Beginning of Spring!

Flowers from the choir concert.

The year's first batch of kittens!

And freshman registration!! 

Last Choir Concert!

Ah, the end of high school. The end has begun with my last high school choir concert!
Our program:
Zigeunerleben (Gypsy Life) - Robert Schumann
Jamaican Market Place - Larry Farrow
How Can I Keep From Singing - Robert Lowery, arr. Taylor Davis
Bridge over Troubled Water - Paul Simon, arr. Kirby Shaw
Combined piece: Baba Yetu - Christopher Tin

Will post a video when it comes!

Seniors got flowers and gifts.

Chicago pt 2: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday morning began with brunch at a nice place called The Dawson. After a delicious meal, we headed for the Art Institute of Chicago.

It was rainy and foggy. 

Some of the buildings disappeared in the fog!

The first place we explored was the Impressionist area.

Chrysanthemums by Renoir.

Degas Dancer!

A Van Gogh self-portrait.

There was a whole room of Monet, including some of his water lilies and haystacks!

Next we headed to European pre-impressionist art.

The grandiose staircase.

Tessie and I had some photography fun.

Seurat's Sunday Afternoon at La Grande Jatte

There were several El Greco paintings, too.

This was a Mexican painting called The Divine Sheperdess--La Divina Pastora.

The famous "Arrangement in Gray and Black," or Whistler's Mother, was back in Chicago after being away on exhibit. 

Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks."

More Degas dancers!

Mary Cassat

Patrick also took some of the two of us.

Georgia O'Keefe

Edward Munch, of "the Scream" fame

Degas

After finishing at the Art Institute, we went across the street to an architecture place where there is a scale model of downtown Chicago. We had fun looking at the places we had been and finding certain buildings.

For the rest of the afternoon we did some shopping until dinner, which was at a fancy French-Vietnamese Fusion restaurant. 

Sunday morning we skipped brunch and had breakfast at home instead, before going to Mass at St. John Cantius. It was a gorgeous Mass, the Novus Ordo in Latin, and the choir sang a baroque Mass for the music. 

Then we walked a couple of blocks to a coffee shop...

...then we took a cab to a delicious Irish ice cream place, because why not.

Our flight was supposed to be at 4pm, so we headed to the airport. (It was actually delayed 1.5 hours because the plane had been struck by lightning, but at least we were on time.)

It was an amazing weekend which we'll never forget! Thank you, Patrick!!

Some happy daffodils awaited us at home.

Chicago pt 1: Thursday and Friday

Warning: long post! But it's mostly pictures.
To celebrate my 18th birthday, Patrick flew Tessie and me out to Chicago to spend the weekend with him! It was a blast and a wonderful break from the monotony of the semester.

Flying out on Thursday evening.

After we dropped our luggage at Patrick's apartment, we walked to a restaurant for a late dinner. They had fancy fresh-squeezed juice which was delicious.

The view from one of his apartment windows.

On Friday the weather was beautiful, so we did our outside activities then. We began with brunch at a place called Brunch.

Then the walking tour commenced! We walked downtown first, including through this building, the Merchandise Mart. It's enormous--it takes up an entire city block. Inside are fancy stores.

We went inside a couple of the tile stores and pretended we were on HGTV.

A cool mailbox inside the Merchandise Mart.

After emerging back outside, we went over to the River Walk.

There is a reflecty ceiling over the walkway in case of rain.

We veered off the River Walk and headed for Millennium Park, where we met a lot more tourists.

The Carbide and Carbon Building, which looks black from far away.

We took pictures at the Bean, obviously!

We passed by the big amphitheater where concerts and other events take place.

And walked through the gardens, where the only things growing so far were wildflowers.

From Millennium Park we took the train to Lincoln Park.

A duck pond at the beginning of Lincoln Park Zoo.

Alpaca!

We stopped to eat popcorn and enjoy the sunshine. Then, after leaving the Zoo, we headed across the highway to walk by the shore of Lake Michigan.

This was my favorite part of the day. The water was calm, the weather was beautiful, and there weren't crowds of people.

We all got sunburnt.

We left the lakefront and headed for Patrick's old neighborhood, where we ate at a delicious Brazilian place.

The Guarana brought back lots of memories.

Then we went to the nearby Coffee & Tea exchange, where we bought some nice loose-leaf teas. From there we got some gelato and took a cab home. Later, for dinner, we went to a sushi place called The Sushi Cafe.

So many choices!

We thought we had ordered too much, but we ate it all. 

It was a lovely day, and we were quite exhausted by the end!