A wedding in Chicago - weekend of December 10th

We didn't do too much over the weekend of December 3rd - I (Charlie) had to travel to the west coast for work, leaving Sunday before noon.  A long trip to Los Angeles meant I missed the Bengals game (which was fine since they lost 20-19 on a last second play, and would have locked up a playoff spot it they could only hold on to a lead!

Anyways - I had a presentation and meetings in Los Angeles on Monday and the same in Phoenix on Tuesday.  I really didn't get to see much in LA - I got in late and left for Arizona shortly after I was done working.  I was able to see the Hollywood sign from the building, so I have a picture shown below - it looked a lot closer than this picture seems!

In Phoenix I had a little more of a chance to see something in the area - the KPMG office is actually in Tempe, AZ right near Arizona State.  We went to lunch with the team we met with at the Arizona State Golf Club - where Phil Mickelson (he of the KPMG hat) used to play college golf!  I took a red-eye flight back Tuesday night / Wednesday morning, and I don't know if I'll ever do that again...

That weekend the two of us had some travel again for a wedding in Chicago for one of my college friends John.  There are still a ton of my old fraternity brothers living in Chicago - so it was good to see many of them again.  We stayed at the Sofitel in downtown Chicago, right near Michigan Avenue.

On Friday we walked around Michigan Avenue and met up with the wedding party at the Fireplace Inn.  On Saturday, we got a chance to meet with Katie's friend Rachel and her husband Pete for brunch at a David Burke Primehouse.  The restaurant has a cool weekend Brunch feature where they offer "Brunch in a Box" - which is a few different small dishes made to go together all on one plate.  Katie got one of these boxes with a french toast / pancake theme, while I went with a regular brunch menu item - sirloin and eggs.  It was fun to hang out with Rachel and Pete, who I hadn't seen in a while; Katie had to go alone to their wedding which I unexpectedly missed when Griffey got very sick.

The wedding and receptions were on Saturday evening at the Glen View Club where John belongs.  A bus took us out to the wedding, which had a very Christmas-y theme - there was a beautiful tree behind the couple and the night was a lot of fun.  We got to see many friends from Chicago and other cities who'd come up for the weekend, and in typical Theta Chi style danced until the band closed up shop at midnight.  That was plenty of fun for Katie - but I made it out for a nightcap with John and some other friends.

Tired but having had a good weekend - we headed back home to pick up our dog from camp.  We made it home just before Best Friends pet care closed, so Griffey was happy to see us a day earlier than we thought!