August is My Favorite Month
An update from here, including a birthday, a trip, an anniversary, & a rundown of my favorite spots...
Good morning—happy Thursday, happy summer!
(Yes, in my book, it’s 100% still summer!)
I know so many of your kids are back in school already, but NYC kids still have two weeks from today (!!!), so we’re still in full summer mode here. It’s been a mild, gorgeous summer here in Michigan—most days we’ve barely needed the air conditioning, screen doors flung open wide. Yesterday and today, however, are absolute scorchers--at least for Michigan—and super windy: a hot strong wind out of the southwest, loud and wild and totally different from the still quiet mornings of last week.
Speaking of last week, I had a birthday, and Aaron and I went to Chicago for a few days to celebrate our anniversary a little bit early—the actual day is today! We’ve been married for 22 years today, and it was so sweet to go back to the place we got married, to reminisce and laugh and tell stories.
We got married at the Chicago Athletic Association, and it has since been turned into a super-cool hotel with a great rooftop restaurant. The Drawing Room is the room where we had our reception—the orchestra lined up along the leaded glass windows looking out on to Michigan Avenue—and I love that we can still go back to that beautiful room and recall the dance floor, the music, the friends and family and funny memories.
I was at lunch with friends recently and we were talking about marriage and anniversaries—one of them is a newlywed—and I told them that I know there are such great things about new love, new beginnings, fresh starts…but there’s also something really incredible about old love. We’re pretty much in old love territory right now, and I’m super into it: we’ve built a whole world together, a world of memories and inside jokes and learning the hard way and laughing together. We’ve been around the world together, become parents together, grieved and danced and picked each other back up after a fall a thousand times at least. This morning, I’m profoundly grateful for our old marriage, and all the beautiful things woven into our love story with each passing year.
And another cause for gratitude: a birthday. I turned forty-seven on August 17th—as you know, I’m not at all a hide-your-age, turning-29-again kind of person. I’m very much pro-aging: pro-wisdom, pro-growth, pro-another-year-of-life. I loved being 20, and 30, and 40…but I also love being 47, and I don’t want to miss out on all the goodness of this year by pretending I’m back there.
My kids gave me such thoughtful gifts, and we toasted with really great champagne. Aaron and the boys told me we could do whatever I wanted for dinner, and I picked pizza on the patio (of course pizza, of course patio!), and just after we finished eating, a massive thunderstorm blew across the lake—the perfect ending to a great day.
While I have you, a few Chicago favorites and a few West Michigan favorites…
Chicago favorites:
Of course, I think you should stay at the Chicago Athletic Hotel—or at the very least, have a drink in the gorgeous second floor lobby and a meal at Cindy’s.
Quartino remains my forever favorite Chicago restaurant—I arrived in the city a few hours before Aaron did, and I had a great meal at the bar there, so happy and full of good memories.
The other thing I did before he arrived was the Wendella Architectural Boat Tour, and I’m putting it in the YOU MUST DO THIS IF YOU VISIT CHICAGO category. I’ve done it before, but like a million years ago, and I loved doing it again. I feel like in the past I’ve always just done the river version, but this time around I did the lake and river, and I loved it so much.
The other absolute must-do, of course, is a Cubs game at Wrigley Field—we went to the Crosstown Classic and it was so much fun to be back there…and since we moved they’ve added a Small Cheval and a Jeni’s Ice Cream…yum!
Also: we had a great meal at Dove’s Luncheonette, and fantastic arepas before the game at Bolivar and Lincoln. Chicago is an incredible city, and being back there was an absolute delight!
West Michigan favorites:
You know my favorite restaurant in the area is The Southerner, and my mom and I went just last night—it’s as perfect as I remembered. My go-to order: maple old-fashioned, pimento cheese (love the horseradish!), little gem salad with Nashville hot chicken, and a biscuit with honey butter…and yes, that’s a lot of food, and yes, I take home a delicious amount of leftovers, and yes, in fact I am eating those leftovers as I write this very second.
I’m also very excited about Pennyroyal—absolutely great food and a beautiful outdoor patio space that feels almost like a secret garden. I always try to get in a visit to Virtue Cider, you know how much I love The Fields of Michigan, and no trip to South Haven is complete without donuts from Golden Brown Bakery and ice cream from Sherman’s.
A week from now, we’ll be on a flight back to New York. Two weeks from now, the boys will be starting 7thgrade and junior year. The fall will be busy in a creative, productive way—I’m very excited about upcoming projects, some fun events, trying some new things creatively.
But not yet—not yet! For the next week at least, we’re still in full summer zone. We’re going blueberry picking, having friends over to swim at the beach. We’re going sailing, soaking up time with cousins and grandparents, getting in that summer reading—mostly in the hammock.
This summer girl is soaking up every bit of it—the wind, the late-season tomatoes, the family time, the sand, the sunshine…there are so many good things in my life, things I’m so grateful for, things I treasure—and this time in this place with these people is at the top of the list. Grateful beyond.
