Author: Melanie

(I am digging that alliteration!)

Cooking is like love: It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
— Harriet Van Horne

1. trying new recipes

2. a friendly game of softball with co-workers (and Team A (my team) won – of course, because the A stands for awesome!)

3. the familiar ache in your muscles the day after you lift weights

What are you happy about this week?

I had a total 36-hour love affair with Chicago.  It started with our hotel, the Raffaello, where we got a great last-minute rate on hotels.com, especially considering how close it is to Michigan Avenue.  It was very European (fairly small lobby, very small elevators), but we had a beautiful room with a flat screen tv and DVD player.  My favorite part was the bathroom: it had one of those rain shower heads, where the water falls directly down on top of you; there was no tub, only a shower, and only half a glass door – part of the shower (the part away from the showerhead) was completely open to the rest of the bathroom; and it had a bowl sink, one of those that sits up on the counter.  Perfect.

Since we arrived close to 1 am, we slept in a bit on Monday before heading over to Michigan Avenue to see the sights and head down to Navy Pier.  It was a gorgeous day, and it wasn’t too long until we came across people engaged in what has to be one of the top-ten jobs I don’t want:

Skyscraper window-washing.  NO. WAY.

We hung a left to head toward Navy Pier.  The first time and only time prior to this that I had been in Chicago was 10 years ago, when the amusement park I worked for was going to open a Bubba Gump’s in the park.  They sent me and my boss to the Bubba Gump’s in Navy Pier for training, since I would be managing the restaurant.  Here it is:

Navy Pier is pretty touristy, but I wanted to ride the giant Ferris wheel, because I like being touristy, so we pressed on.  Before we got to the Ferris wheel, though, we passed several outfits offering boat tours and decided that would be a great way to see the city.  We opted for the SeaDog Architectural Tour that would take us down the Chicago River through the city and tell us about some of the buildings we’d see, and it included a “speedboat portion” out on Lake Michigan at the end.  It was totally worth it – we learned all about the big buildings, many of which are quite iconic, and our tour guide was very funny (and punny, too!).  There are too many pictures to share here, but you can check out my Chicago album on Flikr if you like.  Here’s a couple of my favorites:

By the time we got back, it was lunchtime, so we set off in search of some authentic deep-dish pizza.  We eschewed Uno’s in favor of Gino’s East which I had seen on our drive in the night before, and after consulting the GPS on David’s BlackBerry, we made it there without any trouble.  It takes a looooong time to cook deep-dish, so we had an appetizer while we waited and I wrote “Melanie loves David” amidst all the (management-sanctioned) graffiti on the walls.  The pizza was DEFinitely worth the wait – it was SO good and really hit the spot.

We had hoped to hit Millennium Park, but lunch took longer than we thought, so we just took a short walk back to the hotel to rest a bit before the game.  David, who seems to know how to everywhere no matter where we are, led us to the El, where we hopped a train to Wrigley Field.  I was SO excited – it’s one of the stadiums I’ve really wanted to go to (when I was in Chicago before, the Cubs were out of town, so we saw the White Sox and what was then Comiskey Park).  I had to get the iconic shot, of course:

Then we headed inside.  I really loved this stadium.  Everyone was so friendly, and although it was packed (Cubs fans are die-hard, you know), it didn’t feel busy – the lines for concessions and bathrooms were not long at all.  The only sad part was no Dippin’ Dots.  David and I get Dippin’ Dots at every baseball game we go to, and Wrigley was the first we’ve encountered that didn’t have them.  Oh well.

(David is not betraying his Tigers – he buys a hat of the home team at every stadium he goes to.  He even has a Yankees cap.  Boo.)

Oh, if you don’t follow baseball, you might not know that a seat at Wrigley Field can be a tough get.  Some enterprising homeowners have made it a little easier:

That’s rooftop seating on Waveland Avenue, which runs behind left field. Clever, huh?  There’s also a bunch behind right field.

Ok, maybe the best thing about Wrigley Field, for me, was the rediscovery of something I first saw (and haven’t seen since) at Comiskey Park 10 years ago:

It’s onion grinder for your hot dog!  Fresh onion! Right there in Wrigley!  David thinks I’m silly, but I dig this so much!

Unfortunately, the Cubbies went down to the Astros, but a good time was definitely had by all.

We took the El back, but intentionally switched trains to ride a little longer and see what we could see before heading back to the hotel.  We pretty much collapsed into (the awesome, comfortable) bed when we got back, so that’s really all there is to tell for now!

Day 5 is heading back to Detroit and the Tigers game, and Day 6 has us crossing the border into Canada on our way to Buffalo, so check back later this week to continue our journey!

Oh! ‘darkly, deeply, beautifully blue’
As someone somewhere sings about the sky
— Lord Byron

It’s a supersized edition to make up for last week!  Here’s what I’ve got:

1. this very recent picture of the Princess (probably my favorite that I’ve ever taken of her):

2. the (truly) vintage wedding dress my cousin wore for her wedding last weekend – sleek, simple, and gorgeous, and handed down from our moms’ cousin

3. that my mom’s side of the family loved David and that he was included in all our family pictures at the wedding

4. a 10-day road trip with someone you don’t mind spending 10 days in a car with

5. this building on the Chicago River, where I have decided I want to live:

6. seeing three baseball games at three different major league baseball stadiums in three different cities in four days

What are you happy about this week (or what were you happy about last week?)?

One day, Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Chesire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered.  “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”
— from Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

Where to begin?  I can’t even keep track of all the great stuff we did and saw.

We left for Detroit on Friday morning and arrived somewhere around 6pm.  On the way, somewhere in Ohio, we passed the Happy Hooker Bait Shop, which made me giggle for about a mile.  We also stopped at a place we discovered on the way home from Detroit at Christmas: Beef Jerky Unlimited.  And it’s just what it sounds like: barrels and barrels of all types and flavors of jerky, though not just beef – they have pork and turkey jerky (hee) too.  Here’s a picture from Christmas:

The sign on the door prohibited pictures, so I can’t show you the awesomeness inside.  I did take a picture of the sign, though.

Friday night, we went bowling with David’s best friend from home.  Despite my fancy purple bowling shoes, I only broke 100 once in three games.  But at least there was beer.

On Saturday, we went to The Henry Ford.  We only had enough time to tour the museum, but they have some great stuff.  Unfortunately, the pictures are on David’s computer at the moment, so I can’t show you the museum-worthy Ford Taurus.  Maybe later.  The best part of the whole museum, though, is the Dymaxion House.  I want one of these round, aluminum houses so much.  Sadly, Mr. Fuller’s financing fell through and only one of them was ever actually built.  The Graham family lived in the house, but they built around it so it looked like this.  They eventually donated it to The Henry Ford Museum, and my dreams of living in it are forever dashed.  Boo.

Saturday night we headed to Dave & Busters with David’s friends for some fun games.  I had never played table shuffleboard (or whatever it’s called) before, but it was fun.  Must put that on the list of things to have in the game room of our fantasy house.  David kicked my butt in air hockey, despite my best trash talk.  We amassed somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 tickets that night, but we opted not to cash any in – they didn’t have anything good in the prize room.

Sunday we had a birthday lunch for David with his dad’s family, which was lovely.  After, we played some games with his brother and step-mom, including Clue, which I haven’t played in ages.  David won 3 out of 4 games.  I won zero. Awesome.

We had always talked about getting out of town, at least overnight, during our stay in Detroit, but we hadn’t decided where to go.  Around dinner time, we started discussing it in earnest, and tossed out Toronto (we knew there was more we wanted to do there than our brief trip from Buffalo would allow), Grand Rapids, Traverse City, and “Up North.”  We had considered Chicago before we left on the trip and dismissed it because David said the Cubs were out of town.  Well, we double checked Sunday evening, and he had been wrong.  We saw that we were able to get tickets, which meant I could fulfill #64 on the list (go to three Major League ballparks I’ve never been to) in this one trip, and that sealed the deal.  We quickly booked a hotel and packed a bag, and left for Chicago at 8pm, and arrived around 1am Monday morning.  That’s the most spontaneous trip I’ve ever been on in my life, and it was so fun!

And I’ll tell you all about it next time!

Young men should travel, if but to amuse themselves.
— Byron

Lots to show and tell, but no energy to do it right now.  In lieu of an actual story-telling post, I give you the following pictures:

And I’m sorry I missed posting Three Things last week; we were out and about in Toronto and time got away from me.  I promise a double shot this week, though!