Sweet home

I canNOT believe that today is August 27! Where did summer go? That's right, my summer didn't begin until July 28, so of course today feels like a lazy day in June. And, no back to school for me, so lazy days stretch a little longer than usual. I'm loving it though, and loving my déjà vu days spent on a blanket in the sun from my favorite new spot in the city, finished off with a trip to the new self-serve fro-yo place (that has red velvet fro-yo!). After spending the past few days here, I decided that if I could build a house anywhere in the world (Italy aside) I would build it right here on these rocks.

Did not have my camera with me, so photo courtesy of this great photographer

Sweet home

Forbes just came out with a new list titled "America's Most Miserable Cities" (Forbes does not = blog). I personally find the article to be depressing and the photo slideshow even worse (pictures of miserable-looking people, inmates, crime scenes, ect). It was so sad to see that Chicago is ranked 10th (and I was appalled to see that St. Louis, a former home, is ranked 7th!). So for a quick afternoon pick-me-up, I'm firing back at Forbes with the best things about Chicago.

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*Running on the lakefront in the summer at sunset while hundreds of people play beach volleyball and you have your own little race with the guys on the path in front of you.

*The free concerts in Millennium Park during the summer, packed with people eating picnic dinners and drinking bottles of wine.

*The Cubs- doesn't matter if they lose, Wrigley Field has the best energy and is the most fun stadium. Ever.

*The architecture, especially the way that most of the buildings on the river and in the Loop have ornate clocks on them so that I always know that I'm 5 minutes late for work.

*The always slightly-green river.

*The fact that we have a highly efficient public transportation system that makes owning a car seem like a silly idea.

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*All the museums, especially their free days in the summer and winter.

*Being able to pass by one of the tallest buildings in the world without even blinking.

*The skyline. Best view from the north: North Avenue Beach. Best view from the south: Shedd Aquarium.

*The Chicago Marathon- there is not a marathon with a better course (flat!), better crowds, or better time of the year (autumn leaves!).

*That you can walk pretty much anywhere if you have the time. I wouldn't consider it crazy if you walked from Lincoln Park to the Loop.

*The ingenuity and creativity of the chefs at local restaurants and how they aren't afraid at all to take risks.

*Lincoln Park (the park). Everything about it, but especially the free zoo.

*How even though winters are rough, I appreciate warm days and sunny days infinitely more.

*The Bears. Especially their big shouldered fans.

*The Mag Mile. But only on weekday mornings when there are little to no tourists.

*The harbors on the lake and how excited I get when they start filling up with boats again.

*The very distinct personality of every neighborhood (even if I have been called "a Lincoln Park sort of girl").

*That Southwest flies into Midway.

*The Bean/Cloud Gate.

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*Summer events. Especially the Taste of Chicago.

*The art, flowers, and sculptural objects along Michigan Avenue.

*Chicago's green movement, which is one of the most aggressive in the nation.

*Chicago-style pizza. And Chicago-style hot dogs. Nobody does it better. Can I have one now actually?

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Painted the town red

Why oh why do my weekends fly past? This weekend was spent visiting roughly 15 of Chicago's beautiful neighborhoods. Count em, 15. A combination of doing a 20 mile run all the way up to Evanston (see previous post explaining my crazy) and having my parent's car to take a spin in made us quite the little social butterflies.

The Saturday morning sun rose to a gorgeous day to run 20 miles on the lake.

What does one do after a 20 mile run you might ask? Absolutely nothing. Or, limp half a block to the Chicago Bagel Authority, order a monster sandwich, and watch college football all day.

The best part about marathon training- marathon eating. My boyfriend and I decided to reward ourselves on Saturday night with a hamburger from a great Chicago institution, Kuma's Corner. Kuma's has been rated best hamburger in Chicago by many magazines lately. Unfortunately, we were hugely disappointed with the long waits (an hour wait after we ordered our burgers), fairly tasteless hamburgers, and screaming heavy rock music.

What to do when disappointed with dinner? Go have dessert at Hot Chocolate. Absolutely the greatest dessert place on earth.

As if we hadn't already eaten our way through Saturday, we had to have brunch at Milk and Honey in Wicker Park.

Then it was on to the Farmer's Market, where I got the most beautiful and delicious heirloom tomatoes. It is definitely the time for these babies, I would recommend to anyone to buy them up!

On the way home we made a stop at one of Jewel's new concept stores- Urban Fresh. I normally wouldn't blog about a grocery store, but I fell in love. If possible, this store was like a combination of Trader Joe's off-brand foods, Whole Food's freshness, and Jewel's low prices. And it has cases of Diet Coke Plus, a staple from my college years that I can rarely find.

Because I couldn't handle any more football, the rest of my afternoon was spent at Bed Bath and Beyond. Though I usually associate this place with college freshmen and moms, filling up their carts with plastic storage bins, I have to admit they do have every staple. Plus a little tip- those 20% coupons you get in the mail never expire. Just take in any big blue advertisement and they will honor it.

I hope everyone had a food-filled weekend!

Happy happy

Wow, what a weekend! I had 8 people in town to celebrate with me and celebrate we did.

Friday night turned into a late night Michael Jackson dance party.

Saturday morning started with some much-needed breakfast and an awesome Bloody Mary bar.

Then I spent some time downtown in Millennium Park with my parents. We had lunch at Terzo Piano, the newly acclaimed restaurant at the Art Institute. It was absolutely fantastic. I had the Nichols' farm heirloom tomato salad and a Bellini.

We walked off the delicious lunch through the Lurie Garden, a gorgeous expanse of prairie and wildflowers.

Then it was on to watch the football games with my friends. Unfortunately Notre Dame gave me the same gift it has nearly every year- another loss to Michigan.

After that game I needed a glass of wine while getting dolled up.

Then it was dinner for 16 in a private room at Adobo Grill. Many, many margaritas, tequila shots, and delicious Mexican food made for a ridiculously fun evening.

Sunday came too quickly, and the day was spent watching football and eating Chicago pizza (for the second time that weekend).

What a fantastic birthday and even more fabulous friends! Now it's time to recover with my sweet boyfriend, who got me a collection of classic old movies for my birthday. Life is good.

Take Your Time.

One of my summer goals was to visit the Olafur Eliasson exhibition, "Take Your Time," at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and despite living only 2 blocks from the museum, I just got there this afternoon. The exhibition was gorgeous, and I would recommend taking advantage of the MCA's free Tuesdays to go see it.

The exhibition was truly a sensory experience; my photos do not do it justice. The essence of the exhibit, in my words, is objects creating their own beauty and the individual creating his or her own sensation. In the slightly more poetic terms of the artist and museum, the works are "devices for the experience of reality...light, air, water, moss are put to the service of artworks that are less objects than experiences." Every room engaged multiple senses, not only sight, but the smell of moss or rubber, the feel of a light mist, the sense of humidity, and more...

MCA Entrance

"Room for one colour"

"Moss wall"

"Moss wall" section

"Beauty"

"Your eye activity field"

Since I started law school, sadly, art has really fallen out of my life. In college I was surrounded by it- I was a studio art minor and my college boyfriend was an art major, so I was either working on a project, modeling for a project, or critiquing a project. One of my new life goals is to make more time art, and I'm hoping to start doing that with the new camera on my birthday wish list!

yummmm

The Taste of Chicago begins next week, and though I think that the event can be a hellishly crowded and overrated mistake if you go at the wrong time (aka any day around the 4th of July), I am still excited to browse the booths.  I have checked out the vendors, which can be found here, and though I'm slightly disappointed with the seemingly smaller restaurant selection, decided on several restaurants that are a must.

Adobo Grill- I have yet to visit this Old Town favorite, but I hear the guacamole is to die for, so I will definitely check out their booth.

Blue Bayou- I have no idea what this restaurant is all about, but after months of searching for a place that has Bananas Foster on the menu (one of my boy's favorites) and not finding a single place around, we will definitely need some of their Bananas Foster bites.

Original Rainbow Cone- Chocolate, strawberry, palmer and pistachio ice cream with orange sherbet in a waffle cone.  Can't go wrong, especially on a hot day.

Lou Malnatis- By far the best pizza in the world.

Any place that offers sweet potato anything.

Hashbrowns- Good ole southern food?  Check.  This booth is offering sweet potato fries and sweet potato hashbrowns.

C'est Si Bon!- Sweet potato cheesecake.  What more can I say.

Aunt Diana's Candy Makers- A chocolate covered banana always does the trick.

My stomach is growling already!

(almost) summer in Chicago

Last night I had the kind of night that made me really love living in Chicago (even though I had to rearrange my cute new outfit to include black leggings because it is still 55 degrees outside on JUNE 13).  The night started out at one of the best BYOB restaurants in the city- the slightly yuppie but always fantastic Coast.  Though I love sushi and will try almost any kind of food or drink, until last night I was a sake virgin.  Having absolutely no knowledge of sake etiquette whatsoever, my best friend in the world Natalie and I had to be stopped by our amused boyfriends before almost pouring soy sauce in the adorable little bowls they give you to drink sake from.  Despite having what I was told is very good sake, and attempting to appreciate the hints of apple and a little bit of almond and cinnamon, I have to say that I prefer wine made from grapes.  After stuffing ourselves with sushi- you MUST order the white dragon roll, found here, which has been called "sushi crack"- talk turned to dessert.

White dragon roll at Coast

After hearing that we were just down the street from Hot Chocolate, which has been voted Chicago's best dessert spot for years, and on my list of places I must visit asap (I am the person who believes that chocolate is one of God's greatest gifts and actually think I became slightly depressed for 40 days when I gave it up for Lent one year, never to happen again) we hightailed it to the adorable little restaurant.  Slightly buzzed from the sake I'm sure, the four of us decided that we each needed our own $11 treat, plus drinks and hot chocolate of course.  After pouring over the tantalizing menu, we picked out our sweets (except for Natalie's boyfriend, whose sanity I questioned at first when he ordered a cheese platter, which ended up looking absolutely delish- three large hunks of cheese, salad, nuts, and an assortment of homemade breads).  My boy, whose main weakness in life is cookies, ordered the cookie platter of course, which ended up being tiny bites of heaven.  Natalie ordered the warm homemade sugar doughnuts with a hot fudge dip and sweetly salty caramel corn.  And since I love all desserts with a passion and could never discriminate between them, my boy ordered me the s'more treat, an obvious choice considering my current obsession with anything s'more related (everyone must try the Limited Edition Edy's S'More ice cream).  This beauty was composed of a homemade graham cracker, a frozen block of chocolate ice cream, another graham cracker, and was topped with a perfectly burned homemade marshmallow.  Alongside the s'more was a perfectly adorable tiny glass of chocolate and cream soda phosphate topped with unsweetened whipped cream.  If I didn't care about the shape of my body I would drop out of law school in a second and become a food critic, I swear.  If you don't have room for dessert while here (shame on you) you MUST order a mug of hot chocolate.  There are no words- it is liquid, creamy heaven.

  

As if the night was not already beyond expectation, a large commotion on the street caught our attention, and we were lucky enough to witness Chicago's annual Naked Bike Ride!!  The trip only happens once a year, and the route is not disclosed until that night, so we were just fortunate enough to have a window seat on the right Chicago street.  Our favorite was definitely the naked rollerblader.

Note: This is not actually the naked rollerblader we laughed at.

What a night.  Until the next one...