Pining for the Fjords

Don't miss Part 2 ! Enjoying food and drinks at Dearly Beloved in Chicago In the last blog, we'd just awoken from a well deserved nap in our hotel in Chicago on a Friday afternoon, and it was time to get gussied up and head out on the town for the evening! Our first stop for the night was a nearby cocktail restaurant, Dearly Beloved.  In preparing this trip, I'd run across a list of great cocktail spots, and when I found out that they 1) were less than a mile from our hotel and 2) had an incredible happy hour where most of their fancy cocktails were HALF off, I made us a reservation ASAP.  When we arrived at 5pm, there were plenty of open tables, so we grabbed one in the darker, moodier side, away from the noise at the bar itself.  Our server was a delight, and the drinks were amazing; while we didn't want to eat too much, since we had dinner reservations later, we did try their "chips and dip" appetizer, pictured above, which was also great - it had a sour c...

Did you read Part 1 ? Outside the Frederick C. Robie house When last we blogged, we woke up on a wet Friday morning in Chicago and headed to the University of Chicago campus, south of downtown.  As is our norm, we were early, but it was finally time to start our tour of the incredible Robie House, designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright!  After returning our audio guides to the gift shop, we met our docent outside in the courtyard of the house; the gift shop occupies what used to be the family's attached garage, which was one of the first ever - Wright was a trendsetter in more ways than one, that's for sure.  We ventured into the home through the bottom of three floors, which served as the family's private, non guest quarters; accordingly, this floor was far less ornamented than the main floor, which we'd see a bit later. Standing in the courtyard, looking up at the second level Our guide noted that the vertical mortar between many of the bricks is colored red ...

As you've likely seen in previous blog posts , Chris and I have been enjoying our time here in the Bluegrass area of Kentucky.  We've explored many different areas of nearby Lexington (often courtesy of some lovely friends we've made there), and we've hit up several surrounding distilleries, arts and crafts fairs, and local restaurants.  For the long Labor Day weekend, we decided to take a few days off from work and head even farther afield - to the Windy City - Chicago, IL! Sears Tower selfie! We found a Travelzoo deal and booked a room at Claridge House , a smaller hotel in the Gold Coast area of the city; we'd be within walking distance of many things (within a mile of Lincoln Park and the Lake), a short train ride/bus away from several others, plus, since it was only a six hour drive, we'd have the car for longer excursions as well.  The kids had reservations at their boarding spot, and we packed and prepared as our Thursday departure date drew closer.  Unf...