Road Trip, Part 2: Chicago, Part 1

On Monday evening we rolled into Chicago and before stopping at Mike's apartment I took Mac on a quick tour downtown and then came back up Lake Street to Mike's place on Canal. He greeted us with open arms and we unloaded our stuff into his apartment. What a view!! We got there just as the sun was setting and it was just awesome! Here are Mac and I on Mike's balcony after our long drive:

After putting our stuff down we all went to dinner at one of my favorite places in the city: Bite Cafe. The food was amazing, even better than I remembered it! Mike and Mac were also blown away and the most memorable part was that Mike ordered a lamb shank it came out like a caveman cut of meat, still on the bone with a ready-made handle. He didn't even use a knife and fork. Mmmm.... SO good!

When we got back to Mike's apartment this was the panoramic view from his balcony (click the image to make it larger). I just couldn't get enough of how awesome this view was. And totally different from living on the north side in Andersonville.

We didn't stay up too late since Mike and Mac had to leave fairly early for their conference on Tuesday morning. They woke up before I did, but I was out of bed by the time they were getting ready to go. Here's Mike on his balcony with his "Good Morning, Chicago" face:

And Mac was actually smiling in the early morning, which rarely happens, so I had to get a photo:

The went off to their conference at Argonne and I got to have a lazy morning enjoying the view:

My day started when I met my dear friend, Nisara and her husband Ryan for lunch. Nisara and I went to both high school and college together and then both lived in Chicago for a bit as well. It was great to see them, but especially fun to see Nisara since she's pregnant! We all went to lunch at one of Rick Bayless's restaurants called Xoco and it was amazing! Ryan had to head back to work, but Nisara and I enjoyed catching up over some wonderful churros after a delicious lunch.

Then we took the train north a few stops and got off near DePaul and walked down toward the Lincoln Park Zoo to hang out in the Lily Pond that's there. It was a beautiful afternoon and just a great chance to hang out with someone I rarely get to see. Here's a couple fun shots of a very pregnant Nisara:


After saying goodbye to Nisara, I went back to Mike's apartment and packed my overnight bag since I would be staying that night with Matthew on the North Side. I drove up to his apartment and got to hang out with him for a bit and then we met up with Mac for dinner at Fountainhead in Lincoln Square. It was a tasty meal and a good chance for Mac and Matthew to get to know each other better. Matthew gave me a key to his place and headed home to continue packing since he's moving shortly.

Mac and I headed over to the Grafton Pub next to the Old Town School to enjoy an evening of folk music and catching up with folks. Unfortunately, not as many folks as I was hoping were able to meet up there, but I did have a chance to catch up with Sarah, now an awesome 20-something who used to be in the Girl Scout troop that I helped with when I lived in the city. It's amazing how these kids grow up! It was great to see her and eventually Mike made it all the way up there to hang out for a bit and drive Mac home since I was heading back to Matthew's place for the night.

On Wednesday I headed up to Evanston for the day. In the morning I met up with a colleague who works at Northwestern and enjoyed a library tour and some good professional catching up. We also took a lovely walk along the shoreline and got one of my favorite views of Chicago from up there. It was a lovely morning.

For lunch I met up with a photographer friend, Katie, who I hadn't seen for years! (And we did't take any photos while we were hanging out!) It was great to get the scoop on some local photographers and see photos of her kids from the last 4 or 5 years. We did a little shopping and then ate lunch at Cozy Noodles, again one of my favorite places to eat! I got my favorite Rama Special, which I literally dream about sometimes, but no one does it like Cozy. Mmm...

(As an aside here: I tell people when I think about Chicago the first thing I think about is all of the awesome people I know there and the second thing is the food. There is so much good, affordable, delicious, unique, wonderful food in Chicago! I'm so happy I got to go back to some of my old favorites and try some new places, too.)

After having lunch with Katie, I met up with another old friend, Mariko and one of her friends in downtown Evanston. It happened to be Mariko's birthday, so we enjoyed a sweet treat and a lovely walk around town. It was a particularly nice day and great to be out and about. She had to get along to previously planned birthday events and I had to head back down to Chicago to meet up with Matthew.

Once we reconnected, Matthew and I headed down to Hyde Park to pick up our good friend Suz from work and head to dinner at Medici in Hyde Park. We got to sit outside on their patio (have I mentioned it was a beautiful day?) and thoroughly enjoyed our meal and catching up. Here's a quick photo of us after dinner:

After dinner, Matthew dropped me back off at Mike's apartment and I caught up with Mike and Mac who were just getting back from their conference for the day. They hadn't eaten dinner yet, so I joined them on a lovely walk through Mike's neighborhood, the West Loop and we found a great Indian restaurant that was nearly empty and had a wonderful music selection. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Mike and Mac had one more day of conferencing to attend to on Thursday, so we pretty much headed to bed fairly early.

Thursday was another early morning for the guys and also one for me. I met up with Amanda and her twin girls for brunch at the Bongo Room in the South Loop. They are regulars there and when I got there first and told the hostess that I was meeting up with my friend and her twin girls she knew exactly who I was talking about and set me up at their favorite table! The last time I had seen the girls, they were only teeny babies when Amanda and I both happen to be living in Cambridge, MA.

Well, now they're 3 years old and have wonderful little personalities of their own! We walked from brunch to the Shedd Aquarium and got in for free since Amanda had thought ahead and gotten the pass from the library. It was quite a fun visit! Here's one of the crazier images of the day: a cricket on a frog on a frog:

Here are the girls watching the big fish go by:

Here's a shot of me outside the Aquarium with the beautiful skyline behind me:

And here's a cute shot of Amanda and the girls after our Aquarium visit:

And those cute, smiley girls!

After the aquarium, we walked back to their apartment and had a fun time playing and reading stories and attempting to put them down for a nap, which worked for a little bit and gave Amanda and I a chance to catch up, but the girls were not in a napping mood and were soon up singing songs and showing us dances. It was so fun to get to see them. And they have a great view, too! Here's a shot of Grant Park and Navy Pier from their apartment! Wow!

After spending the morning and early afternoon with Amanda, I headed back up to Mike's apartment and met up with Mike and Mac. After Mike serenaded all of Chicago from his balcony, (again - the view!):

we headed out to another great place, The Handlebar, for dinner with my friend Nick. I introduced Mike and Nick because they were both recent PhDs, Mike from Princeton, Nick from MIT and both ended up moving to Chicago. They've hit it off nicely and seem to enjoy each other's quirky personalities. It was a really fun dinner and afterwards we took a nice stroll through Wicker Park and ended up stuffing ourselves into this British phone booth:

and then getting a sweet treat and some coffee at Wormhole. This coffeeshop is super 80s-themed and even has a Delorean in the front window (a la Back to the Future). It was quite fun. So after hanging out there for a bit we said Good Night to Nick and headed back to Mike's place for another early bedtime.

Even though Mac and Mike had to go to their conference Tuesday through Thursday, it was a great chance for me to catch up with tons of folks I hadn't seen in way too long! It was so fun to be in one of my favorite cities again, but what I was really looking forward to was getting to show Mac some of the city and my old neighborhood. That's was Friday was for!