Weekend Recap - BF's Birthday

This past weekend was BF's birthday. In celebration, I had gotten us tickets to do a L.A.T.E Ride sponsored by the Chicago Parks departments. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

BF came out to visit me on Friday evening. We had decided to break in my new bike and ride around Schaumburg a bit. After a bit of a rocky start, we road to Whole Foods where we shopped for some fresh goodies for dinner. BF's best friend DJ was supposed to come out and ride with us, but wasn't able to make it. He made it to go out in the area though. We ended up at a chill bar in Elgin (not my favorite neck of the woods, but we survived).

My friend MS spent the night and we all got up early and had Chocolate chip Pancakes! DJ had a baseball game in Wheaton and had to hit the road, and BF and I had thought we were meeting his parents for lunch in the city.... wires got crossed though and those plans got pushed back. 

BF and I decided to got to Dick's Sporting Goods (I feel I need to spell that out so as not to accidentally lead anyone to anything in-gentile) to get me a helmet for the ride. Afterward we popped over to the theater to see Horrible Bosses. I thought it was amusing but not split your side hysterical... BF thought otherwise.

Afterward we made our way into the city for a lazy afternoon resting up for our big ride, complete with Thai take-out and movie fest.

My friend Mel was having a fundraiser at a bar in Wrigleyville for Alz Stars, and BF and I wanted to support her! (Alzheimer's is a cause near and dear to BF's heart as he's had 3 grandparents effected by the awful disease). We road our bikes there (a seemingly bad idea in my opinion... but we won't go there) and enjoyed an adult beverage or two with friends:

Yes, riding your bike to a bar constitutes extra glistening and non-bar attire...

Afterward, BF and I road back to his apartment to grab the rest of our stuff and DJ to make our way down to Buckingham fountain. Did I mention this was a 1 AM ride? Well, it was ...

BF and I at the start... ready to RIDE!

DJ and BF, they are so excited to bike through the city.

The ride literally took us all over the city through Chinatown, Humble park, Wrigleyville and ended along the lake shore.

It was such a neat way to see the city, and it was so much easier to ride when the cops were shutting down the streets for us. We were lucky, and no one in our riding party got hurt, although we did see two seemingly non-serious injuries and a couple blown tires.

 We ended the whole thing watching the sun rise from Buckingham fountain.

It was all pretty neat!

I spent most of Sunday sleeping... and icing my soar body. I'm still recovering. That night BF's parents came in to take us to dinner. We went to a very famous Italian restaurant in Little Italy: Tufano's. We had some amazing cuisine (from which I now feel like I gained a million lbs...) but it was great food with great people.

And that my friends, was my weekend... I'm pooped. BF was worried with all my sleeping yesterday I wouldn't be able to sleep last night, but Tylenol PM said otherwise (and I feel like I could sleep some more too!).

What'd you do this weekend? How'd you cope with the God-Awful heat that we've been dealing with?