Running at Stone Mountain Park, Belated Birthday Date Night

May 18, 2024

Full day today, starting off with a drive out to Stone Mountain Park for a long run.

We were looking for a slight change of scenery, and opted to run around the perimeter of the park. This was someplace that Liz and Tricia had run, previously.

Stretching and getting ready for our run.

Steps near where we parked.

I have to say – we were wholly unprepared for the hills we encountered. The park itself was lovely, but we had some serious inclines on our run… and it really wiped us out.

As much as I enjoyed the change of scenery, I’m not sure I’ll be heading back here soon. Much of Chicago is pretty flat, but this park (and Tricia’s neighborhood) is replete with hills. Not quite sure I’m ready for that much of a challenge.

After cleaning up and recovering at home, Liz and I headed out for a date night – hitting up several places at Ponce City Market.

On our way up to 12 Cocktail Bar.

I pretended not to see this.

Inside at our table.

Liz, looking over the menu.

Our drinks to start off the evening.

We wandered around into the main building/market area.

Lots of small shops and food stalls on the main floor.

Exploring the second floor.

Nice buns.

Mysterious Vintage.

A lot of options to take a gamble on.

Mystery boxes!

I was pretty tempted. Didn’t end up pulling the trigger, but a really fun concept.

You play, you win. You play, you lose. You play.

Linwood Court.

An interesting space, that also is set up for classes.

Modern Mystic.

A lot of sage.

A lot of candles. I may have gotten a Taylor Swift candle for Audrey.

On our way out of the market building.

Directions.

Walking along a main path, heading to our dinner reservations at Indaco.

A very pleasant walkway along the perimeter of the market.

An interesting walk along the way.

I noticed that the PagerDuty office was in the same building as where we were having dinner. I may have tried to sweet talk the security guards, to see if I could take an elevator up to see the PD offices. And I may have been (politely) refused.