Chicago Weekend

So, as I alluded to yesterday, I did actually take a brief vacation which attributed to a small portion of my absence. Three of my good friends from middle school/high school and myself have been talking for years about taking a road trip, and we finally found the time to go on one! We took off early on a Friday morning to head out there and came back early Monday morning, so we only had a few short days in the city itself, but it was a total blast.

Friday night we went out for pizza at Giordano's, which has amazing Chicago-style deep-dish pizzas. We split one pizza between the five of us (my friend Kelly met up with us for dinner and drinks), and still had leftovers. If you ever go there, don't expect to eat more than one slice. And if you do--expect to be uncomfortably full for the next several hours.

Kelly and I hanging out after dinner

Saturday we slept in, then walked a couple miles to this fantastic breakfast/brunch place called The Bongo Room. Unfortunately, everyone else in the Chicago area apparently also knows how delicious the food is, because we had a 45-minute wait. It was totally worth it though--my red velvet pancakes were to die for, although brunch really shouldn't be allowed to be that sweet. We walked around for a little while, but decided to head back to our hotel when we noticed a storm rolling in. Well, apparently we didn't decide to head back soon enough, because even though we took public transit for nearly three-quarters of the distance, we still got pretty soaked. But it was nothing that a nap couldn't fix.

Saturday night we went out for dinner at Fornello Trattoria, which we didn't really know much about other than the fact that we had a Groupon to use there. It ended up not disappointing--the food was delicious, the wine was wonderful, and the tiramisu was to die for. Definitely a worthwhile Italian restaurant to check out in the Chicago area.

Jenna and Kristen at dinner

Megan and I at dinner

Megan was our resident-expert on the Chicago area over the weekend because she used to attend school out there, and she insisted that one place we had to visit was Kingston Mines. It's a jazz and blues bar located a few miles north of downtown, but it was totally worth the extra taxi fare to get there because it was a great time. The music and people and atmosphere and everything were just a blast. We watched an older woman go crazy on the dance floor, reliving the days of her youth, at the same time we watched a woman probably a third her age try to land a hook-up (because I can't imagine she was looking for anything else with a dress that barely covered her butt-cheeks). There were people who literally danced themselves out of their seats, and guys who never lost hope after getting shot down by woman after woman. And, because we couldn't spend the whole evening just people-watching from our table near the stage, we got up and did a little dancing of our own. It was such a great night--and the latest I've been up in a long time.

Sunday we slept in and recovered a little. Since the weather was beautiful, we decided to take the bus into downtown and do a little shopping and walking along the lake. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon escapade.

Millenium Park

Sailboats in the harbor

For dinner Sunday night we ventured into Greek town. We'd been recommended to the Parthenon by multiple, unrelated groups of people, so we figured it was worth a shot. And man, are we ever glad people recommended us there. I've never really had Greek food so I don't have much to compare it to, but Kristen and Megan had both visited Greece in college, and they said the food was authentically delicious. As an added plus, they have a family-style meal available, so we got to try three different appetizers, soup, salad, four entrees, and two desserts for under $25 a person. Everything was sooo good, but we were so stuffed by the time we finished (and that was even after spreading the meal out over three hours).

Even though our sleep and wallets and waistlines took a little bit of a hit over the weekend, it's safe to say that we'll be planning another road trip again as soon as we can. And maybe this next time we'll wisen up and not plan our entire trip around food--but then again, what would be the fun in that?