The windy city

Working for a school district lends itself to having, at least, a partial summer vacation (and I'm not complaining, partial is better than non at all!), so I spent a week in Chicago with my family. It was the first time to the windy city for all of us, but I would say that rather than wind, that we were hit with scorching heat, humidity, and periodic down pours...sometimes all in the same day.

We did some of the "touristy" things....architectual boat tour, the Art Institute, Frank Lloyd Wright home tour, etc.

"The Bean"

My sister and I taking a picture of our reflection inside the bean.

The Girl and the Goat is a semi-new restaurant who's executive chef is Stephanie Izard, winner of The Food Network's Top Chef. This place is booked months in advance, so we had to get there when the doors opened at 4:30pm to get one of the few open tables they keep daily. The small plates are served family style and come out in non particular order; here are a few I remembered to take pictures of.

 chickpeas fritters . romesco . hazelnut hummus . sesame . goat feta

grilled baby octopus . guanciale . wax beans . radish . favas. pistachio-lemon vinaigrette 

We also made our way to The Purple Pig, another small plate restaurant specializing in wines and, of course, pig products. Everything was tasty, but I think we were all a little pigged-out by the end of the night.

Pig jowl. It tasted pretty much like good, fancy bacon!

Towards the end of the week, there was a heavy downpour that left 7 inches of rain in one night. The next morning, it was still raining, and we couldn't walk a block without getting completely drenched. The weird part....it was still pretty warm outside.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the cool architecture, but I did remember to take this one from inside one of the financial buildings.

And, of course, I had to go into every local bakery that I cam across. This one was in the Lincoln Park area, Sweet Mandy B's. This is an example of my ideal second career....baking lots of yummy goodies, all day long :)

All in all, it was a good trip, but after a week away, it's nice to be back home. Now, back to the perks of home ownership...replacing the flooring throughout the entire house, fixing up the yard, finally moving into MY room (and off the mattress on the floor), and enjoying my last week of vacation before I head back to work. Summer vacation is never long enough....