Strawberries, horses, and witches...oh my!

Dave's parents came to visit us for the second weekend this year, and we had a lot planned for their visit. Today, we took them to the Long Grove Strawberry Festival, Arlington Park, and Wicked downtown.

It was the strawberry festival's 25th year running, but we have only been coming for three. Still, we have come to expect a certain level of wonderment, such as the expressions seen on our faces in these photos as we devour chocolate-covered strawberries and strawberry-donut-marshmallow-rice krispie kabobs.

Then, it was onto Arlington Park, where Deb and Dave saw their first real-live horse races. We stayed for three races, and I lost all of them. Oh well...I guess you can't always win three out of four like last time. Here's one of the horses that lost:


At any rate, Deb and Dave did win on Tony Terrific, so that made the afternoon a little more fun. I was really worried that the weather would be horrible, but luckily the rain went away by the time the strawberry festival and the horse races were under way.

Then it was time for Wicked! We took the train downtown, so the Mussers got to see what our daily commute is like. And then we all got to see what riding the midnight train is like with a bunch of Kenny Chesney fans! Yikes.


We went out for some pre-Wicked tapas and sangria at Deb and Dave's favorite restaurant in Chicago, La Tasca. They do love it so - and so do we!

They loved the show, of course, and for us, it was fun to see it a second time. Some of the actors had changed, which made it different. Last show is January 1, 2009, so if you want to see it, you had better see it in the next six months!

Onto tomorrow, when we take Deb and Dave to the Chicago Botanic Gardens!