This was one of those weekends where I get to do fun things Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I’ll just do the housework some other time J Friday I took a Kayak lesson on the Chicago River. I was with a group of about 15 and after a short lesson; we took a 1 hour trip up the Chicago River towards the city. With one 1 hour, we could not paddle that far, but it was very cool being down in the river with trees and lots of wild life on either side. You are in these big neighborhoods but yes, with many trees on either side of the river, it’s a great feeling of being some other place. Padding a Kayak was a learning experience for sure, but a lot of fun.

Saturday was the annual Fine Arts Festival at Sarah’s high school. I arrived around 9am and met my parents and my brother there. Sarah had to be there early for her performance time. We look at all the art from 7 elementary schools, 3 middle school and finally from the high school. It’s just amazing what kids can do. Sarah’s performance was at 10 am and as always the performance was amazing given the skill these kids have at their age. We stayed for a few more performances from other kids. Everybody left around 12:30pm and I stayed as I was going to be volunteering later that day. I spend the afternoon watching different performances from many different bands. At 3pm was my time to help. I was the cashier for people buying food and drinks. I did that for about an hour and a half then helped up with “clean up” actives. I finally left at 5:15.

My Sunday started when I woke at 5am because I had to leave by 5:30am to get to Chicago where I had volunteered to help at the American Cancer Society “Walk and Roll”. I arrived in Chicago by AYS about 6:15am, I took the Brown Line Train at 6:30 and arrived in the Loop (main downtown section) about 7:10, and then it was a 20 minute walk to where the event was to take place. I had volunteered to help register people who would participate in the event. That did not start until 9:30 so I enjoyed some free bagels and coffee. It was a very bright and sunny, but cold breezy morning. I was dressed for it so I really enjoyed being very close to the lake. It was very busy registering people and the 1.5 hours really fly by. After that, I helped clean up and then met some people I met there to get our free lunch for helping. You really do meet the most amazing people at these events and today was no expectation. I enjoyed lunch while talking with a wonderful volunteer that I worked next to in registration. One of the highlights was when a girl came up to me when I was doing the registration. I think she must have been about 15 and told me she was walking by and saw all the activates and wanted to donate money and participate. She had a 20 but could only donate 10 because that was all the money she had with her. She found a place to get change, came back, I got her registered and she walked. It is people like this who I find so amazing and even inspiring to me. The walk back to the train station, and then drive home was good.

Yeah, this was a good weekend.