Chicago

While I had to travel to Chicago last week for business, I decided it would be a great opportunity for a quick get-a-way with Amy. The drive was uneventful, no speeding tickets this time ;), it gave Amy and I time to work out the details of our summer weekend trips.

Amy was a great sport about putting up with me being in meetings all day, even though I knew she must have been board out of her mind. Once the meetings and conferences were over, we decided to get the trip started off right. We headed over to Gino’s for a Chicago deep dish pizza and a few beers. Since the measurements weren’t listed on the menu, we decided to be safe and order a medium. An hour later we were both stuffed and still ½ of the pizza was left untouched. FYI, a small deep dish easily feeds 2 hungry people. The next day we switched to a hotel in downtown. The weather was pretty much overcast with off and on rain so we decided to spend the morning shopping on the Miracle Mile. Amy was great, only 3 shopping bags + 1 box being shipped. Both of us were pretty spent so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest for the night. We started off the evening by trying a Wine Bar, BIN 36. I had heard Karl and Lila talk about these so we decided to try one. The waiter was fantastic in helping pair some wines with a course of cheeses. For dinner we decided to hit a staple of downtown Chicago, the Weber Grill. Even with reservations we still ended up waiting about 40 minutes. Pretty much everything they serve has been cooked on a old fashion Weber charcoal grills. It was worth the wait!! With our bellies full we decided we needed to do some walking. We came across a place offering carriage rides through the downtown area. It was a great way to end the evening.

Saturday was spent walking around in Millennium Park and an architecture tour of the city. For anyone visiting Chicago, we would recommend both. Dinner was low key, just an Asian place someone at the hotel recommended. For desert we decided to hit another Wine Bar, EVO, that specialized in pairing chocolates. Not bad, but BIN36 was better.

Sunday is the dreaded drive back. On the way home we decided to stop at Cabela’s. For those who don’t know this store, this is heaven for the outdoors type. They seem to have everything for camping, boating, to hunting. We needed to stop to get some supplies for our upcoming camping trip; so this was perfect. We ended up spending 1 ½ hours in this place without even realizing it. On the way home we stopped in to visit Lila’s parents, Katy and Shawki. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to end our quick trip to Chicago. Katy and Shawki went out of their way to cook a fantastic meal topped off with Katy’s special “Home Made” pie. We also got to see the new addition on their home. As always Amy and I enjoyed the time catching up with them. Hopefully it won’t be so long before we see them again.

Till next time:
P

Summer Rolls On!

As summer continues, Amy and I are finding ourselves with less and less free time. Since we have been horrible about sending out updates; we decided to follow Karl and Lila’s lead and blog it.