Tips for Loving Your Weekend, Even Without a Road Trip

Posted on May 17, 2009 12 Comments

Some weekends are a neverending swirl of glitzy parties, fabulous dinners and social scene meet-ups. They’re incredibly fun, but inevitably exhausting.

This weekend, after several weeks of decidedly unglamorous work travel, I cancelled all my committments and chose to chill in my hometown. B and I were supposed to take a road trip to celebrate the end of finals, B’s birthday and our 10-year anniversary but given the craziness of the past few week we just couldn’t get it together in time. Instead, we stayed close to home and enjoyed some local treasures together. And it couldn’t have been better.

Are you debating a road trip out of town? If time and money are working against you, take some notes on how to enjoy a weekend in your ‘hood like an out-of-towner. Here’s what we did:

Enjoy Your Local Favorites Like a Tourist
We started the weekend with dinner at our local watering hole, Poor Phil’s. Instead of inviting all our neighborhood friends, we made it a date night for two. Instead of staying for too many drinks parked at the same familiar bar, we left immediately after dinner. Moving around the neighborhood, always searching for something new, keeps the vacation feel.

We landed at Hemingway’s an oddball of a hotel bar filled with overpriced drinks (just like a vacation), and chatted up some visitors while enjoying fruity “Flirtini Martinis” by friendly bartender Justine. It’s off our usual beaten path and the martinis, made with fruit puree, are totally fantastic (and stiff). Being there, among vacation-minded visitors, made us forget we were in our home town (the martinis didn’t hurt, either).

Try Something New
On Saturday, we took our bikes to Geneva, IL, home of the Illinois Prairie Path bike trail. Though we had biked on the path before, we decided to plan an expedition to Two Brothers Brewery in Warrenville, IL, roughly 10 miles away. It was a windy, crazy ride but we made it and were rewarded with friendly service and tasty food (two YUMS up for the delicious fish tacos). Had we planned a full weekend, we likely would have overlooked it. So glad we didn’t.

Slow it Down
This morning, we walked to a coffee shop we usually drive to, Nola’s Cup. On the way there, we noticed two open houses. We stopped at those open houses on the way back, curious to see what today’s market offers. And we learned a lot… Apparently keeping our noses buried and books and computers has prevented us from staying updated on the local housing market. In talking with realtors, we found out about new homebuyer incentives that began this week and made two great networking connections. I’m going to pay a lot more attention to our local realtor network starting today. Maybe weekend walks should become part of my usual weekend routine.

Live in the Moment
I was tempted to check my blackberry for email, twitter and facebook updates but for the most part managed to stay offline until now. This weekend, my phone stayed off – tough to do, but it forced me to stop and smell the flowers, so to speak.

* * *
So now, it’s time to get offline and get back to my lovely weekend. I’m not sure what tonight holds, which makes it all the more appealing. This is the way to celebrate Spring. How was your weekend?

Category: Life
   Tags: Travel

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