Chicago

Next week I'm flying to the Windy City to meet up with a few friends. We're going to attend Willow Creek's Leadership Summit together and then will spend the weekend doing a bunch of whatever.

Chicago is a great city for that. Parks, museums, neighborhoods, zoos, shoreline and skyscrapers. Oh, and millions and millions of people.

I've been exploring our options -- making lists of things we could do if we choose to. It's one of these deals where we want to squeeze all we can out of the time, but the highest value is being together. The place is, well, frosting. Bonus (and a great bonus, no denying).

The last time we were all together was the first time we were all together -- and that was a year ago Spring in Thailand. There we (in various combinations) rode elephants and enjoyed a number of eating adventures, we sat in meetings and visited the pink-shirt ladies for foot massage.

We've each traveled thousands of miles (literally and figurative) over this past year plus. It's been a joy to do that together (figuratively, but really). I'm looking forward to some literal together time, though.