Blown away by the Windy City

When one of my girlfriends moved up to Chicago for work, I couldn't wait to get a visit planned.  Everyone always has the best things to say about the city and I couldn't wait to experience it for myself.  That was almost two years ago and we were finally able to make it happen!

My friend, we shall call her Abby, actually lives in the suburb of Evanston which is only a 20 minute train ride into the city. Since I'm able to work remotely from time to time, we made plans for me to fly up Thursday afternoon which would allow me to work from her place on Friday. I landed in the early evening (check out this picture from the plane!) and we headed towards her place in Evanston.

We decided to hit up this taco joint she had been dying to try - Taco Diablo. Definitely a great choice! For any of you who love Mexican food, this place puts a different spin on tacos and the drinks are incredible. On our way back to the car, we noticed this little bakery that had been in Evanston since 1938, so naturally we figured we had to try it out when it opened the next day. Since we both had to work the next morning, we headed back to her place for the rest of the night. Her condo was super cute! It was a huge 1br/1ba place that even came with a heated garage. It wasn't super cold when I was there, but I can imagine this comes in handy during the winter.

The next morning, we woke up  around 7 and got to work. Well, I actually walked over to QT for a much needed coffee fix but I digress. Next thing we knew it was nearly 1:00. As a reward, we decided to take our lunch break and venture to Evanston to grab some essentials for the weekend. First stop - Farmhouse Evanston. This is a little farm to table restaurant located beside the Hilton. We placed our to go orders -I tried the chicken soup with the ham and Gruyere sandwich. Abby got the veggie burger. And we were off to the next stop. Fresh Market had sparkling wines on sale, so obviously that had to happen. We picked out a couple and walked back to pick up lunch. One last place on our list... you guessed it... that little bakery whose sweet tempting smells had captured our hearts the night before. Bennison's Bakery, to be exact. And boy what a great decision. We both tried cronuts (for those who haven't heard of these it's a croissant that is glazed like a donut), I also got a chocolate croissant and Abby got a cinnamon roll donut. After all, calories don't count on girls weekend, right??

We were able to get back in a little under an hour to knock out the rest of our work and ended up calling it a day around 4:30pm. Let the partay commence! The sparkling wine really complimented our get ready / dance party.  One major thing to know before you go to Chi-town - Metra App. Download it stat if you're planning a trip up there. From the app, I could purchase my train tickets  and you can even pay for parking! You can purchase paper tickets at the station (who wants to keep track of a ticket) or once you're on the Metra from the conductor but I don't recommend that because they cost additional per trip (I think it's $5 but don't hold me to that). And with that, we were finally on our way into the city.

First stop, Millenium park! Duh. We were able to catch these sites pretty quickly before all the crowds began. I must admit, the Bean is extremely cool and much larger than I would have thought.

Perfect Photo Op

Pretty church on the way to the park

Bean with cityscape 

Cityscape in the Bean

Tons of great sculptures everywhere

Bean selfies!

Afterwards, we headed down towards The Wit - a rooftop bar on top of the DoubleTree. The views were pretty epic and the drinks are top notch. If you go - definitely try the Andalusian Tradewinds. It's Makers Mark, Vermouth, St. Germain, with strawberry, raspberry and sicilian blood orange. Hands down - best drink of the trip!

By this point, we were getting hungry so we called a Lyft (& got one of the craziest/funniest drivers of all time... another story for another day) to take us over to Davanti Enoteca for some rustic Italian ambiance & authentic cuisine. Since I've been to Italy, I feel qualified to say this place is the closest I've had since coming back to the states. We started off with the Bruschetta of the day, each day is a new recipe so each time you go it's different. Ours had a cheese spread with grilled corn and veggies. Very, very tasty. For dinner I had Bolognese (can't go wrong there) and Abby had Shrimp Fettuccine.  Since we were having Italian fare, I also indulged in some Sangiovese with dinner.

After dinner, we headed back into the city for a game night at Henry's . We played pool (and won) and a tried our hand at a few other games they have handy there. After a while, we decided to head back towards the train station since it was closing soon. While it was chilly because of the wind, it was gorgeous to walk through the city all lit up and there were hardly any other people walking around. Once we got home, we hopped into bed because first thing in the morning, it was back to the city to continue the adventure!

We slept in a tiny bit the next morning. To get us going, we enjoyed peach mimosas and what was left of our pastry treats from yesterday. We got on the train and headed back to the city. Today's first destination - Michigan Avenue for some shopping and people watching. As we walked through the streets, we couldn't help but notice these painted dogs everywhere. They were a tribute to a fallen K9 soldier. Here's some photos of my faves:

I loved the colors of this one

It's the Illinois state flag :)

For those who know me, this one needs no explanation 

Once we got to Michigan Ave, we got our coffee fix (thank you, Starbucks) and found a few sales. Post shopping fix, we were ready to head towards our second destination -Navy Pier in hopes of finding a bistro where we could enjoy a glass of wine. Nothing really caught our eye. That could be partially because I found a Potbelly and couldn't pass up an opportunity for that chicken salad sandwich and the macaroni salad. Oh man! Potbelly used to be my main staple when I lived in DC and now I have to stop if I see it. We sat and enjoyed a quick lunch before we finished the walk to the Pier. This could be seen as a tourist trap area, but I enjoyed it. The views were phenomenal ( including the people watching). There were rides for family fun and even a botanical garden. We weren't able to see that because it was being set up for a wedding later that day (boo!) but we walked on down until we found Tiny Tavern next to the harbor.  The Tito's hammock (vodka, cucumber and lemonade) sounded perfect for this warm Saturday afternoon. From there, we decided to walk along the harbor only stopping a few times for photos or to admire art work along the way until we got to Grant Park. Grant park was beautiful and honestly it reminded me of the parks you find in Europe. There was a huge fountain and gardens with pathways tucked in between hedges.  I wish we had had more time but it was already early evening by the time we got back to the Metra station. We were ready to put our feet up and relax a bit until dinner.

I love this shot of the bubble party and the sunlight

An impromptu bubble party we walked upon

Love this skyline

Art in the tunnel of the Riverwalk

Art in the tunnel of the Riverwalk 

Gardens in Grant Park

Statue in Grant Park

Fountain in Grant Park 

I felt like I was back in Paris

Isn't this one cool?

Mosaic street art

We passed this on the way back to the Metra and thought it was cool

For our last adventure, Abby wanted to take me to an authentic Cuban restaurant which has been featured on Diners and Drive In's & Dives called 90 Miles Cuban Cafe. Every Friday and Saturday they clear the front dining room for live music and dancing. Plus, they also have authentic Cuban food. I ordered a Cubano (how could you not) and we enjoyed the ambiance for a bit before calling it a night. I was bummed we weren't feeling up to staying longer and dancing but I had an early flight to catch and we had to leave for the airport well before sunrise. No bueno. So reluctantly, we left the restaurant and headed back to Abby's to pack up and chat until bed time. As always, I was super bummed the trip was coming to an end but I am excited for the next one.

The dance floor at 90 Miles. Very appropriate. Don't forget to Make your move

For those interested, we have a short trip up to my hometown coming up where we will enjoy some horse racing. I'm not sure if it will be enough content for a blog, but I'm inclined do a short one. Next major trip coming up for us over New Years. We are still figuring out the details, but until then I'll go back into the archives and do some blogging on our past trips. We've got a couple of amazing trips planned for next year and potentially a third. Each of those will be to multiple cities so we will have tons to share! Can't wait! Until next time, I bid you adieu!