My Kind of Town

Paul and I went to Chicago earlier this month for our fourth wedding anniversary trip. We go somewhere every year that we have never been to together before and this year we happily settled on Chicago. Both of us had been there before, but never together. We hit the ground running, arriving at 8:00 a.m. on a Thursday. We ate an incredible lunch at Table 52, Art Smith's place...he is Oprah's personal chef. This is where Paul coined the phrase of the trip, "What would Oprah Do?". Walking into our hotel, I clumsily couldn't get into the revolving doors and twisted my ankle. I'm so graceful. That first day was rough. We did make it to our architectural boat tour that was awesome! It was so fun riding on this giant boat and seeing the city. Later that night we had a really cool meal at a fancy Asian restaurant called Japonais (the sushi at Yuki's was just as good and 1/2 the price...I'm so partial to Yuki's)
Day Two found us at Navy Pier. It was such a good day. We had some refreshments and watched the sailboats in front of us and the city skyline behind us. Was really cool. We told each other stories that neither had ever heard. It was special. Paul braved the Ferris wheel, one of the largest in the world. Later that day we had true Chicago deep dish at Giardarno's. It was WONDERFUL. We were making fun of some international tourists for taking photos of the pizza when it came out, but we did the same thing. We went out that night to Smith and Wolensky's and had cocktails and appetizers on the River...our waiter went to Auburn, small world. Later we went to Blue Chicago nightclub and heard a great band. We walked in the door and I heard the singer's voice and knew she was from Mississippi...turns out I was right.

Day Three was a blur from the night before. We were struggling from Blue Chicago. We did have a wonderful brunch at Frontera Grill, Rick Bayless's place. He was a judge on Top Chef. It was fantastic! Paul went back to the room while I braved the American Girl store. Entire post to come on that trip. Later that afternoon we went to the Signature Room Bar at the top of the John Hancock Building. It was surreal to be up that high. That night we went to see a show at Second City...HYSTERICAL. I couldn't get over how funny these improv people are. It was right up our alley. The waitress was so pleasant, too :) We ended the night at a place called the Red Headed Piano Bar. A talented piano player and lots of older drunk people. We felt like Brad and Angelina in comparison. It was good for our egos!

Day Four we had a BLAST at Wrigley Field. A old friend of Paul's got us incredible seats. We couldn't believe how much fun it was. The Cubs won. We felt like locals and spent a good part of the afternoon trying to figure out how we could move to Chicago. We left the game a little early and just rode the El all over the city. So neat to see it from that perspective. We had afternoon sushi and oysters at Shaw's Oyster House and later had dinner at one of the best tapas places I've ever been, Cafe Babaribbi.

It was an awesome trip. We needed it! We are so grateful to Momma and Joe and Barbara for watching our girl! Made it so much easier to enjoy ourselves knowing what a great time she was having!