our first ride of the season

this week has been a whirlwind, particularly concerning the weather. we went from mid-forties one day, to low-eighties two days after. i did my first bike commute on monday, and alex has been itching to get a ride in. as i mentioned in our picnic post, i haven't always been a "biker." but alex has biked around the city for as long as i've known him. he absolutely loves the free feeling that biking offers, and i have come to completely embrace the joy of being on a bike as well. it truly is just the best way to enjoy chicago in the warmer months.

tonight, we got home from work a little earlier than usual. it was still really hot out, and i just felt like we had to take advantage since the temperatures will be dropping back to normal spring-time sixties in the next few days. i suggested a ride, and of course alex accepted. we walked our bikes to a neighborhood bike shop a few blocks away to fill up alex's tires (i made that pit-stop during my commute on monday), and then i followed his lead and we biked through our neighborhood to a nearby park, and ended up in andersonville.

we pulled off to stop for a cocktail at hutch, a little new american bistro that is absolutely delightful. their andersonville location is new, and we've been wanting to check it out as we used to go on dates at their lakeview location when we first started dating. when we went to park our bikes, i realized i didn't have my keys. but the host at hutch was super nice and he let me put my bike in their hall. we ordered some shrimp and two cocktails. the bartender asked for our ids, and i quickly realized i didn't have my wallet.

now, the funny thing about this is that about a year into our relationship, alex turned 21. but he's almost a year older than me, so we went for a while with him being able to drink and me not. we had this game called "the charlie 1-2," in which any time we went on a date he would order a drink and if he didn't get carded then i would order. he always ordered whatever i wanted, in case he did get carded then i would just drink the drink once it arrived. hutch was one of those places that we could always count on serving us without carding us. and yet, i get carded at the one place i could always count on! we had a good laugh about that.

as we were eating, we checked the weather as we knew that we would have some thunderstorms coming in. the app gave us about a fifteen minute window to get home before the storm hit, so we quickly finished up and hopped on our bikes. we got hit with a few sprinkles on the way back, but the ride was just an absolute joy. it was too short, but it made us so excited to spend summer days riding around the city.