Chicago ~ Day 1

My "Memphis / Travel" Tommy and I are spending the weekend in The Windy City. I have a work retreat next week and Tommy LOVES Chicago, so we decided to meet and enjoy a Midwest summer weekend!

We stayed at The Dana Hotel. It's a "luxury boutique" in downtown Chicago and has a zen like atmosphere. I was leaning toward it in honor of my baby sister. I learned that Dana means The pleasure of giving in Sanskrit. Pretty cool, eh?

We were on a high floor with a city view through floor to ceiling windows. A bit like being in a fish bowl, but pretty cool nonetheless!

Our first start: Chicago pizza! We walked to Pizzeria Uno only to find a line out the door.

But never fear, I spied a close second: Pizzeria Duo!


I missed my plane this morning. A series of unfortunate events stemming from, "lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part" slapping me in the face meant that I got to Chicago 5 hours late. Que sera sera. It just meant we had to skip the dilly dalleying and head to dinner.

Being that I'm ever (not) so skilled at delaying gratification while waiting to eat, I was totally (not) okay with waiting the 45 minutes it takes to bake the pizza.

Tommy distracted me by talking about all of the fun things that we "have to" do and see this weekend. He must have been an educational tour guide in a former life. It's always a delicate balance to reach a compromise of his go-go-go operation and my let's sleep in and figure it out as we go preference. But somehow I manage to dig deep and just go and he humors me by pretending that he's okay with going with the flow. We've traveled enough together to know what works and it's a pretty good system with only minor bickering!

Starting the weekend off with a cold one. Pizza, beer, and a baseball game in the background. What could make a guy happier on a Friday night?

I had the best deep dish spinach and cheese pizza. Who knew spinach could be so good? And the part about waiting 45 minutes for it to bake? Totally worth it.

I'm looking forward to our tourist adventures tomorrow!