Nicole and I went to Chicago for the weekend to look at a different vehicle. We found one we liked on Saturday and made the purchase. We flew to Chicago on Friday and stayed on the Gold Coast, an area just off Michigan on the north side. Our friends Chris and Gina Windslade live near this area in Lincoln Park and Nicole stayed with them in December when I went to Palm Springs with the guys.
We didn't intrude on them this weekend, but we checked out a lot of shops and restaurants and wine bars over the 2 nights.
On Friday we got settled into our hotel around 9:45 p.m. We headed out for dinner at Joes Stone Crab and Steakhouse. This place came highly recommended and it was very good. Nicole had the great idea of sharing a big steak rather than each trying to conquer our own and we then enjoyed the sides and dessert, and of course some good cocktails.
Saturday was a quick breakfast and then off to Howard Orloff's dealership. We enjoyed our experience with the salesman, whom we had communicated with for a few weeks before making the trek. The business manager was another story, we asked about an extended warranty for the vehicle, which I always think is a good idea, but he was a loser. First he was very sick and shouldn't have been at work in the first place, his nose was running all over the place and he could barely speak and he kept wanting to shake our hands (who does that)! We were both grossed out and wanted out of there. I am still considering the extended warranty, but couldn't get out of Larry's office fast enough.
Saturday night was a marathon. We started out by having a great burger at The Luxbar which is on Rush St, just off Michigan. It was great. From there we hit up some shops (Nicole's favorites). I'm just a husband that walks along and find a comfortable chair with my coffee and messes around on my cell phone while she shops. I don't get into it, in fact, she gets most of my clothes because I don't have much style. She got that gift. After shopping we took a little nap and then headed out for the night. We went to Eno (which is a great wine bar) that we went to many years ago with Ryan and Emily. In fact, there are some pictures of the 4 of us in their stairwell (my highpoint in life) taken at Eno. They have great cheeses and of course HUNDREDS of different wines. We love trying new wines and this place always has exactly that. From there, we headed to dinner at Japonais which is a place Nicole loved when she went there in December with Gina and the girls. She absolutely raved about it and wanted to take me there. We had the same server she had when she was there and he said he remembered her (lie in my opinion). Not that she isn't memorable (she is, trust me), but how could he remember one girl when he sees that many people since December. I think he was working on his tip. It was a very cool place, food was great, I should say sushi was great, we had some Japanese ribs that were just ok, but why would you order ribs at a Japanese place (they looked good at the time), but I thought of that after I ate them. Stick to the fish when you go to a sushi place, get your meat elsewhere. Atmosphere was great and we had a lot of fun.
Sunday was an early rise and on the road for a 9 hour trek through a pretty good snowstorm. It rained for the first 3 hours and the next 6 were very slow/treacherous. We counted 34 cars in the ditch and thankfully this time we were not involved in a crash in a snowstorm with our new vehicle.
I have the day off today (President's Day) and I drove Nicole to work so I am sitting at Starbucks' on Grand. I am meeting Nicole for lunch so just relaxing today.
Enjoy the day and be safe on the roads. St. Paul reported 17 inches, but I'm thinking Hudson got less than 10 inches.
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