L and R's adventures in SF

Yesterday was our final day in Chicago. It was a blistering 90 degrees with a bit of humidity, definitely shorts weather which is a nice change from the chilly wind and rain we got the first two days. After admiring the view from Kelly and Kris’ fabulous rooftoop, we took a quick 10-minute walk to the beach (very convienent!) It seemed like all of Chicago was out enjoying the sun!

After the beach, we went to visit my good friend Beth and her adorable children. We had the most amazing cupcakes - Peach Cobbler and Blueberry cheesecake. In a word- Yum! 

To end the day, and as our final meal in Chicago, we went for some classic deep dish Chicago style pizza at Giordonno’s. It was quite delicious! Another great night in Chicago and a great trip all around. Thanks to all our friends who came out to see us in Chicago, and thanks to Kelly and Kris for hosting us. You guys rock!

Our second and third days in Chicago have been marked by two distinct activites: dodgeing the pouring rain and eating everything we can find.

On Saturday our hosts (Chi-town’s Finest) went with us on a trek to the Silver Palm Diner for the sandwich that Anthony Bourdain called the “Best sandwich in America”… the Three Little Pigs.

That’s bacon, ham, a fried pork chop, gruyere cheese, and a fried egg sandwiched between a brioche bun. Here’s the cross section so you can really see what’s going on with this thing.

All four of us agreed on two points:

1. This sandwich was really, really good.
2. After eating one of these you don’t want to eat another one for a long time.

On Sunday the girls decided to dodge the rain by going shopping, while Kris and I decided to instead eat some more, which lead us on a cross-town hot dog adventure to Franks ‘n’ Dawgs. I got the classic Franks ‘n’ Beans Dog a quarter pound of beef covered in gourmet baked beans, and we also had a side of the Truffle fries. Delicious!

Since shopping takes a lot longer than hot dog eating we had some time to kill before meeting up with the girls, so we saw Fast Five, quite a good movie. After that we met up with Laura and Kelly who were close by and it was time to, you guessed it, eat again! So we swang by Garrett for some gourmet popcorn:

As some of you know I really like popcorn and this was some good stuff so we got the jumbo size! After a quick stop at home to change, it was off to our next meal at southern comfort. A fancy Mac and Cheese appetizer, the crab cakes, and shrimp and grits, quite tasty. They also make some pretty decent mixed drinks.

After dinner we made a quick stop at Piccolo Sogno for desert and we were off to bed. Gotta get some rest, it’s supposed to be sunny and 90 degrees tomorrow so stay tuned for some fun in the sun.

 

 

We’ve been here in the Windy City for a little over 24 hours now and while we’ve only checked a couple of things off of our “to do in Chicago” list, we still had an awesome day. It included a morning workout, then a fantastic bruch, followed by a walk around the giant mirrored bean, then a wonderful massage, a fabulous dinner and a fun time playing some games at Dave and Busters. It’s hard to believe we did all that and we still have four days left here!

And somehow in the midst of all the action Laura somehow even managed to score another stuffed animal. I think it might have had a little bit to do with her skills at the Dave and Busters basketball game. (And a lot bit to do with our friends Rene and Karen giving us a bunch of their tickets, thanks guys!)

 

A couple weeks ago was our six-month anniversary. Rome surprised me with a digital picture frame already loaded up with pictures. Six months sure flies when you’re having fun! Excited to fill up my frame with many more pictures as our adventures continue :)

You’d think as people who aren’t huge fans of eating bread a place named “Toast” would be one of the last places you’d find us. But actually it’s starting to become one of our favorite neighborhood hangouts. We ended up there twice in the past couple of weeks. The make pretty good omelets.

But I’m still steering clear of the bread.

This past weekend, in addition to Easter, Laura and I went on an awesome getaway vacation to San Francisco. It was surprising how much it felt like a vacation, taking in the sights of this great city, wandering around North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf, and getting a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli square. We also visited a couple of spots that have great views, but are off the beaten path so tourists usually miss out. So here you go - our vacation slideshow:

And the best part of vacation in your own town… at the end of a long day, home is just a short walk away. (Hey that rhymed!)

Right after waking up this morning, Rome greeeted me with a huge grin and told me to look in the bathroom and see if there was something different. Still groggy and half-asleep, I went in and said I didn’t notice anything new…had he cleaned? I looked some more, and finally he pointed out the top shelf. Hiding in the back was an easter egg filled with chocolate!  He had gotten up at 6am to hide easter eggs all around the apartment. After finding 17 of the 18 eggs (the last one is still somewhere to be found), we opened the eggs and ate mini Cadburry cream eggs, Kit Kats, Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, and chocolate eggs. Best apartment easter egg hunt ever. Thanks for the sweet surprise! :)

Last weekend was action packed. We went to Benihana, saw Source Code, and went to a bowling b-day party (Happy birthday Jwolk!) We also went to the cherry blossom festival in Japantown with Denise. We watched Taiko drumming, ate spam musubi and fabublous teriyaki burgers, and Rome even scored some free Verizon sunglasses.

Later that night, Rome completed his look with a Mai Tai at Joanna & Andy’s amazing Thai dinner party. Is my boyfriend cool, or what? :-)

Time for the “end of the snowboarding season” car wash. Laura showed me a different place than I normally go, despite my skepticism, it turned out to be pretty decent. There’s nothing like a good old-fashioned car wash. Now some people might argue that there is nothing “old fashionend” about having a robot tunnel automatically clean a gas-electric hybrid car, but to those people I say, it’s 2011. It became the future in 2005, so now all kinds of technology is old fashioned. If you think that’s crazy, just wait four more years till 2015 when, according to “Back to the Future II”, we’ll all have flying cars!

Last weekend we went down to Anaheim, and on Friday we visited Disneyland!

Then on Saturday, we went to Jenny and Francis’ wedding. It was lots of fun and I got to catch up with a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in a long time. Congrats again to the two of you!

And on Sunday we headed back, good times!

 

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, we did pick something up while we were at Disney, this little guy:

His name is Rufio. (I think Laura was inspired by the Peter Pan ride.) He now has a happy home with the pillows on my couch.