Chi-town

We did it! We are officially "on the road" and currently in Chicago (or Oak Park for those keeping track at home).

It is soooo nice to have the stress of packing (and work) behind us. Many kudos to my fellow staff members and volunteers for picking up the pieces in my absence. Yes, I realize 3 weeks is quite a lengthy departure ... unfortunately this country is too large to tackle in anything less!

Picture of the tag-a-long map I made for Kim and the crew at work. What's a roadtrip without a little play-by-play action. Right?

Chicago is an incredible town. We trekked our way through a good part of it today to see Millennium Park's sculptures - namely "the Bean". Lots of fun and not a bad camera angle to be found. We also made it to Willis Tower and the Skydeck just as the sun was going down. Check out the photo's (slideshow - click here!) for the days events.


We were THRILLED to find one of our favorite quick bites organic European restaurants "Pret A Manger" and jumped in for a late lunch. Hope to see more of these popping up (wink wink, nudge nudge ... Pittsburgh).

For dinner we made it to "The Girl and the Goat" - run by Stephanie (last name??) , the first female Top Chef winner from season's past. Best Tapas I've had hands down. We skipped out on dessert unfortunately ... it could have been the "parsnip cheesecake" that influenced this. Not sure. Incredible fare, atmosphere and service.

When advising our waitress we were from Pittsburgh she made a point to inform us that she "is supposed to hate us" as she grew up in Cincinnati. Never realized those Cin'ers were so programmed (Let's just say I'm taking note of this for future reference upon my return). Our neighbors dining next to us felt obligated to chime in about our Pittsburgh roots as well and were surprised to find we were not bleeding black and gold. They were SO EXCITED about our roadtrip endeavors and ensured us at least a dozen times that we ARE GOING TO HAVE SUCH A GREAT TIME. Thankfully we darted out of there before they decided to follow us home and made it to our train station through the chilly wind and rain. The forecast predicted rain by 6pm today ... glad it held long enough to allow us to enjoy this great city in the few hours we had!

We will be back soon .. next stop Minneapolis to visit Matt's college friend, Doug.

**I will do my best to post pics tomorrow. Too tired to tackle another round of trying to post pics tonight.