Greetings!
First up, I have some leftover coupons for Amazing Grass to share with you! If you use the code HLS10 you will receive 25% off your entire order of Amazing Grass Products!!! The offer is only good while quantities last and expires at the end of August. For those of you who were asking, my favourite Amazing Grass products are the Chocolate Superfood and Chocolate Amazing Meal Powders. Yum. :)
Yesterday Eric and I were exploring the city of Chicago for 11 hours and we got home late once again. We are having such a blast here. There are lots of things for tourists to do.
We had lunch at the Corner Bakery Cafe:
I had the Asian salad with edamame. It was quite good!
Along with an iced Mighty Leaf Bombay Chai tea.
After lunch, we hit the road to explore the city! No plans, no commitments, no schedules. Just good times. When we travel we prefer to do things by the seat of our pants and explore by foot. We made our way to the Water and Air show and it was packed!
Beach:
There were thousands of people all over the lakeshore area for the air show.
I saw Vince Vaughn in a parachute (or so I hear!) ;)
We each had a Run Glo Bar for fuel:
After that we were off to explore more of the city.
Then it was time for lunch #2 at Argo Cafe!
I enjoyed the Garden Lentil salad and Eric had the Chicken Panini.
The lentil salad was delish!!!
I want to try to recreate this at home. :)
I also had the Sangria Tea which was awesome and had chunks of fruit in it!
After lunch #2, we decided to go to the skydeck to see views of the city.
When we got to the Skydeck we were herded like cattle for about 1 hour and 45 minutes! It was busy, busy, busy. Had we known it would eat up so much time we wouldn’t have gone.
Elevator shot:
Finally after about 1 hour 20 minutes we got to the top. The views were great.
We couldn’t get over how flat Chicago is. It sure has made my runs a lot easier this week.
Oh, damn he glows! ;)
Photographer fail. ;)
Glass floor:
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Eric said he wanted to get a deep dish pizza while we were here so we headed to Pizza Unos. The wait was about 1-1.5 hours, so we decided to go back during the week when it would be less busy. We decided on California Pizza Kitchen for our immediate pizza fix.
I asked the server if it was possible to have a fully vegan pizza and he said no because the crust had egg in it. Then he said he would ask the chef and the chef came up with a solution for a vegan pizza!
Apparently their thin crust doesn’t have egg, but their regular crust does, so thin crust it was. I wanted thin crust anyways!
I asked them to pile on the veggies and use extra sauce. I was so impressed. I ate approximately 89.5% of the pizza. ;) I also had a beer that I drank much too fast and concluded I was dehydrated!
Eric got his love- the BBQ chicken:
Happy customers.
After dinner, we walked over to Navy Pier for the evening architecture cruise.
It was so gorgeous at night and so relaxing!
We both got a beer. :)
Fun pictures ensued. It was also fun learning about the history of all the buildings and the city itself.
We figure we walked a good 8-10 miles yesterday alone. We finally got home around 11:45pm and crashed on the bed. :) We are about to head out for another fun day. I will most likely post tonight, so I will see you then! Have a great start to your week.
Hi Angela!
What a busy day! You and Eric take the same approach as my husband and I with exploring cities: just go! Don’t make plans! See where your feet and transit take you. :-)
It’s so awesome to read that restaurants accommodate your dietary needs and that their accommodation works out well!
Definitely try to recreate that salad. Make sure you use green or brown lentils (red lentils lose their shape really quickly during the cooking process and are better suited for soups, daal, and stews). Fresh salads are super easy to make and the possibilities are endless (I made a black bean, wheatberry, yellow summer squash, fresh cilantro, cherry tomato, red pepper salad with lemon zest, lemon juice, avocado oil, agave nectar and ancho chili powder dressing last night).
Again, I’m missing Chicago. My sister used to live there and I’d go visit her. It’s such a great city, so much to see and do and eat! I was in Chicago one year during that Air Show, and my sister took me to the restaurant at the top of the John Hancock building and we got to eat and watch the show from up there – it was amazing! There’s so many great bakeries and eateries there, I’m jealous! There’s also so many museums to see – the Art Museum, the Science Museum (although there’s some exhibits there that made me a little queesy that had to do with human cadavers – yuck!). Have fun!
Beautiful shots! I swear, Chicago needs to start paying HLS bloggers for marketing their city so well – I would head there in a heartbeat just based on the lovely photos you take!
Glad you are having fun and can’t wait to see more!
Well done Angela — you caputred some of the best parts of Chicago :)
Please make sure Eric gets his deep dish — it’s a quintessential part of the Chicago experience! Take him to Giordano’s :)
Ahh, last time I was in Chicago, we had drinks at the bar at the top of the John Hancock building– such a great view!!! I love Chicago in the summertime :-)
I love CHicago. SO funt o explore! That glass floor freaks me out though. Your brave! Enjoy the rest of your time with the hubs.
I want to go to Chicago so badly!! It looks amazing!!!
Yay! I’m loving the Chicago recaps :) I’m glad you got to see the Air & Water show! That was a staple event that we attended every summer growing up. Oh and that really lonnng building that you posted is where I used to go to art school! :)
I’d suggest Lou Malnatis for Deep Dish over Unos :)
That glass floor is terrifying! I couodn’t do that. No way!
Your pizzas looked fabulous. I love veggie thin crust, but who could say no to bbq chicken?
What a fun little vacation! :)
I did the same thing with a beer yesterday. I had just finished a run on the beach and guzzled half a beer before realizing I really needed water (I don’t normally follow a run quite so closely by beer but at the beach it just seemed so right!).
That lentil tabouli sounds awesome, I’m going to try that as well. I really like lemon in grain/legume salads but usually forget to add it.
Fabulous photos! You make me want to visit Chicago so bad! It looks absolutely beautiful there!
Argo Cafe looks awesome! I wish they had one here in Florida!
Your pizza looks awesome! I love pizzas piled with veggies! My boyfriends favorite pizza is BBQ too! How funny. Looks like an amazing day. I’ve been wanting to go to Chicago for a while and your post made me want to go even more!
Wow!! I have always wanted to do the boat tour and never knew they ran it at night. Looks amazing! I’m so glad you guys are having fun :)
Oh…..homesick over here ;)
If Eric wants the best pizza in town I recommen Lou Malnatis. Its super crazy good. I have even had it shipped out to Las Vegas it is THAT GOOD.
Enjoy that beautiful city!
I always forget to ask if the chef can do something for me that is gluten free if it isn’t on the menu! Thank you for reminding me of that!
I try to order as vegan as I possibly can when I eat out, but it is often impossible since so many things have gluten in it except for meat or an iceberg lettuce salad with a tomato on top! I will definitely see if places can whip stuff up in the back for me.
P.S. Your outfit is so cute!!
I love all of your pictures. I miss Chicago. I’ve only been once and it wasn’t long enough. I need to go back. Especially to try some of the places you’ve posted about. That sangria tea is intriguing!
The architecture tour is fantastic and a great way to learn about the city. Your night pictures are amazing. If you don’t mind sharing, what lense and what settings did you use to take those photos?
If you are ever back in the city you should check out the Hancock observatory. I think it has better views than the Sears tower and if I remember correctly the lines are shorter.
I’m falling so in love with Chicago just through the pictures and all the recaps. The river, the architecture, the food, EVERYTHING! Must. Go!
thanks for sharing the AG coupon… I just bought 3 each of my two favorite products – the new vanilla chai and the lemon lime… that lemon lime is DAAAANG good!!) and I saved $50 !! WOOT.
I could NOT stand on that glass floor. *GULP*.
Looks like you are having an awesome time! SO many beautiful pictures! That sky deck would freak me out. Glass floors! I know that its safe and everything but I just don’t know if I could do it!