The Wife and I drove up to Chicago last Friday (Good Friday, that is). We had a very enjoyable time, as we usually do there. Even though we spent only one night (at the Hyatt), we did everything we wanted to - see the Jackie Kennedy exhibit at the Field Museum and eat at a great place for dinner. The best thing about being there was no children. Now, we love our children dearly, of course, but it's always nice to get a break and do some adult things (no, not dirrty things - get yo' mind out the gutta) once in a while. Grammy and Grampy (The Wife's mom and step-dad) were watching the girls, so we knew we'd have fun - and a chance to sleep in.
We got there around 3:00 PM on Friday. We had planned to visit the Field Museum when we arrived but it was only going to be open for another two hours, so we decided to check into the hotel and relax for a bit. I had made dinner reservations for 9:15 at Frontera Grill, so we had plenty of time. However, we were hungry so we thought we'd try to get dinner earlier. We took a taxi to the Mag Mile and shopped around for a bit - The Wife bought some stuff for The Sweet at the American Girl store, and we looked around (but bought nothing) at Crate and Barrel. At 7:30, we were starving so we went to the restaurant and sat at a table in the bar area. We had an incredible meal there - the best Mexican food I've ever had! The guacamole was incredibly fresh. I had my first taste of seviche and loved it - The Wife loved it not so much. We had flan and a dark chocolate cake with blood-orange ice cream for dessert.
We slept in on Saturday - don't remember when we got up but it wasn't early, that's for sure. We checked out of the Hyatt at noon and took a cab to Bloomingdale's Home. We walked around Marshall Field's for a bit while we munched on Garrett's popcorn (the best caramel corn in the world - Oprah thinks so, so you know it's true). I nearly got mugged by this homeless guy when I used the ATM. We bought some Frango mints and looked up at the ceiling done by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
We arrived at the Field Museum just after 2:30 pm. We made it into the exhibit but it was quite crowded. The exhibit is basically Jackie's dresses. What's nice about it is that the dresses are displayed with pictures of Jackie in the dress and a text with info about the dress. Looking at the dresses, you realize how slender Jackie was. Do I really need to say that The Wife enjoyed the exhibit much more than I did? There were a lot more women than men going through the exhibit. I can't say that I became bored exactly, but a straight man can only look at so many dresses before getting tired of it all. We spent two hours (yep, two) in the exhibit, so the museum was only open for 30 more minutes when we came out. I have to be honest and say that the Field Museum is my least favorite of the major museums there - the exhibit on Sue the dinosaur is the only thing worth seeing.
We bought some Giordano's pizza on the way out of town. If you're wanting deep-dish pizza in Chicago, look no further than Giordanno's. We bought one of those partially baked pizzas which you can bake at home. Just as delicious, I must say ....
