The Gang Gets COVID - Part 3

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 cream and onion dip panna cotta in the middle, which was really fun!

I started with the Basil and Cleopatra, which came with a rosemary garnish - our server singed  it tableside

Chris' drink up top is the Last Kiss, which also had a fired component - his came with a stick of palo santo incense

We enjoyed two more drinks, the Beautiful and Damned for me and the At Your Age for Chris, and while we sipped, we luxuriated in the dimly lit, calming space.

That's a feather feature wall behind the table

The palo santo incense

The Beautiful and Damned - that's freeze dried manuka honey on the stick

Fortified with tasty sips, it was on to dinner next, at local institution Orso's.  After making reservations at the Girl and the Goat and Frontera Grill, I asked Chris what he'd like to eat for an "old school, authentic Chicago" meal, and he picked classic Italian.  Orso's more than fit the bill - it's been in business for 40 years and is one of the original restaurants in the Old Town area.  Although it couldn't be considered cutting edge or super fancy, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal, including a half carafe of their house chianti, calamari fritti, and homemade pastas (jalapeno gnocchi for Chris and fumigato for me).

The perspective is a bit odd here (BIG ARM tiny head), but check out the amazing tin ceiling and stained glass

It's been a minute since we've had good fried calamari -

neither Phoenix nor Lexington are well known for their old school Italian options

(although there are a few, if you know where to look)

We strolled the few blocks back to our hotel, stopping by the hotel bar (Cal's at Claridge House) for a nightcap (I'm happy to report my bourbon and ginger ale was much better than my dark and stormy the night before) before retiring to bed.

Saturday morning dawned, and although we slept better than the night before, we were still pretty tuckered; additionally, while Chris was starting to move in the right direction, head cold-wise, I was on my way down the slope.  It was time to go home, for sure, and we're glad we made the decision to do so.  Before heading out, we grabbed caffeine and breakfast sammies downstairs at Cal's (a bar AND breakfast spot?  Count me in!) and ate them outside, in our hotel's sidewalk cafe.

Pretty darn good!

We're early birds anyway (obviously) and since we were still working on EDT while we were in the CDT zone, we were up and on the road by around 8:30 or so.  We drove around Lake Michigan on the expressway, which was a great toll road, and before we knew it, we were back in Indiana, visiting a really neat rest area.

Give me an "I!"  Look at the cool building in the back of the shot.

Some of the decor inside the rest area building

Our next stop was once again in Indianapolis for lunch (it really is almost exactly halfway between Chicago and home, and it has so many good food options)!  Instead of hitting up the meatery, this time we voted for the Garage Food Hall; it's one of those huge spaces that are so popular now where multiple vendors set up storefronts with all sorts of different food options.  I mean, really, it's just a mall food court from back in the day, but it is a darn good one.  Although I'd been stealing some of Chris' cold and sinus meds, I was rapidly declining in feeling great, so I voted for a chicken ramen option from Lil' Dumplings Noodle Bar; for his part, Chris chose a salmon bowl from Poke Guru, and both of our meal options were great once again (we ate so well on this trip, it was unreal).

Still smiling, even though we're not feeling amazing

Before hopping back in the car, we hit up Lick Ice Cream for some cookies to go, and we also stopped by Herculean Meal Prep to grab some healthy frozen options to heat up for dinner at home (we're normally craving something healthier after a trip like this, and we haven't found that Pita Jungle-type spot in Richmond yet).  On our way out of Indy, we also stopped at Kroger for generic Nyquil and cough drops - we were well supplied!  The rest of the drive home was relatively uneventful until about 20 minutes from home; just south of Lexington, we came to a screeching halt while fire trucks and ambulances helped clean up a wreck, likely caused by the stormy weather blowing in.  Eventually, we made it home around 4, and I started unpacking (and doing laundry!  Always laundry!) while Chris went to pick up the doggos.  

Instead of going south on the 65 from Indy to Louisville, then taking the 64 east to Lex (the way we went to Chicago),

we opted to take the 74 southeast to Cincinnati, before hopping on the 75 south to home.

It's an equal distance, and it helped us miss the road construction on the 64 that's been a pain lately.

We hope everyone was okay!

Before too long, the whole family was back together, relaxing and watching tv.  

Zoe, keeping a (sleepy) eye on things in the kitchen

Bea, not so much

Over the next few days, Chris progressively felt better as I moved in the opposite direction.  Thankfully, it was a long weekend, and we rested and recovered at home, but I still had to call in sick to work on Tuesday.  Since I hadn't shown signs of improvement yet, I booked a doctor's appointment, and while there, I tested positive for COVID.  Mask firmly in place, I stopped at our CVS for the essentials (generic Mucinex cold and cough, a COVID test for Chris, and candy corn - what?), then headed home to go back to bed for the rest of the day.  Chris tested himself, and while his results were negative, we're pretty sure he also had the virus earlier that weekend, given his previous symptoms and my progression.  As I write this, a week after testing positive, we're both feeling much better, and we're back to most of our normal activities.  We're so lucky that we've been vaccinated, as our COVID experience was much milder than it could have been - while we had a few body aches and pains, and we were definitely fatigued, we never had respiratory concerns or fever like some folks do.  We feel pretty guilty about taking it to Chicago with us, though; we both wish we would have tested Chris earlier, and while we would have missed the trip, we could have at least stopped spreading it further.  We sincerely hope no one was severely hurt by our actions, misguided as they may have been; hopefully, enough folks have been vaccinated and/or had COVID by this point that it's entered the realm of being like a seasonal illness of sorts.

As penance, here's an amazing shot of the girls and I, all sacked out on the couch while the F1 race rages on in the background:

Sawing some serious ZZZZ's over here

This child was pretty much my shadow while I wasn't feeling well

Later!

Amy