Chicago, IL

I arrived in Chicago to bitter cold temperatures, but no snow.  I took the train from Midway to the Roosevelt  station where Jeff was waiting for me.  We went straight to a sushi place called Southcoast where I had quite possibly the best maki roll I've ever had.  It was called the South Loop Scallop and if you find yourself in the South Loop of Chicago anytime soon, you should check it out here.  We enjoyed a leisurely dinner and headed back to his apartment to watch the Lance Armstrong interview with Oprah that Jeff had DVR'd.  We were less than impressed and only made it through the first 30 minutes or so before calling it a night.

View from Jeff's apartment at day

View from Jeff's apartment at night

Jeff had to work for part of the day on Friday, so I went to the gym and updated the blog while he did what he needed to do.  A good friend of his suggested a Vietnamese sandwich shop for lunch so we grabbed a quick sandwich midday which was surprisingly delicious.  They were so good that Jeff ordered an extra sandwich to bring home for later...  After wrapping up work for the day, we ran to a liquor store to pick up some things for pre-dinner drinks.  While there, Jeff nearly dropped dead upon discovering that his favorite beer (Black Butte Porter) was available for purchase in Chicago.  He had been unsuccessful in trying to get it in Chicago in the past and then just walked right past it in the liquor store.  Very exciting!  Jeff had organized dinner at a place in Chinatown with friends and family and we were all meeting at his apartment beforehand.  We walked to the restaurant and sat at a large table with a huge lazy susan in the middle and sampled tons of dishes.  My favorite was the szechuan green bean dish, but if I am being honest, the lychee martinis were pretty awesome, too!  The place blasted Britney Spears music which gave it an authenticity all its own.  :)

On Saturday we had a bunch of errands to run before heading to Streamwood for a housewarming party at Jeff's cousin's house.  First on the list of things to accomplish was buying tiedowns for his patio furniture.  It was going to be insanely windy over the weekend and Jeff was hoping to avoid killing someone on the street because his patio furniture blew off the 18th floor.  :)  He also needed a gift for his cousin and we needed to pick up the ingredients for the appetizers we were going to make and bring with us.  Amazingly, we got everything done in time to make it to his cousin's house on time for the party.  We had a great time playing games and watching basketball.  His family told stories from the goings-on at his brother's wedding in the Fall and I laughed so hard I got a sore throat.  We headed back to the South Loop and noticed on the drive that the power had been knocked out to several towns between Streamwood and O'Hare.  It was creepy-dark on the road and there were police at each intersection where traffic lights were out.

Jeff grew up in St. Charles and we drove out to spend the day there on Sunday.  We met his sister, Annie, in Geneva first at a brunch place called Nosh.  The food was crazy-good and unique.  After brunch we all went back to their parents and played cards for much of the day.  Jeff's Mom, Diane, had decided on stir fry for dinner and we made it a group activity preparing chicken stir fry with spicy orange sauce.  Even I was impressed with the finished product.  After dinner Jeff's childhood friend Colleen joined us for some dominoes.  It was so nice to meet her because I've heard so much about her over the years.  We played late into the night and decided it was too cold to drive back to the city, so we spent the night.  After an early morning good-bye to Jeff's parents we hit the road.  We had a full list of things to do on Jeff's day off from work!  First task; an oil change for his car.  After taking care of that we picked up new windshield wiper blades, a new lamp for his living room, dropped off some of his photos to be enlarged on canvas for his living room walls and grabbed a Portillo's hotdog for lunch!  YUM!  We thought it would be fun to cook dinner in on Monday night instead of going out in the bitter cold, so we ran to an awesome produce market and got all the ingredients we needed to make sweet potato & lentil soup.  We put on some music, cooked up the soup and stayed nice and warm inside the apartment!  It was really fun - especially since I once again got to prove that I really do know how to cook.  Hmm...

Why is this photo funny?  After discussing the best location to take a photo in Jeff's parents house for ~5 minutes, we settled on this spot only to have Jeff's dad 'fail' when it came to focusing the camera.

Our attempt at a redo of the fireplace photo!  Not much better...

On Tuesday I was headed out to Lake Bluff to visit Brad and Molly for 2 days.  They have 3 beautiful kids, Jackson (7), Reese (5) and Brady (3) so as you can imagine there were loads of activities to fill our time together.  We grabbed lunch at Buffingtons before heading home to meet Jackson and Resse as they got off the school bus.  I spent nearly every night with Brad and Molly during the first 2 years of Jackson's life in Atlanta and it is hard to believe he is a BIG first grader!  Where does the time go?  We played for a while, met Brad for dinner at a Inovasi, treated ourselves to yogurt at LuLu's and before we knew it, the day was done so we were off to bed.

Molly is the Activities Director (and an instructor) at the Lake Bluff Recreation Center so I accompanied her to Total Body class on Wednesday morning.  She is an amazing instructor!  She kicked my butt in an accumulator class, but it was great fun and I felt great afterwards.  :)  We ran home to shower before driving out to Libertyville to meet her brother-in-law for lunch.  He happened to be in town for business and asked us to meet him at one of the restaurants that sells his beer on tap!  YUM!  We had decided to cook dinner at home on Wednesday, so we ran to the grocery store for all the makings for tacos and guacamole.  We met Jackson and Reese at the bus stop, played some more games and got to cooking.  it was so wonderful to get caught up with all of them and see how happy they are in Lake Bluff.  They are such wonderful friends and while I miss them everyday, I am so glad they have found happiness in Lake Bluff.

Sweet Jackson hamming it up for the camera!

Ballerina Reese getting ready to go to class!

Lovie Brady blowing bubbles in his milk!

I went back to Chicago on Thursday to meet up with Jeff for lunch before going to the airport.  We enjoyed the Vietnamese sandwiches so much earlier in the week that we decided to get them again for my final meal in Chicago!  :)  I was sad to say good-bye after a great visit, but I'll see Jeff twice in February (Atlanta and Mexico) so that is something to look forward to...

Of course, just as I was about to leave it started to snow like crazy...

I will be in Atlanta for nearly 3 weeks before heading out again.  My next trip is to the NC mountains to ski with LeeAnn and Chris as well as visit Jeff and Bencita who just adopted a baby after many years of waiting to be foster parents and/or adoptive parents.  I couldn't be more excited for them!  The next 3 weeks in Atlanta include Nora's birthday, the Super Bowl, numerous lunches/dinners with friends, meetings with my nutritionist, swimming at the Y and lots of errands for the house.  If something exciting happens, I will create a post.  Otherwise, look for something after my trip to NC.