Chicago Style Jumbo Hot Dog Post

This past weekend, my mom and I traveled to Chicago to visit my cousin and her husband as well as their awesome roommate/friend, Roi. This was my second visit to the windy city and my moms first.  Last time when Holland and I visited it was COLD. December/ January COLD! It was a nice change up to switch from scarves and mittens to flip flops and shorts and enjoy the warm BUT tolerating heat.

Here are some of my favorite things caught on camera!

Mindy Racer

Our first morning in town, Roi showed us around Andersonville and we looked at little shops and had bagels for breakfast! They had doggie bagels for sale so we had to get some for the Chicago Wieners! 

Paxton Racer

Okay so this photo is a lithe blurry and I blame the waiter. He was having a tough night because he was pretty much working the bar.restaurant on his own but he lightened up by the time our deep dish pizza came out and so he took a nice blurry picture of us. I was afraid to ask him again so this will have to do!! You cannot go to Chicago and not get a deep dish pizza. It is some form of a tradition and it was delicious.

The Leftovers!

After dinner, the girls went to the ice-cream shop! It was called Lickety Split. I think that is the best name for an ice-cream/candy shop!! PP and I shared a vanilla custard mixed with a chocolate cupcake and sprinkles and my mom got a vanilla shake along with candy from her childhood!

So this bean is one of my favorite things about Chicago. I LOOVE taking pictures in it. I laugh a little but inside because I know I am in a ton of others peoples pictures. No matter how far away you stand you will always be in the picture. It is fun. 

We recreated our last bean pose from our Winter Visit. 

December 2012

July 2012

The bean is located in Millenium Park downtown. We walked around and watched kids play in water like gold was streaming from the fountains, we walked across bridges and laid in the grass at the amphitheater.

LOVED THIS. This was obviously not in session in the winter. 

 My cousins Husband, Billy is taking classes at Second City. This is a famous acting school where SNL stars like Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Steve Carrell went before being discovered!! We went and saw One Nation Under 1% and it was HILARIOUS. It is a clearly a political show, which you would think would get heated quickly but everyone was laughing (and crying) pretty much for the entire two hours. I am amazed by the actors and their ability to think on their feet with improv. It is amazing to watch such talented people on a stage perform and have fun interacting with an audience of strangers. I gave Billy a two year deadline to get on that stage :).

****This is the point in the trip where I came pretty close to acquiring diabetes****

After the show we went and ate at one of my favorite places, PORTILLOS!!!! They have the best hot dogs.  I got one that had mustard, hot peppers, tomatoes, a pickle spear and I am sure some other things as well. We also had chili dogs and a cake shake. What is a cake shake you might ask. Well, a cake shake is a chocolate based ice-cream shake with a slice of chocolate cake mixed into it. Yes, it tasted like you are drinking a cake through a straw, frosting and ALL! PP and I shared it, there is no way I could ever finish one on my own. 

After gorging my stomach with dinner we went to their friends house to celebrate a birthday and look at a beautiful bar that Roi built.  We got to meet PP, Billy and Roi's friends that they work with and that was fun. It made me happy that they have such great friendships here. PP told me about one of their friends named Kevin. She said she always thinks of me when she is around him because he is really hyper. She also added that he is really tall so I came to the conclusion that this could be my future son given my energy and Hollands height. HE WAS REALLY TALL. 

On our last morning, we went and had brunch at Ann Sathers. 

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! BEST DANG CINNAMON ROLL IN THE ENTIRE WOOOOOOORLD! I wish I could say this was the only part of my breakfast. Yup, just this and a cup of coffee....HECK NO, I was in Chicago! Scroll down for the rest. 

I was totally unable to finish it all. 

We spent the last hours of our afternoon in BoysTown. I LOVED IT. How can you not love a city that has a GayMart?

It is really strange and weird to think I have only spent around a total of seven days with my cousin this entire year.  Especially because if we lived in the same city I am pretty sure we would spent at least one or two days a week together. However, I see how happy she is here in Chicago.  She jumps on trains and buses like she has been doing it her entire life.  We make the most of the time when we are together  . We may be separated by thousand of miles but we are only a 2 hour plane trip apart. 

It was nice to come home to these sweet faces. 

Hannah and her toy I got her from the trip. 

Bleu got a new red leash for his souvenir! Doesn't he look like he is smiling?! I think he missed me :)

I have three more weeks until I have to report back to school for inservice. Get ready to see all my Pinterest class for my classroom in the next few posts. Have a great week everyone!