In Chicago, we flagged down the Enterprise rental shuttle and got a lift to the rental office. I was a bit surprised to hear that I had an intermediate car, but when they checked the compact rates, that would have been $10/day more. Go me for reserving early. The car we were suposed to get had been locked with the keys inside, so we got the one next to it (though Cris worried the woman doing the walk aroudn with me, she didn't realise he was with me as well). I took some time to settle in, Cris hooked up his phone for music, we programmed in the GPS and entered the fray of Chicago traffic. It was a stressful drive for me, lots of slow spots and construction and avoiding teh tolls wasn't wrokign very well. $3 to cross a bridge, then $2.50 more before we got off the tollway, but at least it was pretty direct. We stopped at a McDonald's in the median of one toll section so Cris could get a snack. I got ordered tea (which really confused the counter clerk, she'd just refused the guy in front of me hot chocolate and thought they didn't serve tea either, but her supervisor did some on the spot training. I, left their bag languishing since they gave it to me separately from the hot water, and I used some of the tea that I'd brought with me. Found the Fischer Farm Guest House on Fail Rd and pulled in behind other cars. We dropped our stuff in the room upstairs next to the bathroom (very white, and with paper thin (literally) blinds, I wasn't looking forward to the morning sunlight). The difference between the car dashboard clock, my cell phone and the house clocks made it hard for me to figure out what time it actually was, but I didn't really care - vacation. :) I stayed up for a while talking in the kitchen, sitting around the long breakfast bar table with Axel and Siobhan, and then took a quick shower and hit bed at around 2am (according to the bedside clock). It ended up taking about 2 hours to get from O'Hare to the guest house.
We headed back to the guest house to get ready for the wedding, time sneaking up on us. Axel and I had a brief soak in the hot tub. A misunderstanding and running late led to almost all of us taking our own cars even after I'd offered to drive for later gin. I drove Cris and Matt through La Porte since the GPS said to, though Matt plotted us out a faster return trip via 20 on his phone. I pulled up and parked next to a row of cars on the grass, just outside the barn fence and we made our way in. I'd changed into boots since I didn't want to drive in high heels, but I ended up keeping them on (with a skirt and polka dot blouse) as the ground and the barn floors were uneven. The barn looked lovely, lots of wild flower bouquets interspersed with mason jars half filled with water and a floating candle. At one point the wind caught one of the taller arrangements up on a beam near the door and it came crashing down. I walked carefully around that spot for the rest of the evening. I'd put my camera batteries on to charge for a bit, but they still gave out as the ceremony was starting and my cell phone camera failed pretty spectacularly at taking pictures of people inside the barn. It did get a neat frame of the candles floating in the darkness though.
The ceremony was held inside to avoid the spitting rain, chairs arranged on three sides of a square on the main floor. The catering tables and the bar were also set up down there along with a few tables for the reception, but we snagged a table up in the loft to give us (aka me) a place to retreat. The twin brother of the groom had built a photo booth in the other loft and fun was had with that. :) The ceremony itself was simple, performed by a Methodist preacher who was Jeff's uncle I think. The three readings were great (a judge's statement on civil unions, the same passage from The Velveteen Rabbit that we'd heard at the wedding the weekend before, and a double reading that started off with "Love is a grave mental illness" - Plato. :) Krista's dress was awesome, it reminded me of Erte's designs, a white base with silver bodice details and black translucent panels of fabric over the white skirt. The food was awesome as well, I ate far too much. I liked how different cuisines were set up at different tables, with Greek, Spanish, Italian and one more I think. I loved the fig and chicken skewers, must try that at home. I toasted with a bit of champagne, but otherwise didn't drink. I got to catch up a bit with Eileen, spoke briefly with Krista (we shared the dance floor more than we talked :) ), and generally hung out with the a.g. crew in attendance. It felt welcoming though, the family members all seemed pretty happy. Lots of neat boots + skirt combos on the women, and sharp suits on the men. :) Monica was official photographer and was wearing the black version of the dress that I'd worn to my brother's wedding, and I loved Shannon's jacket + pants combo, they both looked great. Steph was wearing an awesome green dress and the same heels that I had left in the car trunk. :) I lent her my sweater as the temperature started dropping, I just kept my coat on until I warmed up from dancing.
Again, the confusion over time bit me on the butt. I was getting a bit tired, and my cell phone said it was 11pm, so I started making my goodbyes. Steph and Martin had already left, and so had Siobhan, but Axel wasn't ready to leave yet and he gave me grief about leaving so early (which confused me). I gave Matt and Cris a ride back to the guest house. I sat in a camp chair in the hot tub room talking with Matt, Martin and Steph as they soaked. I decamped when the chlorine fumes got to me, it was steamier and more chemical smelling at head height than at sitting height. I read a bit of a Van Gogh art book I found and then stayed up until around 1:30am talking in the kitchen once they were showered. Siobhan let me drink a few glasses from the bottle of red wine we ended up sharing. I showered and was in bed at around 2am.
From there, Matt and I caravanned up to the shore of Lake Michigan and pulled into the parking lot at Mt. Baldy in Indiana Dunes park. We walked on a trail around the side of the huge dune and made it up to the top after a short walk up the sandy trail. Rain had wetted down the second layer, but the first layer had dried and was super fine. Matt talked with Alison for a while and I called my parents, but we mostly hung out and enjoyed the quiet and the view. We could see a hazy outline of Chicago across the lake, and a nuclear reactor loomed the other way. The slope down to the beach was pretty steep, I saw people scrambling up on hands and knees at one point. I was just a bit tempted to roll down it. :) The main sounds were the waves crashing on the shore and the wind in the seagrass. We found a spot out of the wind and sat on the sand, talking, for a while. Then it was time to head back to civilisation to catch our flights.
After saying bye in the parking lot, I pulled out first and Cris was able
to convince the GPS to find us a toll-free route toward O'Hare. I pulled
off in downtown Chicago to get gas, the GPS directing us to a cash only
place first, and then an auto repair garage w/o pumps until we finally got
to a Citgo. Cris grabbed me a bagel from the attached Dunkin' Donuts and
we continued on to sit in traffic on the way up to O'Hare. We just had
time to have Cris come with me to return the car before his flight (he
bought his ticket later than I did and the earlier flight was cheaper),
but then we panicked a bit when our cell phones showed it was an hour
later. He took off to the long security line while I paused to print out
my boarding pass since doing check in on my phone didn't result in the
email with my mobile boarding documents. The ticket printing machine
showed it was actually 5pm, not 6pm, but Cris was gone. I joined the line,
but a security guard waved a bunch of us out and down the hall to a
different line and I got through fairly quickly. I treated myself to a
strawberry kiwi smoothie and made my way over to terminal C through the
light show tunnel again. I went to the gate where Cris's flight was
leaving from (it was next to mine), but didn't spot him despite sitting
and reading there for a while. As soon as I gave up to get some more food,
I spotted him coming back with food. Oops. :) I got a chicken sandwich on
brioche and ate at my gate, then they moved us and announced that the
flight was going to be a bit late. I think they made up most of it with a
very quick boarding process. I had an old guy next to me who tried to get
the guy on his other side engaged in a conversation, but that petered out
and our row got quiet as he read and fell asleep. A baby with an
impressive array of cries could just be heard up at the front of the
plane, but my noise cancelling headphones kept me cocooned in a fairly
quiet environment. I had the aisle seat, but I still only got up once to
use the bathroom and stretch, and I could feel my feet swelling again. As
we descended into Boston, I felt an abrupt sympathy with the crying baby
up front: I had a spike of pain go from my ear to my shoulder. I think it
was a leftover of the sinus infection that wouldn't die, it felt like my
lymph nodes were connected with an electrical current. :/ It calmed down
and I was eventually able to clear my ear with some creative yawning, and
we were down. Our arrival gate was right next to the exit from the
security zone, and Cris was waiting for me downstairs when I came out just
past 11pm. We had a bit of a wait for the Silver line bus, and then
another one for the Red line train and a long one for the 73 bus, getting
home at around 12:40am or so. I was hungry and felt filthy, so I
sacrificed more sleep for some food and a shower, falling into bed at
around 1:30am.