that’s whacked

give thanks for…. turducken?

Tuesday, Dec 2. 2003  –  Category: Food, Musings, Travel

wendy and i flew out to Chicago to visit erik and spend a vacation weekend relaxing. photo gallery is here

i got in tuesday night, passed out after watching the England-Australia rugby match, and the Arsenal football match. had an awesome prime rib sandwich for lunch at Lawry’s and then we made our way over to Rock Bottom to play 11-up and drink beer while waiting for Wendy to get in. we then spent the next 2 and a half hours driving to the airport, picking up wendy, and driving back. fun fun chicago thanksgiving traffic. dinner that night at CPOG was great though, if not a little too cheesy. erik also drove us out so we could see the Chicago night skyline. wendy and i then went to the Signature Lounge at the John Hancock building for wine, dessert, and some night-time viewing.

wendy and i spent most of thursday just walking around the city’s Michigan Ave. shopping area (most stores were closed obviously). we shivered, drank Starbucks and just walked. that night Erik had a bunch of friends over for Thanksgiving, and we ate “Turducken” (chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey, with jambalaya stuffing to boot, and all deboned). we also spent a lot of time playing with their new pug George.

friday we dove into the madness that is post-Thanksgiving shopping on Michigan Avenue. utter madness. i can’t believe how many people were out shopping. we checked into the W Chicago hotel that afternoon, and then headed out for dinner at the Chicago Chophouse where i had an enormous 20oz bone-in New York strip steak. i saved the bone for George who made short work of it and stripped it even more over the next two days. wendy and i then went to the Lyric Opera to watch Faust. it was surpsingly good and not sleepy and boring like i feared it might be. wendy only slept for 5-10 minutes of it. we grabbed a “dessert” of oysters and wine at Bin 36.

saturday was more shopping/walking/sight-seeing, this time with dinner at Bin 36 again. it’s strange, it’s a snooty wine restaurant without all the snootiness of a wine restaurant. had some great lamb, and some really good wines. oooh, and the creme bruleee…. damn that was good.

sunday was our last day. we slept in hella late (left the hotel at 1pm!), went to the Field Museum where we saw some really cool exhibits, including Sue the largest/most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world. had dinner at Sushi Samba, a Brazillian sushi restaurant, and then endured the flight back to SFO.

i think i’m still stuffed from all the great food i had in chicago.