What I Did Last Weekend

It’s already Friday and I didn’t tell you about our adventure last weekend.  Here goes:

I had off Friday, so I went for my long run (6 miles) in the morning.  Since Ben gets off at 1 in the summer; we planned to meet for lunch and then spend the afternoon at the beach.  I picked up some Chick-fil-a for us and walked over to Oak Street Beach.  Between Oak Street Beach and North Ave Beach, there’s a “shelter”; which consists of an overhead awning and three tiered rows of concrete benches/tables with chess boards on table top portion.  We agreed to meet there to eat (Ben was coming from work and riding his bike). 

As I waited for him, the sun slipped into the clouds and then it started to get overcast.  Ben came and we ate lunch and watched a chess match.  After eating, just as we were deciding that the sun wasn’t going to come back out, it started to rain.  Several people rain to this shelter for cover.  Then it started to lightning and thunder and pour.  Since the shelter has no walls, the rain was blowing in and drenching us.  Literally, wring my clothes out wet (good thing I was already wearing my bathing suit) This didn’t last for just a couple minutes; we were legit stranded an hour and a half until the rain finally stopped.  And then the sun came back out. Go figure.

Saturday we decided to get out of the city.  Since Ben loves craft beer (and I’ve gotten into it because of him), we decided to go to Indiana to visit Three Floyds (3F) brewery and then go to the Dunes.  The drive from Chicago to Munster (where 3F is), is straight forward and it took us about 45 minutes.  We got there around five to noon (it opens at noon) and joined the line of people waiting to get in.



They offer (free) tours every hour, beginning at 12:30, and also have a brew pub.  We waited in line about 45 minutes until we were let into the pub (at 12:45).  They take fire code very seriously, so the line is fairly slow going as the doorman is a bit of a tyrant about the amount of people inside, as well as how close the line outside is to the door.  We were the last two people to make the 1:30 tour.  The perfect amount of time to sit at the bar and enjoy a beverage or two and some delicious BBQ Beef Jerky (seriously, YUM).



The tour was more or less standing in the brewery and 30 minutes of history and Q&A, but it was informative and I’m glad we did it.  After the tour, we got some beer to bring home (they have a two case limit per person.  We were bummed they didn’t have any of their hoppy Zombie Dust, but that flies off the shelf, so we weren’t surprised).

From there we got back on the interstate and headed northeast to Indiana Dunes.  We hadn’t spent much time to research which beach was the best (and we’d also decided that we just wanted to go to the beach and not hike or bike any of the trails); so we ended up following the signs to get to the visitor’s center and going to the main beach.  However, compared to Chicago beaches; it wasn’t that busy.  Maybe that’s because they charge $10 per out of state car to get in….BUT, the beach itself was worth it!





We were able to walk down a little bit and claim a spot right next to the water’s edge so we could watch our stuff when in the water.  The sand was silky smooth and the water was so clear you could see through it.  Plus, based on the winds on Lake Michigan, the water at the Dunes is warmer than the water at Chicago Beaches (which is always ice cold freezing!).  We laid out/swam for about an hour until clouds rolled in.  As soon as we heard thunder, we bolted.  We’d learned our lesson from Friday.

Sure enough, once on the road, it poured down rain.  It took a little more than an hour to get back to our apartment. Even though our time at the Dunes was short, we really enjoyed it and plan on returning!

As recapped in my OOTD post, I went out to brunch with some ladies on Sunday!