Great Weekend in the City.

So last weekend really made me realize why we Chicagoians struggle through the cold winters in Chicago and that is to live for the summer festivities.

Friday night Robyn, Sara, and I went to dinner to catch up and I wanted to go somewhere to watch the Tigers game. There is a restaurant on the corner of my street “Avenue Tavern” (http://www.avenuetavern.com/) that has good food and it is “Michigan owned” (They even have Coney Dogs on the menu:) Unfortunately, the Tigers ended up losing against the Sox that night.

Saturday, Sara and I went to breakfast at “Stella’s”. Stella’s is a neighborhood dinner close to my house. After Stella's we ran some errands and did some shopping in the area. We planned on going to the Lincoln Taste Fest later in the afternoon. Chicago has many street festivals during the summer all over many of the neighborhoods. I went to the festival around 6PM and the street was just packed. There were multiple bands (about 5-6) that were playing a variety of music. There were a ton of food vendors as well as local vendors in the area selling arts/crafts items. I stumbled upon a booth that was selling wallets/belt and leather accessories and I noticed they had quite a few “Detroit” accessories. I ended up buying a change purse with the “Spirit of Detroit” on the purse. I asked him if he still lives there and his response was “yes, someone has to”. This made me a little sad when I was reminded that so many people are moving out of Michigan. The festival ended up being a really good time and I even ran into a few friends from WMU (dancing in the street at one of the bar's booths where they had a DJ set up) that I haven’t seen in forever, so we went out in Wrigleyville for a little bit afterwards.

Oh and of course we have to get a pic with the CPD:-)
On Sunday, I was very productive! I couldn’t believe it, I usually dread Sundays b/c that means I have to pack and get everything in order to fly out the next day. But Sara, Robyn, and I went to breakfast at “The Bagel” another good breakfast place in the neighborhood. Then I went home started a load of laundry, did pilates, went to the gym and ran 3 miles (while watching the Tigers game so that was a plus), and packed for the next week. It was a very productive day! On Sundays it is pretty traditional go out to dinner with the girls (and Chuck sometimes) and this Sunday we went and tried a different sushi place. They had very different sushi rolls and most of us agreed that we liked our “normal” place better. The night ended at Murphy’s. We had a couple of glasses of wine on the patio out front, had good conversation, and enjoyed people watching. It was a great way to wrap up a fun weekend.

Now off to ATL for the week. I am staying the weekend for a wedding.