architecture + good food + lots of walking

^^Pardon the B&W photos. The shadows were horrendous.^^

^^Frank Lloyd Wright home!^^

Since my humanities class in mid-2010, I've had a fascination with Frank Lloyd Wright homes and have been dying to take a tour of one. After several failed attempts to schedule a tour of the FLW home in St. Louis, I had given up all hope of getting to see one anytime soon. 

Ben suggested that we use Memorial Day as an excuse to get out of town and go on an architecture tour, and he discovered that Chicago offered a 3 1/2 hour long bus tour that showcases the works of many well-known architects. We booked tickets and I mentally prepared myself to spend 3 1/2 hours looking at buildings. ;) Turns out that the tour was actually quite interesting and extremely informative. AND. A FLW home was one of the 4 stops on the tour! (If you've done the river/lake architecture tour and enjoyed it, try going on the extended bus tour!)

We were able to cram quite a bit into our short 36 hour long trip, and we ended up walked over 35,000 steps in the two days! Our feet we so sore by the time we got in the car to drive home.

What we did and how we felt about it:

ate at Taqueria El Asadero - meh

grabbed shakes at Margie's Candies - amazing!

took the Harry Potter quiz online to discover our houses/wands - amazing!

bus architecture tour - amazing!

watched the Memorial Day parade for a good 45 minutes - amazing!/meh at times

ate hotdogs & hamburgers at Portillo's - amazing!

grabbed a bag of Garrett mix popcorn - amazing!

walked along the lakefront - amazing!

walked through Millennium Park - amazing! (It was sooo hot at this point.)

checked out the Chicago Cultural Center - amazing!

did some shopping on Michigan Ave - amazing!

ate at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - amazing!

grabbed some gelato at Paciugo - meh

played Mario Party on the Wii U - amazing!

(Thanks to Mandie and Myk for letting us crash at their place/hang out with them. :))

girls' trip to Chicago.

A few weekends ago, Ben headed to a conference in downtown San Francisco. We had checked flights to see if it'd be feasible for me to tag along and quickly discovered that we'd basically have to sell our kidneys to make it happen. Instead of illegally auctioning off vital organs, I ended up taking the train up to Chicago ($54 roundtrip! What?!) the day after Ben left to meet my mom for a girls' weekend. It was a ridiculously fun, short, cold trip!

^^Eataly was a fun Italian market/restaurant/store to explore. My cousin (who now lives in Chicago) lived in Italy for 18 months and she showed us different foods around the store that she had eaten while living abroad. We picked up some pear & goat cheese stuffed pasta to make for Sunday dinner, and I discovered that, although not awful, goat cheese isn't my favorite. ;)^^

^^Days leading up to the trip, my weather app was telling me it was going to snow a decent amount and be frigid all weekend long. However, we lucked out with light snow and not too terribly freezing temperatures! Rain boots would have been nice though. :)^^ 

 ^^Post-church snack. I'd heard quite a bit about Garrett Popcorn, so we picked some up to try. The dark chocolate and caramel was to die for. (How cute is that house in the background?)^^

^^I'm a big fan of Impressionist art, but especially anything by van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir. While walking around, I came across the painting I've had as my laptop background for a while now and that was pretty fun!^^

^^Obligatory picture with "The Bean."^^

Food we tried that you should probably try, too: Garrett Popcorn, Cafe Iberico, The Purple Pig, Rosebud, Giordano's, Grand Lux Cafe (we went here twice for desserts!)

a trip to the orchard.

My cute parents came out to visit last weekend and one of the things to do on our list was head out to Eckert's to pick some apples. We lucked out with great weather on Saturday, which was fortunate since it rained all day Friday, and a bit on Sunday and Monday. The best part though about Eckert's was getting to munch on apples while we were out in the orchards, and let me tell you, those Suncrisp apples were to die for. They were delicious right off the tree, and they were delicious baked into an Apple Crisp! Between the four us, those 8 pounds of apples didn't last long. :)

See last year's peach picking trip to Eckert's here.

chicago.

"The Bean" in Millennium Park.  Love that couple in the background.  :)

The Tribune Tower has pieces of rocks from all over the U.S. and world on the outside of the building.  We each found the rock from our home state.

The Chicago River and Lake Michigan architecture river boat tour was hands down our favorite thing!  A little pricy, but so worth it.

Apparently there are pirates in Chicago...? :)

Fun.  That's what this trip was.  From being serenaded in the car by Ben for the last hour of the drive to Chicago, to sitting on a little bench at Navy Pier that overlooked the lake and sharing funnel cake, to laughing so hard at my cousin's joke while out and about that I had to stop walking to wipe away tears, it was just so enjoyable.  My favorite things we did/saw were: the boat architecture tour, "The Bean," walking around the Tribune Tower, the stained glass museum, trying new restaurants, and window shopping on The Magnificent Mile.

I think everyone should go visit Chicago at least once!

But make sure you take me with you. :)

peaches and tractors.

Years and years ago, we had a family get-together weekend at my grandparents' house/farm in Idaho.  We spent all of Saturday cleaning out old barns, fixing fences, doing yard work, riding the tractors, mowing the yard, painting the porch, weeding the garden, and picking fruit.

I don't remember how many plums we picked that day, but I sure remember how many we ate!  My goodness, some of us were so sick the next day.  ;)  When we made plans over the weekend with friends to go pick peaches (attempt number two!), my 10-year old self remembered just how sick you can get from too much fruit.  Needless to say, I only ate one peach while out picking.  We did, however, seem to accumulate 10 lbs. of peaches throughout the evening.  Anyone want some peaches??

There's something so alluring about tractor rides through the orchards and picking peaches during your favorite time of day.  Not to mention, something magical about warm peach cobbler and french vanilla ice cream. :)

Long live summer and iPhone photos!

a failed peach picking attempt.

I guess when you're wanting to go pick some fruit, it'd probably be a good idea to check the weather first.  If you don't, you'll pull into the parking lot as the first few raindrops start to fall--which will not-so-gradually intensify and become a downpour. ;) Fortunately we were able to stuff our faces with all kinds of delicious (and oh so unhealthy) fried foods in the restaurant while keeping dry.  Although we weren't brave enough to face the orchards in the downpour, we still had a great time perusing the little market and spending time with friends.

PS - check out Baby J in that second picture.  Isn't he the cutest?

"beautiful place."

Saturday morning we jumped in the car with our friends and drove the 3 hours to Nauvoo (which translated from Hebrew means "beautiful place").  Three-quarters of us had been there before, but hadn't realized just how charming of a little town it is.  Seeing this small town quickly dispersed any equivocal thoughts I previously had regarding why the pioneers settled in western Illinois--besides God telling them to, of course. ;)  Situated right on the Mississippi River (the prettiest part of it, I'm sure), the temple sits on a bluff overlooking a grove of trees and the perfectly laid out streets.  It's breathtaking in the early morning and equally breathtaking as the sun sets.  We were fortunate enough to spend the day visiting the little houses and buildings in Nauvoo, doing a session at the temple, finding quaint local restaurants, visiting Carthage jail, and watching the Nauvoo Pageant that evening.  There's definitely a different feeling up there--one quite lovely--and I couldn't help but try to soak it all up throughout the day.

we found indian mounds in Illinois.

There's this place in my heart that loves learning about cultures and groups of people and the way they lived.  When we heard about the indian mounds just 20 minutes from our place, I knew we had to go check them out, even if it meant kidnapping Ben and forcing him to come with.  (For the record, it only took a couple months of convincing to get Ben to go with me.  Museums aren't his thing. ;))  This past Saturday we realized we had nothing to do all afternoon, so we subjected our pasty white skin to the sun and hiked Monks Mound.  The view did not disappoint.  And Ben secretly thought the museum wasn't half bad.  ;)