Girls Getaway

A few months back when I was making travel arrangements for a conference I was going to in Chicago, I was struck with a brilliant idea.  Jenn could come with me - we could hang out in the evenings and she could spend time with her sister and brother during the day!  When I have brilliant ideas like this, I usually want to share them quickly - just ask Jenn how many texts, IMs and calls she got from me when I was trying to find her.  :)

Luckily the dates worked for her and before we knew it, we were off!  Here we are at the airport waiting to board - you should see a SWA plane in the background; however, our glowing personalities seemed to have blocked it out. :)



When we got to Chicago, we were brave and took the L from the airport to the hotel.  We did well getting a few blocks from the train station to our hotel, we just took a wrong turn at the end and ended up entering our hotel through the parking garage.  According to the nice doormen that let us into the hotel,  'it happens all the time'.  LOL.  After we checked in, we headed out to explore and find somewhere for lunch.


Jenn's sister and brother in-law gave her a list of recommended restaurants, and The Purple Pig was close to our hotel, so we gave it a try for lunch.  It is small plate items that are meant to share.  We were a bit overwhelmed when looking at the menu - we ended up asking for suggestions and we thrilled with the results.

This is the calamari - definitely not what we were expecting but it was FANtastic.


Then we had the milk braised pork shoulder with mashed potatos.  SOOO good - I need to find a recipe so we can make this at home.  Trust me, it tastes way better than it looks!


We also shared a panini - simple but delicious with tasty meats and cheeses.


Then we headed to Michigan Avenue to do some shopping.  We were kid free and ready to shop. We ended up doing a lot of browsing and not finding anything we wanted/needed.  I took the picture of this store for my mom - those are all antique Singer sewing machines lining the windows of this store. Quite impressive!


While we were taking a picture of ourselves, a teenager stopped to talk to us since we were obvious tourists.  He gave us a tip of checking out this bar/lounge at the top of the John Hancock tower rather than paying to go to the observation deck.  Of course, he then asked us for money, but it was well worth the few dollars we gave him.


We lucked into a window seat and enjoyed this view as we had an afternoon snack.


This one looks like Jenn's on a cruise ship - or perhaps that's just wishful thinking on our part!




This was the view from the bathroom.  Seriously!   We stopped on our way out and were in shock when we came around the corner and saw this view.  Next time, I think we should get a drink and head to the bathroom to enjoy it. They had a few chairs facing the windows, so a lot of people must have this idea.




Earlier in the day, we stopped at the Lego store so Jenn could fill a cup for her Lego maniacs.  It was quite the lesson for me - you don't just dump Legos into the cup, there is careful stacking and maneuvering required.  Hopefully she'll get the stamp of approval for her careful packing.


Jenn thought Eden would like this life sized Lego girl.


Girl & The Goat was another of Jenn's sister's recommendations.  I was so excited to give it a try because I had seen the Chef/Owner on the Food Network.  Apparently, it's tough to get a reservation, so I must have just checked their website at the right time, because there was one reservation on the night we wanted to go - it was meant to be!


It seems that the theme of our trip was small plates meant to share - as well as an eclectic menu.  We again took our server's recommendations and were not disappointed.

We started with the halibut - it was good but not as flavorful as I had hoped.


Then we had the most amazing green beans.  Jenn posted the pic of us in front of the restaurant and someone said that we must have the green beans - they did NOT disappoint.  We dug in so quickly that we forgot to take a picture.


Girl and the Goat is known for their goat meat, so we were adventurous and tried goat ribs. They were amazing, meat falling off the bone.  


Jenn digging into the ribs - trying to gracefully cut them into two pieces was quite the feat, but she succeeded.


We also had oven-roasted pigs face which was our adventurous choice at this restaurant.  Glad we chanced it, because the meat was so tender and flavorful.  No picture of that one - we dug in before we realized we had forgotten to take a picture!

We were getting full but got sucked into dessert when we read the descriptions.  The dessert on the right was phenomenal.  A quick check of their online menu reminds me that these are: sticky-date cake with blueberry preserves on the left and miso-butterscotch budino with bacon toffee, glazed pineapple and candied cashews.  Just writing this is making me hungry!


The next night we went to a restaurant called Publican.  It was yet another small plate restaurant; however, we were seated in such close quarters that it would have been awkward to take pics, so you'll just have to imagine it.  The food was ok - not amazing.  We made friends with the group sitting next to us and they recommended a bar down the street.  We had some time to kill before the party we were headed to, so we checked it out.

This was my drink - it was tequila with pineapple, some kind of flower (hibiscus maybe) and some other goodness.  When the waitress poured my first drink, it was clear and as the ingredients steeped in the tequila, it got darker pink then red.  It was fantastic - I had never had a drink like that before.


Next up was a party at the planetarium - it had an amazing view of the city.


It was a quick getaway but we had a great time!