudo-summer week.

Dan cut low-hanging branches on the tree in front of our house to prevent me poking my eyes out.

 

We went to Opening Day of the Green City Farmer's Market to look for the first spring vegetables: asparagus!

We walked around the neighborhood admiring the newly installed public art pieces.

Of course, we went to Costco to see what other interesting products they added to their offerings. 53' plush bear, anyone?

Finally, we made delicious spring-based foods: caprese salad from Costco mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes, proscuitto-wrapped blanched asparagus with truffle salt and olive oil, spring mix with cinnamon sugar-toasted walnuts, fuji apples, and nice citrus dressing.

 

I even started putting away winter clothes. Silly me, it's cold again and I need to pull them back out. I don't know what I was thinking. It must be the lake effect.

April bookends: A Summer Teaser & Des Moines

The first April weekend in Chicago had temperatures in the 80's, giving us a brief glimpse of the beautiful summer that Chicago is known for and the sole reason why we endure awful winters.

We broke out our bikes from winter storage and rode south along Lake Michigan, all the way to the Adler Planetarium. We even walked to get passion fruit Italian ice at Annette's, one of our favorite local neighborhood stores.

 

We bookended April with a trip to Des Moines, Iowa for a recruiting trip. These follow similar patterns: I work from the hotel on Fridays while Dan interviews and meets with a variety of physicians and administrators. We then have a formal dinner, usually a steakhouse. Saturday morning is usually spent with a realtor who give us enthusiastic community tours and show us the "nice" neighborhoods where other physicians reside.

My favorite part of Des Moines was all the public art works, especially those at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. A city that invests in making itself look interesting and beautiful is always a plus in my book.

In the next month, we have lots of work-related travel planned, so look forward to updates from all over!