Greetings, from Chi-town! 
Oh, hey there!
Brandon and I are having a great time in Chicago so far. We got in late this morning and immediately headed to Millennium Park. After taking our very necessary (and very cliché) pictures at “The Bean”…
… we booked it to “The Taste.”
The “Taste of Chicago” is an amazing event. More than 50 restaurants have booths set up so that you can gorge yourself on their signature dishes. You buy tickets and then you can choose how you want to use those tickets.
Brandon and I both arrived starving… and sweating to death (HELLO 90 degrees!), so we couldn’t wait to get some cold drinks and tasty eats!
Our first stop was Brandon’s top request. He has been talking about the corn on the cob from “O’Brien’s” for months! And I’m happy to say that it did not disappoint.
I can’t give my opinion on the corn because Brandon downed it so quickly that sharing wasn’t an option. But I was told between mouthfuls that it was delicious. 
Next up was “Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt”… this stop was all for me. I had looked up info on the booths before we left, and I knew that I had to try their chicken and waffles!
Oh. my. word. Words cannot express. The salty, juiciness of the chicken paired with the soft waffles and sweet syrup… fabulous. I enjoyed every single bite… other than the two I begrudgingly willingly let Brandon try.
As I continued to lick my fingers, Brandon found his next treat…
… a barbecued turkey leg from “Manny’s Cafeteria and Delicatessen.”
This bad boy was no joke.
It took Brandon several minutes to eat it, and he didn’t even completely finish it.
But it’s OK…we just hung out by the porta-potties while he gnawed on it for a while.
No biggie.
In fact, I even had a taste of the massive leg myself…
what?
Our final stop was “Eli’s Cheesecake Company.” By this time we were both pretty much puddles of sweat (lovely visual, huh?), so we needed something to cool us off.
We both got their “Smoosh with Oreo Cookies and Vanilla Ice Cream.” It was Oreo cheesecake with ice cream and chocolate syrup. And it was wonderful. I ate every morsel of mine, and the last couple bites of Brandon’s (hey, he owed me from the corn incident!).
the true definition of a "HOT mess"
With our bellies full and our faces dripping, we headed out to explore the rest of the city.
We decided to find a place to sit down and people-watch for a little while, so we chose this little spot:
Emerald Loop was a really cute little restaurant that had an outside patio area with umbrellas. We sat outside and each ordered something refreshing…
King Brandon with his goblet
me with my Arnold Palmer
The drinks pepped us up so that we could continue our walk to Michigan Ave. (aka “The Magnificent Mile”… aka “the street where you can spend A LOT of money). After plenty of window shopping and drooling over the Garmin watches…
… we headed back to the hotel to rest and shower (because we stink ).
All in all, it was an awesome day. I’m looking forward to getting some deep-dish pizza tonight and taking a run around the city tomorrow morning.
Hope everyone is having a great 4th of July weekend!
