Ritual

As you know, Montrose Harbor has become to us a ritual.

A summer ceremony of picnics and books and sailboat watching, 

a place we land into with familiarity for watching the city lights slowly flicker on till the skyscrapers shoot into the sky with their glowing beams.

It's a place we take our friends and family who visit Chi-city.

An encampment for fireworks-watching, until summer crosses the Labor Day doorway into fall, and hats and blankets accompany us to the lake to salvage the last decent temperatures of the year.
Besides New Year's, Montrose Harbor typically lies barren of our presence throughout the winter months.
...until now.
I don't know why I never thought of it before.
With a pair of running tights, a fleece, Under-Armour gloves, and the car keys, I drove up Lake Shore Drive, turned into a familiar parking space under the Montrose sign, and then ran the lake & harbor trails.

It felt right.
For all that we do at our favorite harbor, why wouldn't I call it into play for yet another activity?
I even braved the frozen ground for a few push-ups and crunches,
and with this view on the way up from every crunch, even the cold and my under-exercised muscles submitted to a smile.
Montrose.
She just has that effect.