I Back the Bid!

It’s hard not to have Olympics fever … when you’re surrounded by signs reminding you that cities across the globe are vying for the 2016 games! Lucas and I just got back from an amazing trip to Chicago — a first time in the Windy City for us both.

Our birthdays and wedding anniversary all fall within about three weeks of each other, so we decided to take a quick trip instead of doing presents/dinners/etc. for each one. When we arrived on Friday afternoon, we dropped our stuff at the GORGEOUS Hotel Allegro:

(They even sent up a yoga bag for me to use for free during the stay, and had a 24-hour fitness facility … so I didn’t get too behind on training)

And headed over to Rick Bayliss’s Topolobampo restaurant, where we had the best.Mexican.food.ever. All sustainable, all fresh, all authentic — all incredible.

I had the Cuatro Casitas, which had little tasting-size portions of porky goodness, corn tamales, grilled shrimp, warm tortillas and salsa, mole … and more.

After that, we did the tourist thing for the rest of the afternoon, walking all around the city, including the Riverwalk, Millenium Park, State Street and more.

We had tickets to see Twelfth Night, so we stopped at Fox and Obel for dinner. It’s like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s … great baked goods, fresh cheeses, wines and a big deli in the back. I had an awesome grilled veggie panini … a little too greasy, but delicious anyway.

Twelfth Night was amazing … they had this big pool of water set up at the front of the stage, and ALL of the characters used it in some way — I don’t want to give away any of the surprises, but if you’re in the Chicago area, I highly recommend seeing the show.

Plus, it’s playing at the gorgeous Navy Pier. During the summer, I’m sure this place is busier, but it was pretty cold, so all of the rides and food stands were shut down.

On Saturday and Sunday we did more of the typical tourist stuff … we hit pretty much every park and museum, walking most of the way. Yup, my feet were DYING by the end of the weekend!

I loved the Green City Market:

So did Lucas, because you could taste everything, and he found this HUGE serving of blueberry bread pudding for only $5!

The zoo is one of the best FREE things you can do in the city!

We saw Wrigley Field AND Soldier Field.

We also met the world’s largest and most complete T-Rex skeleton: Sue.

One highlight of the weekend was our trip to the Frank Lloyd Wright district in Oak Park. You get to take a free walking tour of all the homes he designed in the area — it’s a fantastic neighborhood, with lots of historic homes. Lucas (the architect) was in photo heaven.

Just like our trip to Seattle and Portland last year, we found lots of great local shops selling fresh bread, produce and more. We had some amazing food on this trip!

The weather … meh. Friday was nice, Saturday was okay, Sunday was MISERABLE (the Sears Tower was closed because of zero visibility!) and Monday was back to being okay.

We were able to hit the Museum of Science and the Sears Tower before boarding a plane and heading back home.

Overall? Chicago was an AWESOME city, and I really enjoyed the visit.

I had a few “this is what is wrong with America” moments when it came to food and eating — and had a bit of a breakdown at the Chicago airport — but I’ll save those stories for my next post. We’ll keep this one positive.