Anyway, with a looming passport expiration date, we planned a weekend trip to Chicago sort of last minute. Two friends from Milwaukee and two friends from St. Louis joined us for the impromptu trip. We took the opportunity to book an Airbnb for the first time. We stayed in a town house in the Old Town neighborhood that had plenty of room for the six of us. It was nice to have a home base where we could all hang out in between being out and about. It was also nice to see a different part of Chicago other than the main Loop downtown area I'm familiar with.
What We Did
- Survived St. Patrick's Day Weekend in Chicago - See, when we planned on visiting Chicago the weekend of March 12, we didn't realize until after our plans were made that St. Patrick's Day is a BIG deal in this city, and the weekend before the actual day is plain nuts. Still, we survived. We survived the dazed blank stares from college guys who started drinking way too early that morning... we survived the mobs of people and random fights that broke out along our walk. We survived. We saw the river dyed green and all!
- Saw Van Gogh's Bedrooms exhibit + other impressive art at the Art Institute of Chicago
- Laughed a lot at a show at The Second City
- Spent time with friends that live in the city
- Successfully renewed my Italian passport! Although I still need to get our marriage license recognized by Italy, this alone was a huge accomplishment.
- Shopped on Michigan Avenue to celebrate :)
- Saturday morning we walked to breakfast at Nookies (I'll never be able to think of that name without this). If you go, remember it's BYOB, so be like everyone else we saw that morning: bring your jug of orange juice and bottle of cheap champagne...mimosas anyone?!
- We ordered pizza from Lou Malnati's Saturday night before The Second City. First we tried ordering from Pequod's, but there was a 2 hour wait - whoa! I'm no expert at Chicago pizza, but I thought the crusts on Lou Malnati's deep dish and thin crust pizzas were both delicious.
- On Sunday, after our failed attempt at visiting Shedd Aquarium and not wanting to put up with walking in the rain any longer, we had a late lunch at Old Town Pour House - aka the fanciest sports bar I've ever seen. The elevated bar food - Irish nachos and truffled chicken salad sandwich - hit the spot.
- We met local friends at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, a nice tapas restaurant in the Lincoln Park area. We had raspberry sangria, 7 different tapas (burrata with tomato marmalade, beef tenderloin & blue cheese, chicken and ham croquetas, and roast dates with bacon and apple vinaigrette were my favorites) and the paella with confit pork shoulder, crispy pork belly, chorizo and chicharrones. Don't worry, the ladies also split a dessert tapa. Because, you know, it's tapa size!
- Eataly. Who wants to open one of these in St. Louis? Seriously, who can I call with this request? I've been to the one in New York a few times, but something about being at this one on a Monday morning, when it was quiet with barely anyone else inside ... again, who do I speak to with this request? We stopped there before our consulate appointment for a latte and croissant, and after celebratory shopping, we came back for a lunch of focaccias and a few items for the road.
