36 Hours in Chicago

There are these two fantastic girls in Chicago that I had the pleasure of spending lots of time with 2 summers ago (and at RIT, of course). But since then the NYC -> Chicago and whole work/life thing has gotten in the way. Last Friday, I flew out early for Thanksgiving in order to get some quality girl time in there! And holy cow was that needed.

Unfortunately Friday morning the airline texted to say that the flight was delayed by 2 hours. Not the best start to the trip but it ended up working out really well because Jon and I got to enjoy a spontaneous date night in Queens before I headed to the airport. We went to Sage’s General Store in Long Island City, a restaurant that we went to for his birthday in June. Had an Ithaca Beer and split a brick oven pizza with caramelized onions, roasted cauliflower, roasted potatoes (slivered) and various cheeses on it along with a 5 cheese Mac & Cheese on the side. Delicious all around and way better than the disappointing snack I was planning on consuming on the way to the airport.

Took off around 10:45 and touched down in Chicago by midnight. It was a quick 25 minute taxi ride to their apartment – decided to forgo the hour and 15 minute train ride after midnight through the city. Despite the 2 hour delay and how late it was, we set right down to catching up complete with wine, goat cheese and pita chips. Best way to kick off girls weekend! Ended up staying up until 3:45 Chicago time which felt like 4:45 to me. Yikes!

Since it was such a short time in Chicago, we had plans to head to brunch on Saturday by 8:30 to beat the rush and make the most of the day. After going to bed at 3:45, the alarm at 7 seemed quite loud. Got up anyway and boy was that breakfast worth it.

We took the L one stop to Southport to go to Southport Grocery and Cafe a place known for their delicious brunch. Remy and I split a spinach omelet (that was filled with spinach artichoke dip) that came with sour cream mashed potatoes and apple cinnamon stuffed french toast. It was just as amazing as it sounds. The mashed potatoes were so so good that I’d go back just for those.

From there we spent the next few hours wandering in and out of stores – mostly for warmth!! Did a whole lot of walking around in the old neighborhood that I spent the summer in. It was so crazy to be back and see how many things had changed in such a short time.

Eventually we made it up to Bow Truss for some warmth and a cappuccino. Basically the whole weekend involved us drinking lots of warm beverages and finding new places to sit around and talk! Absolutely loved this little coffee shop – it was so cozy and the tables were all made out of old letterpress drawers.

Since breakfast was so big and filling we skipped lunch but wanted a small snack – went to 2 Sparrows for a goat cheese cinnamon roll that Kristin had been raving about. It lived up to her description! So tasty even if the waitress thought we were crazy.

From there we walked down to Lake Michigan – we were just a few blocks away at the time and I figured it wouldn’t be a trip to Chicago without at least a quick peek at it. I most definitely forgot about the fact that it’s colder right by the water!! Yikes! It was absolutely freezing but we managed to snap a few shots before running off for warmth.

We had planned to go downtown for the lights festival that was supposed to happen around 6:30. After spending lots of time walking around outside we needed to spend a bit of time putting on warm clothes and defrosting before we headed down.

However, you try to convince yourself to get out of a warm couch burrito of blankets, hand warmers and friends. Yep, not happening. We ended up ordering a deep dish pizza from the comfort of the couch which was a far better and warmer idea!

We did eventually make it out of the couch burrito to head to Guthrie’s (a bar new where Remy used to live). It became our favorite place when I was there over the summer because of their huge wall of board games. It was disappointingly packed and hard to order anything or even find a table but eventually did a played a few rounds of Jenga and Sorry. Walked a bit further down the street to find a less crowded sports bar. It ended up being an awesome choice because we ran into a ton of RIT alum and it became a big reunion and dance party.

Another late night of around 4 am made the 9am wake up difficult yet again but was oh so worth it. Went to Stella’s Diner just 2 blocks down from Remy & Kristin for breakfast. Remy and I shared again (it’s our habit of wanting savory & sweet and not being able to decide!). We had a breakfast bowl of hash browns on the bottom, roasted veggies, cheese and scrambled eggs and then blueberry pancakes!

Headed across the street after breakfast to Intelligentsia Coffee for a chai latte – because it wouldn’t have been a trip to Chicago without that! Before long it was time to meet up with my parents and start the 4 hour drive north. Even though it was only about a 36 hour trip there it felt like we got to pack SO many things in and catch up on everything in person. The whole trip had me wishing to either move back to Chicago or just buy plane tickets there every weekend.

Thanks girls for an awesome weekend 🙂

Colors of the Wind

Fall has been all around spectacular, weather-wise.  Feels like we’ve had shockingly warm days up until recently (that’s probably not a good thing..) and gorgeous colorful trees. How awesome is it that this is a short 10 minute walk away?! I used to live even closer but I seem to make it to the park even more now.

Two weekends ago I hopped on a train to Hawthorne to meet up with Barb & Joe so we could all drive up to Ithaca together! The car ride up included a delicious dinner of roasted tomato soup and spicy peanut butter dip made by Aunt Barb – unfortunately not photographed but it was super tasty! We made it to Ithaca around 10pm or so and Mom and Dad were already there with Sarah. Family reunion weekend!

We spent lots of it walking around (or driving around campus rather – it was cold!), seeing lots of pretty fall leaves, catching up and eating tasty food! After a Saturday morning breakfast sampler at Sarah’s apartment, we wandered around campus checking out all of the cool Harry Potter-like buildings. Saturday afternoon we drove up one of the sides of the finger lakes for some wine tasting!

 

And I just realized why I have hardly any photos from the weekend… they’re all on Sarah’s phone. Whoops. Well just imagine the tasty food we ate and fall-colored places we walked through.

The highlight meal of the weekend was at Hazelnut Kitchen in Trumansburg, NY. Mom, Dad and Sarah have gone there many times before – to the point of the owner’s knowing who they were.  We ate so much delicious, local food. Celery Root/Root Veggie soup, beet salad, delicious ravioli with brown butter and celery root on top of chinese broccoli, cheese plates, and a bunch of other things that looked great but had meat in them 🙂

The weekend also included a stop at the Ithaca farmers market and two trips to Ithaca Bakery! All around a great and delicious weekend.

 

In other fall leafy events, Jon and I finally got to spend a full weekend together (well almost, he works Sundays)! A homemade pancake breakfast was followed by a walk through Prospect Park to see all of the leaves and attempt the NYTimes crossword. In a huge triumph of the weekend, we completed 8 answers on the crossword – only having Googled 2 of those. Progress…

 

We made our way down to DUMBO to catch a ferry over to Greenpoint. It unfortunately started raining right before we got there but the good news was we were some of the only people out with an umbrella so a nice guy from Canada came over to ask us questions about the ferry & directions. While we’d like to think we’re just nice to talk to, I think the umbrella was a draw 🙂 Actually he was super cool to talk to! He had driven down the night before from Montreal all to see the Marathon the next day as he was planning on training for one in 2 years! He asked us all sorts of questions about NYC and asked if we had ever been to 30 Rock.. as a matter of fact, Jon goes there every day!

Finally made it to Greenpoint and walked to a cafe that I’ve been waiting to go to forever called Milk & Roses! They have a very cute shop and an even more awesome backyard patio. We both had tea and shared a garlic white bean dip for a snack.

 

Walked around Greenpoint/Williamsburg a bit more before going to the Brooklyn night Bazaar. It’s an event held every year on Saturday and Sunday nights throughout the winter. It’s held in a giant warehouse and filled with food vendors, live music and artist displays. I don’t think it was quite like either one of us was expecting but was fun to check out anyway! Shared a giant spinach and feta filled risotto ball – pretty much as delicious as it sounds. When we were both sufficiently tired out we headed back home for apple cider and a movie – Amour (one of the academy award winners this year).

Sunday morning was the marathon! One of my coworkers was running in it so I headed down to 4th Avenue to see her pass by. It was fun to finally see it all happen after hearing about the training for so long – I wasn’t particularly sad that I was watching instead of actually racing though! This picture doesn’t do it justice but there were SO MANY people running it! Some packs of people going by were absolutely insane. We were standing at mile 6 though so people still had a fair amount of energy. I can only imagine what mile 23 looked like..