Chicago

Hey all! Chicago was amazing! It was so much fun to spend 3 days with my closest friends in such a great city. We had all been there before, so we didn't do much sightseeing. Instead, we shopped, walked, ate, dressed up, drank fancy drinks, and shared many many laughs. I am still recovering from the little sleep I got this weekend!!

We got into Chicago around noon on Friday, took the train downtown where we met up with our friend Meghan who had flown out the day before. Her dad works in Chicago, so he graciously let us stay in his apartment. We had a late lunch and then headed down to the move theater for SATC! Meghan had already bought our tickets, but we still had to wait in line for over an hour just to get into the theater. The movie was amazing, I loved every minute of it. By the time, the movie was over, it was dinner time. We went to Dick's Last Resort, a chain of restaurants that specialize in rude service. The server also makes hats for everyone that say inappropriate things about you. For example, the bride-to-be's hat said: Getting married cause I'm knocked up. The food wasn't that great, but the atmosphere was fun and we had a lot of laughs. After dinner we went back to the apartment to change and freshen up and went back out for drinks. 

Saturday morning, four of us woke up early and hit the apartment gym for some cardio. Once everyone was showered and ready to go it was lunch time, so we decided to have some famous deep dish Chicago pizza at Pizano's. We ordered Mark's Special: tomatoes, garlic and basil. Oh my gosh, this pizza was delicious. I could taste the pool of oil and grease in my mouth. I was stuffed after one slice. But went back for a little more ;) After lunch we walked off the food (ha I wish!) by going to Millennium Park, and shopping along Michigan Ave. We didn't get back to the apartment until 6:30! We made cocktails and got ready for dinner. We had dinner reservations at 7:45 at the Italian Village. It was a cute and romantic restaurant, with very good food. I ordered the Caprese salad because that's what I was craving, but I had bites of everyone else's food. And then I ate most of a chocolate mousse type dessert. After dinner, we went back to the apartment for some more fun before going to Wrigleyville. We went to Barley Corn, where the line was a block long. However, the 7 of us got in right away since we were a bachelorette party. It was an extremely fun night. We danced the night away, until the lights came on at 3 am. We all drank too much. I even took shots, something that I haven't done in years! Oh well, the next morning I remembered why I prefer to only have 1 or 2 drinks. 

Sunday was spent recovering, cleaning up the apartment and packing. We headed to the airport around 2, all sad to be coming home. Overall, a great weekend that I will always remember!

Duluth Recap

Duluth was a fun, relaxing weekend. It's always nice to spend quality alone time with Chris since we don't get to see each other very often during the school year. Chris is home for the summer now, but I'll be returning to Duluth in a little over a month to run the half marathon!

Unfortunately, I didn't take any more food pictures for the rest of the weekend. I forgot my camera at Chris' house on Saturday and my food wasn't that interesting on Sunday. I was bummed I forgot my camera on Saturday because we went to brunch at this cool, hip place called Burrito Union. Think Chipotle, but a cooler atmosphere. I never crave eggs, but for some reason I was having a craving so I ordered off their breakfast menu. The Union Bowl had eggs, cheese, black beans, potatoes, grilled veggies, roasted salsa, and tortilla chips. It was fantastic and I ate the entire thing. It wasn't a huge portion, but I definitely ate more than I needed to. The day was very windy and rained off and on so we stayed indoors for the majority of the afternoon and watched movies/napped. Around 5, I had a splitting headache and got crabby...and so realized I needed coffee. (Yes, I know it's bad but I get caffeine headaches if I've gone the whole day without coffee). So I went to a nearby grocery store that has a coffee shop to get coffee and instantly felt better. While there, I picked up a few apples because I hadn't had any fruit all day. 

Dinner was at Fitger's Brewery and Grille, another great place to eat. The owners of Fitger's are the same as Burrito Union so it had the same fun atmosphere. Chris and I decided to share their beer sampler. The sampler included 7 different types of beer. I don't know much about beer, but I now know that I hate IPA. It is so bitter and just plain yuck. I also didn't care for their Oatmeal Stout or the english style bitter. Basically, I only drank the Lighthouse Golden and Apricot Wheat. The Apricot Wheat was a delicious, fruity beer. I like those. Foodwise, it was hard to decide what to order because everything sounded delicious. I finally ordered the Meatless Harvest Moon Wild Rice Burger with mushrooms, swiss cheese, and chipotle pepper sauce. It was bigger than Chris' bacon cheeseburger! I only ate half but finished off the serving of fries. The fries were so good. I didn't feel as guilty eating them because the menu states that Fitger's uses only trans fat free oils. I really wanted dessert but I was stuffed so I decided to hold off. 

After dinner, we went to see What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. It's hilarious and a lot of fun. When the movie was over, I wasn't so stuffed anymore, so we went to Coldstone. I had my favorite ice cream combination in the world: Oatmeal Cookie Batter with graham cracker crumbs and mini chocolate chips. YUM! I was in heaven. By the time we got back to Chris' we were both overstuffed and in a food coma so I went to bed pretty early. 

Lake Superior

Sunday morning, I helped Chris pack up his car and we were on the road by noon. I got home around 2:30ish, unpacked, baked cookies, went to church with my family, and had a long workout with my best friend. Overall, it was a nice getaway weekend. I overindulged more than I would have liked, but I could have done a lot worse. I'm looking forward to getting back on track with fresh, clean eating.