Dog friendly

This week, Landon is working in Iowa, so Charlie and I have been on our own.  I thought I'd document where we've been spending a lot of our time lately, as daily walks to the dog park are a must; they keep us both sane.  Everyone at the dog park always recognizes Charlie as a puppy.... when he runs, it's more of a leap or a bounce than it is an actual run.  The amount of energy that boy has still amazes me.

The area to the right, where all the trees are is where the fenced in, off-leash area is, but this picture shows how many tall buildings are around....

A little greener....

The lawn and grounds here are kept very clean and well manicured.  Since it's getting chilly here pretty quickly, I thought I'd do this post now before everything turns brown and dies off.  Pretty, bright flowers line the sidewalks (for now).... 

Our other park is starting to look a little more fall-like....

It's been pretty rainy this week, so we have to be sneaky and find a rain-less window to make our escape.  Despite getting soaked in a storm, Charlie and I have had a good week together, just us, but we're ready for Landon to be home (not just because walks at night are scary)! Before he comes home though, a fun-filled girls weekend is in store.  Ashley Aven and Ashley Imhoff are coming to visit me this weekend and I can hardly wait! 

So excited for this trio to take Chicago this weekend!!!

  

Happy weekend!

Weekend Recap

This weekend Ryan came to visit us in Chicago for a fun weekend in the city.  When we lived in Fort Worth, we saw him at least once a week, but we hadn't seen him since Tanner and Zena's wedding in July, so a visit was long overdue.  You would have thought Ryan was the local this weekend; he was telling us where we should go, which way to go, leading us around, etc.

We kicked the weekend off with dinner at Lou Malnati's, a traditional Chicago-style deep dish pizzeria that Ryan recommended.  The pizza's take 45 min to make, but was worth the wait! Neither Landon or I are huge fans of "Chicago style" deep dish pizza since it's so thick and filling, but this is one of the best places in the city to get Chicago style pizza (so they say; we've only tried a couple of places) and it really was quite tasty!

All smiles waiting for our pizza

Malnati Chicago Classic

After stuffing ourselves with pizza, and still only finishing half, we trekked all the way over to the John Hancock Center for a drink at The Signature Lounge at the 96th.  We were 96 floors up and got a table right by the window!  Talk about a breathtaking view!

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the view was absolutely amazing.  We stayed for quite a while, just taking in the view and all the pretty, city lights.  Drinks here were pretty pricey (almost worth it though) so we took a cab over to Timothy O'Tooles, where a pitcher of beer was only $10.  After ordering some late night nachos, and nearly shutting the place down, we walked all the way home in the drizzling rain.  Why we didn't get a cab, I'm still not sure :)

Saturday was a day completely filled with walking.  We took the train over to Lincoln Park and walked all around.  We didn't have a destination in mind, we just wanted to walk around and explore.  It was a perfect fall day for it too.  The morning started off rainy, but turned out to be a nice day with just a slight chill in the air.  We walked up and down sidewalks lined with cute shops and restaurants; we even ran across a Texas flag!

We estimated that we walked at least 4 miles that day.  Our bodies were so physically exhausted, we had to take a train the remaining .9 miles left home.  The best $2.25 ever spent!

Once we got home, I changed clothes and freshened up for dinner, while the boys relaxed and caught up on football.....

Nick, Landon's coworker that we went to the Cubs game with (who told us where all we had to go while in Chicago) told us the best Italian food was at a place called La Scarola (rumor has it, this is where all the old mobsters used to hang out). We couldn't get a reservation until 9, but we took it anyway and went about 20 min early in hopes of getting a table.  No such luck.  We were told it would be at least 9:15 before we could get seated, and the restaurant was so small, there was no where to wait, so we went to a little place around the corner called Iguana Cafe.  We weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into, since these were some of the only places in the area, but this turned out to be a really neat place!  It was a coffee house/restaurant/lounge and a perfect place to kill half an hour with a glass of wine and some spinach artichoke dip.

The timing was perfect and we were seated immediately once we got back to the restaurant.   Ryan shocked us and ordered grilled octopus as an appetizer.  We had never had it before, and even though the tentacles scared us a little, we powered through and tried a bite.  Surprisingly tasty!!

Landon and I are both HUGE fans of chicken piccata and tend to order it quite often.  Even though I make this recipe at home once a week, we can't ever get enough and ordered it to share for dinner.

I think I learned how piccata is SUPPOSED to taste!  I won't lie, mine (Giada's) is good, but this was delicious!!  The capers were huge and the sauce was perfect.  No left overs this time.

While we were at Iguana Cafe before dinner, the couple at the next table over was sharing a crepe that looked too good to pass up.  After dinner we went back to get one of our own, except that turned into two of our own.  Ryan ordered one filled with berries and Landon and I shared one with bananas, caramel and Nutella.  The perfect ending to a perfect day!

Sunday was a dreary, rainy, day so we took our time getting up and around that morning. Ryan suggested chinese food for lunch and found a place with good reviews, so off we went. We were a little hesitant since right before leaving, Ryan asked "Do y'all like duck?"  This is what we walked up to....

Those would be roasted ducks hanging in the window.... a little frightening.  After walking in, the restaurant itself was nice and really crowded, so that calmed our nerves a little .  We decided to go all out and share a duck.  When in Rome....

This arrived....

And just a few short minutes later, turned into this....

That's right.  An entire duck was sliced for us table side.  We all agreed it tasted just like the dark meat of a chicken.  It had great flavor and was exceptionally moist.  They don't let any part of the duck go to waste either.  They used parts to make a soup as well as fried rice.  They even brought us bread and veggies to make sandwiches with.

   We were quite the adventurous eaters this weekend!




After lunch, we had to take Ryan to the airport so he could catch his flight.  We had such a great time with him this weekend; thanks for coming to visit us friend!

Go Cubs

Wednesday afternoon we lucked out and got some great seats at the Cubs game.  Landon's coworker had extra tickets, so we joined him for an afternoon at the game.  He turns out to be a great person to know here in Chicago.  He's lived here for years and told us all the places we needed to go and see during our time here.

View from our seats...

This was my first time at Wrigley Field and Landon's third.  We really enjoyed the afternoon, the weather was great, our seats were great, the whole experience was great.  And who doesn't love some peanuts and beer at a baseball game?

Since today marks the first official day of fall (it's been fall in Chicago for a couple weeks now) I'm FINALLY treating myself to a pumpkin spice latte.  I'm ashamed that this is my first one of  the season, but since today IS officially fall, I found it fitting.  The whole apartment smells pumpkin-y and spice-y.  Oh, and we bought a pumpkin yesterday!  I really love all things fall...... if you can't tell :)

Don't mind if I do

Happy (official) fall!

Baby Tenley is here!

We're so excited to welcome our niece, Tenley Virginia Kline into the world!  She was born Tuesday, September 20th at 2:16 p.m. weighing 5 pounds at 18 inches long.  Both mom and baby are happy and healthy.  We can't wait to get out to Virginia to see her!

They say she looks just like Bergen did when he was born, so you KNOW she'll be cute! (not that she isn't already!)  Congrats Kline family!

Sailing

Last night, thanks to my wonderful mom who found a great deal on Groupon, we enjoyed an evening sail on the Tall Ship Windy.

We set sail off Navy Pier for a 75 minute sail with an awesome view of the city.

We hadn't seen the city from this angle yet, so we were snapping pictures left and right.  Isn't it beautiful?!  The weather was really nice for it too.  When we set sail, the sun was still up and the temperature was in the mid 60's, but by the end of the trip, it was completely dark, and about 20 degrees chillier.  They even passed out blankets so we could keep warm.

After freezing the last 20 minutes of the trip, we decided to warm up with some soup at Eleven City Diner.  I opted for the matzah ball while Landon indulged in some creamy potato.  We've been to Eleven City Diner more than once, something we said we were going to try and avoid, but that warm soup was just calling our names.  We really love this place, it's kind of a modern, upscale diner.  We even treated ourselves to some carrot cake for dessert.

Sinfully delicious

Check out the size of that matzah ball!

Another wonderful evening in Chicago!  We haven't had a bad one yet!  

Today, we are patiently awaiting the arrival of baby girl Kline.  Heather is in labor now and we can't wait to see and hear all about our precious little niece!!  Lots of prayers for a healthy delivery!

We're bloggers!

Landon and I have decided to start a blog of our adventures in Chicago!  It's mostly going to be just a journal for us to remember all the neat places we've seen and been, but thought our family and friends may want to follow along and read about what all we're up to!

view from our rooftop

This was our first weekend in the Windy City together and it was busy, fun-filled one for sure!  We started off our weekend with dinner at a little Italian place called Sapori Trattoria.  We were craving Italian and were looking up places online, but after calling a few to make a reservation without any luck (unless we wanted to eat around midnight) we found this little gem and made a reservation for 8:15.  When we arrived at 8:15, the manager told us it was going to be at least 15 minutes and treated us to a glass of wine for the wait!  I'll wait 15 minutes for a free glass of wine any day!  After bruschetta with avocado and a bowl of butternut squash soup, we split a delicious pasta dish covered in artichoke, sun dried tomatoes, chicken and a tasty cream sauce, and still had some to bring home (which I'm sure I'll be eating for lunch today).

After dinner we went to a place right next to our apartment building called Tavern at the Park for a drink.  I had a concoction of cucumber vodka, ginger syrup, muddled watermelon and mint, and Landon's was honey, elderflower liqueur, lavender water and vodka .... talk about some tasty treats!

Saturday morning, after dropping Charlie off at the groomer, we headed over to Kanela for brunch.  Landon had some multigrain pancakes and I had a lorraine scramble with the best breakfast potatoes I'd ever had.  Some super strong coffee made this brunch even more amazing.

After brunch, and driving around trying to find a parking spot for half an hour, we went to a farmer's market, well 2 of them.  At the first one, we just walked around, bought some raspberries, which we nearly finished in the car and enjoyed the wonderful weather. They were even handing out free Starbucks coffee!  Yes please!  The next farmer's market was really neat.  It was in the middle of Lincoln Park and had tents set up with local vendors selling all sorts of fruits, veggies and flowers.  We bought some blueberries and grapes at this one.

These may look like ordinary grapes, but they are far from it!  I don't even know how to describe how delish they are.  They're just so perfectly crunchy and sweet.  I'm finishing these off as I write, while Landon polishes off the blueberries.   After purchasing these tasty little fruits, we decided to plop down in the middle of the park (as many others had done as well) and sit and enjoy them in the sunshine.   Finally the groomer called and it was time to go pick up our Charlie boy.  She had called earlier to warn me they had to cut him a lot shorter than we were wanting because he was pretty matted.  He looks a little silly, but we still love our handsome boy.



 






Saturday night, we went to the  Texas A&M alumni bar (since the UTA bar was too crowded - ha) to watch the game.  They had designated the upstairs area to be the A&M watching area and there were about 100 A&M grads there.  It was nice to be around other Texans!

Well, there ya have it, our first weekend in Chi Town!  So much to do here in such little time, but we're going to try and get in as much as we can while we're here.  We're going to try and not frequent the same restaurant more than once, since we're surrounded by SO much good food, hence all the food talk/pictures.

Come visit us!

...... and happy fall!!