Our Chicago trip

SO....Josh and I got to go away this weekend to chicago. We stayed with friends Justin and Mark. They both work at University of Chicago, Justin is an administrator and Mark is a Bio professor. They live in an amazing victorian that they are remodeling in Hydge Park, they live a few blocks from the Obama's. They neighborhood is awesome, so much pride and just good vibes. We had this amazing bread from a bakery called Medici's where the workers proudly sport shirts that says "Obama eats our bread"! Very cool!

So we took the train in on friday afternoon where mark greeted us at the platform with smiles and hugs, a quick walk to their house where we were welcomed with an amazing dinner. Justin grows and can's much of their food to ensure chemical free, we had homemade tomato soup which was divine, a great salad with pomigran. seeds, a cheesey noodle cassarole with sun dried tomato's that was beyond amazing, green beans and red wine, it was fantastic. There home has this wonderful classic dining room that is lovely. For desert Mark made this great citrus pound cake with strawberries and sauce, to die for. We sat around, which led to me playing the piano and some great conversation, around 11:30 we all headed to bed since we had an amazing day planned for saturday.

SO saturday started out with another amazing meal, Mark and josh walked to the bakery and bought some "obama bread" which we ate with Homemade Peach Butter, Pear Butter and tomato jam, yes tomato jam, Justin Lived in South Africa for a while and it's quite popular, would never know it's tomato, tastes like apple butter really. Along with that we had a dill and feta fritata, SO GOOD. Then we hopped on the Metra and went downtown to Marshall fields, we got some chocolates from Godiva and looked around a bit, but way to busy for our taste. We checked out a few other stores down on State and then we walked, yes we WALKED all the way up michigan to the mag mile to go to the Apple Store where mark and I had appointments with the Genius Bar folks. We went to a bunch of stores.

Josh and I had a seat in the entry to linens and things and Marshalls while Justin and Mark finished their shopping. This gentleman (I'm being nice) comes up to josh and ask's to shine his shoe's, we tell him no thanks and he's like oh come on and what not, now josh hates confrontation, so I tell the guy we're not interested, Well he just bends down and squirts stuff on josh's shoe's, then bends down and starts saying "don't kick me in the face..." and proceeds to do his shoes, about 45 seconds on each shoe, I mean they were covered in goop. Then I stand up and say 'josh we're leaving' and this guy starts saying it's eight dollars a shoe and he wants a tip, over and over again, Mark and Justin come up the elevator and are like telling us to go and the guy won't leave us alone and he starts yelling it at us over and over again then 3 of these other shoe shine guys come in and surround us and are saying "come on big guy pay up gotta feed the family'' I tell them we don't have any money, all josh has on him is 20's and 50's, so he pulls out a 20 and the guy grabs it and runs, I was so angry, I wish he would have let me handle it, I don't care about confrontation with people like that. Oh well

So then we went out for Persian food at Reza's, It was amazing, we all loved it! We did some more shopping, grabbed a cab and went back to the house, it was COLD!! Then we walked up to the Local bakery around 5ish bought some bread to take home with us. Then we went to a few local shops in Hyde Park, found an awesome free trade place! We found a small Italian deli that had Cannoli's and Teramisu, SO GOOD. I got cannoli's to take home and Mark bought 4 Teremisu's to take home for desert. So we went back the house for a rest and then we headed out for some Deep Dish Pizza at Edwardo's SO SO GOOD!! Then home for good times with friends.

We got up early this morning and caught the train back to SOuth Bend, about 3 min after we left 57th st the train broke down so we sat on the tracks for 2 hours untill the brought us another train, when we got into south bend it was 40 below zero with the wind, our car doors wouldn't close because it was so cold, crazy. it took us 2 hours to make a 40 mile drive, and it was the last 15 miles that took 1.5 hours.

We Got home around 4 to our amazing babies who had been with our parents! I missed them SO SO SO SO much but needed the break, it was FANTASTIC.

I'm going to go enjoy a cannoli

Jos