Periodically the stars align (as well as schedules, flights and childcare) to allow the former residents of Ridge and Davis, Northwestern Class of 1995, to join together and celebrate a little thing we like to call "women's camp." Apparently Mercury had been in retrograde for a while, as the last time we converged was 2013 in Michigan (the fact that Tracey's daughter broke her arm the first night might have been a sign that Mercury was going to be a problem). Back then, Tracey lived in Thailand, Audra was married and, well, let's just say the state of our union was different.
But this spring, Tracey announced she was crossing oceans and hemispheres for a family wedding, and hoped to tack on a reunion if possible. We all agreed we needed to make this possible. We considered multiple sites (Lexington, Portland, Michigan -- oddly DC wasn't topping anyone's list), but ultimately settled on where it all started: Evanston, IL (or EVIL for those in the know). So we booked our flights, gassed up Audra's car, and rented an Air BnB near the lake for a post-Labor Day ladies long-weekend.
The first order of business was to find our old digs, followed by a tour of downtown Evanston and South Campus. On the walk back we took a walk by the lake which inspired Audra, who regularly swims in the Michigan side, to take a dip off the Illinois shore before meeting the rest of us out for drinks -- as well as Cecily's friend Greg.
Interesting thing about Women's Camp this year -- we had interlopers. Both Tracey and Cecily had old friends still in the Chicago area which added a decidedly male element.
After a night of drinking and a quick grocery run in the morning, we headed back to campus where we took in Deering Library (where we all decided we did't spend nearly enough time in undergrad) the Shakespeare Garden (same), the math department (which despite skipping a non-trivial number of my diff-eq classes, I actually felt like I spent more than enough time...), the library, Norris, the lakefill (where we were treated to multiple concerts by the NUMB drumline) and then met up at the Rock with Jay (Tracey's friend).
Jay had worked on the new visitor's center interactive wall, so he gave us a tour of that as well as the expanded Regenstein Hall of Music afterwhich we decided to head back to our place for more drinks before catching an Uber in order to meet Greg for more drinks, a show by the Neo-futurists followed by cocktails at the Green Door Tavern. We made it home around 3 am.
Things moved slowly on Saturday. Audra managed to go swimming on campus, Cecily took a long walk and Tracey and I did some yoga before we all finally felt like we could face the day (or what remained of it). We decided to take the El downtown to see the "Bean" and the Riverwalk andd then enjoyed a lovely dinner downtown (arguably our first of the long weekend), after which we Ubered back to Evanston for a healthy dose of girl talk and Vitamin C.
Sunday was short. Tracey had to leave early the next morning, followed by me a few hours later. Cecily and Audra were able to catch an art show before Audra dropped Cecily off at the airport and headed back to Michigan.
It was sort of a perfect reunion -- the kind that makes you remember exactly why you love and admire and enjoy these people that despite time and distance, you've have managed to keep in your life all this time. It also makes you recommit to doing so. The current plan is to reconvene in Australia for the year of our 50th birthdays (which isn't as remote a date as you might think). Any maybe, if we're very lucky, we'll sneak something in sooner...
(To see all the photos, including those I stole from Cecily and Audra, click here.)
But this spring, Tracey announced she was crossing oceans and hemispheres for a family wedding, and hoped to tack on a reunion if possible. We all agreed we needed to make this possible. We considered multiple sites (Lexington, Portland, Michigan -- oddly DC wasn't topping anyone's list), but ultimately settled on where it all started: Evanston, IL (or EVIL for those in the know). So we booked our flights, gassed up Audra's car, and rented an Air BnB near the lake for a post-Labor Day ladies long-weekend.
The first order of business was to find our old digs, followed by a tour of downtown Evanston and South Campus. On the walk back we took a walk by the lake which inspired Audra, who regularly swims in the Michigan side, to take a dip off the Illinois shore before meeting the rest of us out for drinks -- as well as Cecily's friend Greg.
Interesting thing about Women's Camp this year -- we had interlopers. Both Tracey and Cecily had old friends still in the Chicago area which added a decidedly male element.
After a night of drinking and a quick grocery run in the morning, we headed back to campus where we took in Deering Library (where we all decided we did't spend nearly enough time in undergrad) the Shakespeare Garden (same), the math department (which despite skipping a non-trivial number of my diff-eq classes, I actually felt like I spent more than enough time...), the library, Norris, the lakefill (where we were treated to multiple concerts by the NUMB drumline) and then met up at the Rock with Jay (Tracey's friend).
Jay had worked on the new visitor's center interactive wall, so he gave us a tour of that as well as the expanded Regenstein Hall of Music afterwhich we decided to head back to our place for more drinks before catching an Uber in order to meet Greg for more drinks, a show by the Neo-futurists followed by cocktails at the Green Door Tavern. We made it home around 3 am.
Things moved slowly on Saturday. Audra managed to go swimming on campus, Cecily took a long walk and Tracey and I did some yoga before we all finally felt like we could face the day (or what remained of it). We decided to take the El downtown to see the "Bean" and the Riverwalk andd then enjoyed a lovely dinner downtown (arguably our first of the long weekend), after which we Ubered back to Evanston for a healthy dose of girl talk and Vitamin C.
Sunday was short. Tracey had to leave early the next morning, followed by me a few hours later. Cecily and Audra were able to catch an art show before Audra dropped Cecily off at the airport and headed back to Michigan.
It was sort of a perfect reunion -- the kind that makes you remember exactly why you love and admire and enjoy these people that despite time and distance, you've have managed to keep in your life all this time. It also makes you recommit to doing so. The current plan is to reconvene in Australia for the year of our 50th birthdays (which isn't as remote a date as you might think). Any maybe, if we're very lucky, we'll sneak something in sooner...
(To see all the photos, including those I stole from Cecily and Audra, click here.)
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