IELEV8

Mark always had the mantra, “Live where you play,” which he would preach to anyone who would listen. I grew up in the suburbs of St.Paul/Minneapolis and Mark grew up in the city but went to school in the ‘burbs. However, as adults, we were both city people at heart. When we first met, we were “eastsiders” and could often be found hanging out downtown and around the eastside. So naturally, we feathered our first nest at the top of Lafayette Hill in a beautiful apartment building that overlooked Lake Michigan. Unfortunately for us, the one bedroom apartments faced the other direction so the view through our windows was the dreary backside of another building. After we moved out, Mark always said he hated that apartment for that very reason, but when we recently revisited on our 10th anniversary scavenger hunt, he claimed that it was the place “where the magic happened,” so I guess he didn’t actually hate it all that much. Our search for our first home landed us at a cute little duplex in the heart of Shorewood…which, it turns out, was another great place to play. It wasn’t nearly as hoppin’ as it is now with that strip on Oakland rejuvenated with so many great businesses, but we sure had a lot of great times at the Village Pub, the Oakcrest, Harry’s, and the like. Lucky for us, we were also fortunate to “work where we play,” so we never had to travel far, which I am reminded on snowy, blustery days like today, is a pretty good way to live. When we resided in Shorewood, Mark often walked to work and in the summer we could actually go an entire week without ever getting in our car. I miss those days and I must say, “live where you play” was a pretty good mantra to abide by as we created our life together.