Last Week with Drew...as our dependent, that is....

So, this will be an epic post about our last vacation week with Drew before moving him off to college. We took a long weekend to Chicago, and stayed in a Trump hotel - nice view!


He's got his hotel staff on the campaign staff as well, apparently, because they loaded the kids up with giant suckers and Trump hats - nice!


We took in the usual tourist sights, like The Bean in Millennium Park....


and a Cubs game - note the pitcher for the opposing team is from our hometown - woohoo!


Even a little rain couldn't ruin this game - they won, too!


We've also taken to doing bike tours when we travel, so we opted for Bobby's Bike Hike through Old Town and along Lakeshore Drive.


It was a gorgeous day to do it...makes it hard to come back to the Armpit of America and it's 200% humidity.


Although I guess I prefer our winters over Chicago's...


Gorgeous lakeshore view....


And the last night we got to go out on The Terrace, which is cool for seeing the city lights up close.


Then it was home for 18 hours to pack. Drew had a hard time deciding which coffee cup he wanted to take with him. He's also wearing one of his shirts purchased in Chicago, on his first "real" shopping trip in a big city. Raising them on Target and hand-me-downs makes them very appreciative of the good stuff, and we actually had a good time in Nordstrom Rack and H&M looking for clothes.


I also had my best mother of the year moment by making him some cake pops to take with him to college....and in school colors, no less!


We went up the night before move-in day and had a nice family dinner at Arricia, then noticed the sky changing colors on the way home. Remember the giant Jumbotron I mentioned in the Camp War Eagle post? They were apparently testing it, because it went from green to blue to orange to white repeatedly - cool!


So here's what we started with in the dorm:


And here's what you end up with when you're a low-maintenance boy. I'm sure you can Google girls' dorm rooms and see what a huge difference there is - not a monogrammed pillow in sight! We actually visited a couple of his female classmates' rooms one floor up, and you couldn't even walk in for all the bed skirts, custom lifts, and handmade fabric-covered headboards. One poor girl's bed was 50% pillows - no kidding. But to be fair, Drew's suitemate's dad bought "a little more TV than they need," and it took up both boys' dressers. It was the largest TV I've ever seen that wasn't mounted in a restaurant, and of course they had a sofa to go with it. It feels like a drom room today is more about "how can I impress my new friends?" than "how can I have a comfortable place to sleep and study?"


Here're our goodbye pics, and you may notice my dry eyes.


We all held it together, though everybody was betting on tears from me. Drew said I'd probably lose it when I walked in his room at home, but I told him I'd be too mad over the unmade bed he left.


Plus I was smart enough to know I'd be depressed if we came straight home, so we went to my Mom and Jim's cabin at the lake, where they very kindly toured us around on the boat. Then we went back to the beach, where it really was depressing with rain and clouds. We saw the new Vacation, but that was a bit of a letdown. There are some funny scenes, but the cursing is a bit off-putting, and it sort of drags in places. And tell me why Beverly DeAngelo took a perfectly beautiful face and shaved her chin down, or something. They only showed her full face once, I think, and that might've been on purpose.

So anyway, I did cry a little at lunch today, but it was brought on mostly by something at the lake. We went by an old family friend's cabin that's been sold, renovated, etc. I was thinking about his son, who was a daredevil back in the 80's, and was always doing dangerous stunts on skis and with some little jet boat he built (my memory's fuzzy on exact details). He died in his 20's of cancer, and I was thinking how those people who live in that cabin now probably have no idea of the fun that kid and his friends had there. I guess that's the same with all of us; you have some great times with your friends and family, but everybody grows up, moves on, gets old, and then you die, and nobody may be around to remember how special it all was. And now I think I'll sign off before this gets REALLY depressing...plus I still do have a school-aged kid who needs to put his books in his locker!