I know I promised you some California adventures, but we filmed this footage before we left for our trip, so it only makes sense to present things in order right?
Our friend Grace was visiting Chicago from New York for a wedding and was staying with us in the suburbs. But at the same time, our brother-in-law Dan (my sister’s hubby), flew in for the weekend from California for a business conference. So he got to stay in a nice fancy hotel in the city. We just thought it was a great opportunity to meet up with both of them and explore Chicago.
Grace is my sister’s close friend since birth! She stood in my sister’s wedding and has known Dan for years, so it totally made sense to hang out all together, which made things convenient and more fun.
It’s always so nice to see people we have history with, especially in our new home. Truth be told, Joe and I didn’t get a chance to discover Chicago too much on our own before they came to visit, so it was great to just be able to walk around and be tourists ourselves.
We got to eat at places I’ve never been to, such as Walker Bros. Original Pancake House. There are several locations, but we chose the one in Glenview. Grace actually went to school in Chicago so she knows the area well. It was her recommendation to go here since it’s known to be a good homey breakfast/ brunch spot amongst the locals.
We ordered a variety of things, and everything was well seasoned and delicious. I ordered the Dutch Baby, and I was in love with the buttery taste and spongy texture.
But Grace and I agreed that we liked the Crab Benedict the best.
You can check out more of what we ate and what we did in our Weekend in Chicago vlog below:
We met up with Dan in his hotel and got to check out the scenic view of the city from his room. Then we hit the streets and checked out the beach. I think it’s awesome that you’re surrounded by gorgeous sky scraper buildings, and the next minute, your feet are in the sand.
And this was a hot topic of debate for a while, but we were there during the time when the Trump building finally decided to add the word “TRUMP” onto their exterior. A lot of Chicagoians were dead set against it because they thought it “ruined the aesthetic” of the city.
I didn’t realize it before, but most of the buildings don’t really have huge names on their exteriors, thus making the city look sleeker, more unified, and cleaner. I get that. But we were visiting right when they were in the midst of installing the name anyways.
For dinner, we took a look at Grace’s printed excel sheet of Chicago restaurants she put together, and headed over to The Purple Pig, located on the Magnificent Mile. They feature a lot of small plates, which makes it ideal to share and get a taste of everything.
Some of the interesting and tasty plates we nibbled on were the Black Cod with Artichokes & Beets…
…and something I wouldn’t have normally tried on my own, the Pig’s Ear with Crispy Kale & Fried Egg. It was crispy, crunchy, and surprisingly appetizing.
After dinner, we took a stroll to the “Bean” inside of Millennium Park.
That whole area is gorgeous and there’s lots to see. But we didn’t spend too much time there. We went back to Dan’s hotel room and watched the Stanley Cup Finals on TV!
Then around midnight, we got hungry again, so we acted like a bunch of college kids and went out for some late night munchies in the rain. It was Dan’s first time trying Italian Beef, and it was all of our first times at Al’s Beef.
I wasn’t in the mood to eat anything heavy, so I just took a bite of Joe’s sandwich. Joe said he liked it so much and it was different from other places he’s tried. In fact, that made us come up with the idea to shoot another vlog from there, which we’ll be posting some time later.
The next day, we went back into the city briefly just to pick up Dan and eat a quick lunch of Chicago deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s in Oak Park. Both Joe and I’ve been to Lou Malnati’s before, but we’ve never been to this location. It was pretty industrial and updated looking, which was a nice surprise, and a perfect way to end our time together.
It was great spending time together and seeing both Grace and Dan. We hope they visit again soon.
It feels nice to bring you a fun video because it’s been busy around here lately, which has made me pretty peep squeak silent these days. As you know, we’re working on our Bits & Pieces Season 1 e-cookbook, so that’s been taking up most of our time.
But I’ve been trying to edit more vlogs as “breaks” from our cookbook. So make sure you SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube vlog channel, Our Yooniverse
so you can be notified whenever we post more videos like this one. Thanks for watching!
