Chicago Weekend

Friday, May 28-Monday, May 31

Mr. E and I spent the Memorial Day holiday long weekend in Chicago. He had visited his family very briefly last November, but I hadn't seen any of them since Thanksgiving 2019. We worked on Friday morning and then headed to the airport for our 2pm flight, arriving just before 8pm Chicago time. With a bit of a wait in the taxi line, we still managed to arrive at our hotel around 9pm. We stayed at the Warwick Allerton, which is in an historic building right on Michigan Ave. A quick trip to a nearby Walgreen's to pick up some snacks and beverages for me, and then Mr. E picked up his dinner at Chipotle.

I did YouTube Zumba and yoga in the room on Saturday morning, and we picked up breakfast at the Corner Bakery and coffee at the Starbucks just across the street. Then we headed out to meet up with Mr. E's parents at their condo on East Randolph Ave. L had asked Mr. E to take care of some errands and chores, so he took care of those items while I went down to the pool to swim laps. We regrouped in the mid afternoon, and Mr. E and I finally tried out Brown Bag Seafood for lunch. Yummy grilled mahi mahi over a veggie mix with brussels sprouts, green beans, and dark leafy greens. Then we went back to the condo for a bit. Mr. E took some time for a treadmill run, and I returned to Brown Bag Seafood for a $6 glass [mason jar] of Happy Hour rose wine. Mr. E met up with me there so that we could go to Mariano's together to pick up dinner fixings -- two different types of grilled steak and some ready-made mashed potatoes for him and his parents, sushi and seaweed salad for me, mushrooms and green beans as sides for all.

We grabbed a taxi back to our hotel around 9pm, as the wind had picked up so it was a little too chilly to make the 3-minute return walk since we didn't have warm jackets with us.

Sunday morning began the same way for me, and then we headed to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery just a block away for our 9am tour. Our guide, Matt, was very friendly, passionate, and knowledgeable, and we got to learn about this history of the roasteries, the roasting process, and the unique features and experiences available on each of the four floors. We ended our tour with Americanos using the exclusive Paradeisi roast, which was also what we chose as part of our take-home goodie bag to accompany our Italian chocolate tart and two mini bottles of Prosecco. And we procured an ornament of the roastery as a souvenir.

To accompany our coffee, we walked a few blocks to find some breakfast food (too long of a wait at the Roastery!) and ended up at the Panera in the food court of the Northwestern Hospital campus. Yummy breakfast sandwiches in a very quite and peaceful atmosphere. Then we made a stop at our hotel before continuing on to the condo, where Mr. E took care of a final chore before we all headed out at 1:15pm to Oak Park for our afternoon at the home of L & M. Our late lunch / early dinner included delicious grilled salmon, a mini zucchini bow tie pasta salad with lemon and mint, and an arugula and pear and shaved Parmesan salad. Dessert was a strawberry and cream cake and Italian cookies. The weather was ideal -- high 60s, sunny, slight breeze. So nice to spend time with family and get to celebrate the 36th anniversary of L & M!

We took a cab back to downtown Chicago, where we said our goodbyes to Mr. E's parents and went back to our hotel for the evening. I had some leftover snacks for dinner, and Mr. E endured a [very] long wait at Shake Shack. 

I got up at 5:30am for a short workout before our 6:30am pick-up for our 9am flight. We got the airport in less than 30 minutes! With a quick transition through TSA, we had about an hour to spend at the United Club, which offered breakfast sandwiches, warm bagels, hard boiled eggs, fruit, and a DIY coffee machine for our Americanos. We were in First Class for our flight home, which landed a bit early so we were reunited with Miss Calypso just after noon and had the rest of the day to unpack, settle in, and get ready for the work week.