Sweet Home Chicago

If there's one thing I actually like about living in the Midwest, it's being close to Chicago. I really like Chicago. Maybe not enough to live there (gets WAY too cold for me in the winter!), but it's great to have such an awesome city so close - close enough to do a day trip, but always better to stay overnight and take more of it in.

This past weekend was one such trip. Eric and I rolled out of Indy Saturday morning to head up to Chicago for a Cubs game. We couldn't have asked for better weather, not to mention we were leaving crappy weather behind. Made it even more gratifying to be leaving. Since it was a noon game, we drove up into Wrigleyville and parked on Clark to walk to the game - no time for the Redline. Timing wise, it worked out perfectly.

The game itself was awesome! We had great seats, just barely down he 3rd base line. We were in the shade for the game, and it was almost chilly with the breeze blowing off of the lake. But when the breeze was lacking, it was the perfect temperature, and in the sun, it was gorgeous! It was actually a good game to watch, too, both in the amount of action, and the fact that the Cubs beat the Mets, 8-2! Go Cubs!

After the game, we lulled around a bit before going back to the car. From there, we went back to the hotel to freshen up and relax a bit before killing time on Michigan Ave. before dinner. We didn't really need to do any shopping, but it's always fun the walk the Magnificent Mile!

For dinner, we ended up at one of our favorite spots, SushiSamba. You can never go wrong, there. We kept it light, since it was later than our normal dinner. Plus, we were also heading over to Chicago Cut, afterwards, where Eric's cousin, Travis, is the executive chef. We hadn't seen him in a few years and just learned, somehow, that this was one of his restaurants. So we figured a late arrival there gave us a better chance to actually see him.

Again, timing worked out well. Right after we sat down in the bar area, we happened to see Travis come out of the kitchen, so Eric grabbed him to say "hi" and he came over and we chatted for awhile. We ordered just a couple of appetizers to go with our previous meal (which led us to decided we really need to just eat here next time!). Travis came back out after he wrapped a few things up in the kitchen and we chatted for while more. It was really great to catch up! He even showed us around the back of house, which was cool to see - there's a lot of people is a small area putting out some amazing food!

We headed back to our hotel to crash for the evening. Before leaving, though, we decided to meet Travis, his girlfriend, Melissa, and Eric's other cousin, Courtney, for brunch in the morning. They lived just west of downtown, which was easy to do as we left the hotel. We walked from their house to a local brunch spot call Carriage House, which had an array of unique items on their menu. It was quite good, actually! And again, it was really great to catch up. I'm really not sure why we never met up with them in previous Chicago trips.

But alas, it had to end and we had to head back to Indy. Eric wanted to get back and do some yardwork, since he was actually home. I was beat, myself - could barely keep my eyes open for the first part of the trip home! it was a good weekend, though. Chicago always seems to be a good time for us. It's no wonder I love it!