On a Thursday afternoon in April, my husband and I left the Steel City to the Windy City. My dad's birthday was the following week and he wanted to visit my brother in Chicago. My brother has lived in Chicago for the past couple of years, my dad lives in Florida, and I live in Pittsburgh. With the three of us being in very different cities, we don't get to visit with one another often. This was the perfect opportunity to converge in one place! I hadn't seen my brother for over 2 year, so needless to say I was very excited! We arrived around midnight on Thursday (or 11pm Chicago time because you know, I forgot that we gained an hour). My dad already had pizza on the way and we sat in my brother's apartment and very quickly covered a wide variety of topics. We stayed until 2am before my dad, husband and I left to get some sleep at our inn.
The next morning we ventured out into the chilly and sunny day to find coffee and breakfast and ended up at the adorable Toast. After that we walked on over to CityGrounds for some more coffee. We found a couch upstairs to occupy and have some time to chat. From there we made our way to the free zoo. If there's an opportunity to see animals, especially for free, I won't pass that up. I was impressed with the amount of animals they had, except we didn't get to see quite of few of them because it was pretty cold out for most of the animals. By the time we were done at the zoo my brother had gotten off of work. We made a pit stop for a drink before settling in for the night at HopCat. They had an amazing beer selection, especially ones that are brewed in Chicago!
Saturday morning we brunched at my brother's favorite French spot, Troquet, where we indulged in some delicious Croque Madames. After brunch my brother gave us a full day walking, and ubering tour. We started with the Restoration Hardware store where you can get food or beverages, and just sit in one of the many set ups of their furniture displays. They want you to treat it as your home! There were literally people everywhere just sitting at den tables doing work, or drinking wine on a luxurious bed in an elaborate bedroom set up. I'm pretty sure if I lived in Chicago I would spend a majority of my time here. We had many adventures on this day! Next was the Chicago History Museum where my brother introduced me to my new obsession, the photographer Vivian Maiers. If you want to learn more about her, there's a documentary on Netflix!
I can't even remember all of the things we did this day! We made a stop at Stan's where I got a Biscoff filled donut. We ran into a record store on Record Store Day. We spent some time playing old arcade games and pinball at Emporium, but only after my brother introduced us to the (terrible) Chicago tradition of Malort. We then ubered to the lake front to Fullerton Beach so I could see the sunset with the skyline. We ended the night at my brother's favorite restaurant, Fireside, before heading back to the inn to pass out from doing so many things!
Sunday morning consisted of early morning record store finds. Side note, I've been looking for a Tracy Chapman album on vinyl for like, three years, and finally found it in Chicago with the most perfect timing and for $3.99. We then collected my dad from the inn for the last time, got some coffee, and walked to Lark to meet my brother for some more brunch and of course mimosas. We then ventured to Wrigley Field, because tourists. I needed one last Stan's stop and to buy some coffee to bring home to Pittsburgh with us. My brother took us to his favorite coffee shop, Dark Matter. Unfortunately, this is when I trip began to wrap up as we drove my dad and brother back to his apartment. I said my tearful goodbyes and am emotional just simply writing about our trip and adventures together.
I know this is a long one, but if you're still with me, here are the pictures of our time in the Windy City.
