Walkers: Unite and Hydrate

Spring is, well, springing around here, but we Chicagoans know not to get too excited. Invariably there's a late March/early April snow to kill off all the crocuses, and we can't safely put away the winter coats until June. But these recent glimpses of blue sky and 50-degree temperatures have put us in an Audrey Hepburn kind of mood.

In that spirit, some friends and I instituted a happy hour, the first Thursday of every month, to celebrate walking. Despite our cracked sidewalks and lingering patches of ice here and there, this neighborhood is kind to walkers: our grid system makes it easy to retain a sense of direction, and there's always an unexpected treasure--an occasional community garden or bit of fence-post art--to reward those who stray from their usual paths.

March was our inaugural happy hour, and in honor of the event, our favorite barkeep (also a master shoveler: not once did we slip at the doorway or have to park our bikes in banks of snow) invented a cocktail for the occasion. It was champagne, sloe gin (as in, taking it 'sloe'), sherry, orange liqueur, and a dash of bitters. Whiz bang, it was good! We held a contest for the naming rights, and an animated guy in his early 60s won for his entry, the Footsy. My own nominee--the Navicular--got zero votes, alas. Maybe I should have specified that it's a bone in the foot. I was proud of John, though, whose Barking Dog won second-place, and he went home with the spoils: two tubes of vanilla scented foot cream.