Christmas In Chicago
An advantage of being in the Midwest is that we are in a nice central point to be able to get to a lot of different places in a day’s drive. Being no stranger to long days in the car, we decided to hop in the car and head to Chicago to see my friend Mallory and her family. Billy has never been to Chicago, while Amity has temporarily lived there. We are both excited for some time in the big city!
Mile - 3244
Quote of the Blog - “It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago. She outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.” - Mark Twain
Song of the Blog - Scorpions, “Big City Nights”
We arrived just in time to hop in an Uber with Mallory and her mom Jacque, and make our way to the Chicago Blackhawks game. As it turned out, the Blackhawks were playing the Winnipeg Jets. Who just so happen to be the best team in the league and the Blackhawks happen to be lingering around the bottom of the standings. It was an easy win for the Jets, but tons of fun. It is always good time to go to a Blackhawks game win or lose.
The next day we woke up and started exploring downtown Chicago with Mallory as our trusty tour guide. Chicago is such a festive city during the holidays, so it was fun to just walk and look at all of the holiday displays. We did a little browsing in stores and made our way to a delicious spot for French style brunch. We ate at the Pierrot Gourmet. We scored a spot right away in a super busy restaurant. Don’t know how or why this happened, but no one was complaining. We didn’t save room for dessert, but those looked amazing and now we have a reason to go back.
Doing our best urban hiking, we then made our way to explore The Art Institute of Chicago. We were able to admire works from Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Dali, Warhol and the list goes on and on. Our feet were tired by the time we made it through just a parcel of the museum. One of our favorite exhibits was the Thorne Miniature rooms. Each piece was an elaborately decorated room from European and American interiors from the late 13th century to the 1940s, all built on a scale of 1 inch to 1 foot. You could definitely let your imagination run wild with images of people from those time periods in those tiny spaces. We were all suffering from museum fatigue and needed a change of scenery, so we headed to the Macy’s Christmas tree. This was a must-see recommendation from Jacque and it did not disappoint. We were now in full holiday spirit and capped of our day-time adventures with a trip to a holiday pop-up bar called the Nutcracker Pop-Up Bar. The drinks, the lights, life sized nutcrackers and the music…well it was all simply magical!
The evening was just beginning though, as we rushed home to get ready for an evening of delicious food and comedy. We ate at a delicious Italian restaurant called, Gussie’s Hand Made Italian, where the bread basket was the main event. Seriously though, it was a bread loaf that was cut from the top and stuffed with some type of crème friache/garlic mixture. It was so good we don’t even need to mention how good the food was, which was also bomb! We then made our way to Second City for live comedy and improv. They were very talented and so incredibly funny, though it was late and required many cups of coffee to stay awake after this very event-filled day!
On Sunday we woke up and went to Hank’s (Mallory’s dad) favorite neighborhood diner called, The Cozy Corner Restaurant & Pancake House. Our table was too small to hold all of the food that they give you. We were plenty fueled to embark on another day of Chicago’s urban adventuring. We started the day by headed to Wrigley Field for the “Winterland at Gallagher Way”. It was pretty awesome to be able to walk around on outfield grass in Wrigley Stadium in a winter wonderland, while drinking spiked cider! We definitely want to make it back to Wrigley in the summer to catch a Cubs game. We then spent the rest of the afternoon with just the two of us adventuring around Wrigleyville. We stopped at one of my dad’s favorite pubs in Chicago, Murphy’s Bleachers, to watch the beginning of the Chiefs game. We watched the end of the game at another bar called Old Crow Smokehouse that had been decorated in a full Grinch theme. Then it was off to Mallory’s parents for Lou Malnati’s Chicago style pizza to cap off another amazing day in Chicago. I seriously love their pizza and we occasionally get it shipped to us, but it is not quite the same as getting the real deal in Chicago!
On Monday we packed up and began our trek back to MO, but not before stopping to get breakfast a cute little restaurant called, A Taste of Heaven, before we left Chicago. If you know me, you know that I love going out for breakfast. I love those morning conversations with a warm cup of coffee in my hands. I love breakfast food and that there are no bad choices. And I especially love breakfast in a big city, where you can observe different cultures and the hustle and bustle of life passing you by. I have always loved Chicago, but this trip was especially fun to be able to share the experience with Billy! Thanks to Mallory, Jacque, Hank and Ziggy for the hospitality (that charcuterie board was bomb), laughs and fun! We are already looking forward to a summer Chicago adventure in our future!