A Summer Evening at Ravinia

One of the things that we have wanted to do for the longest time has been to go to a concert and picnic at Ravinia.  As we have learned that summers in the midwest fly by, this year we purchased tickets to a show back in mid-April to make sure that we would actually make this summer.  I am so glad that we did this as it was such a good time and definitely made it on to my "must do while living in Chicago" list.

We packed our attempt at a fancy picnic (orzo with grilled veggies and shrimp salad, lemon vinegrette marinade grilled chicken sandwiches with fresh mozarella on cibatta loaf, and strawberry shortcakes) and headed out to catch the Ravinia express Metra train.  We were greeted with the realization that we needed to get there much earlier to avoid the "oh crap there is no where to picnic!" phase.  We eventually found a nice little spot and settled down for a few hours of eating, drinking, and listening to jazz.  And we really can't do something like this without some sort of mishap... this time it was Dan's chair snapping which sent his glass of wine flying onto the neighboring couple and a nice light rain fell as we realized that the umbrella was the one thing we forgot to pack.  But regardless, it was such a fun evening and I hope we go back soon!

Next time though we need to have one of those fancy little tables with a pretty tablecloth- those Ravinia-goers know how to picnic in style!