Chicago

Last weekend I took off to Chicago. You know, to hang with Oprah and Obama for a few days. It's how I roll.

Chicago's a great city, and really easy to get to from Ottawa (with a minor stop in Toronto via Porter). The weather was fantastic and it was full on spring in the windy city.

The flowers were in perfect bloom along the Magnificent Mile. Purple hyacinths!

And you can't escape the architecture -- it's pretty much everywhere.

The views are great from the street or the river.

The El train (short for elevated). I didn't know that until this trip.

The Tribune building, where probaby three or four journalists are still at work.

It was a windy day for a walk along the lake.

Lots of public art throughout the city too.

But really, we were there to eat. I was too embarrassed to take may photos in restaurants, but we had amazing Mexican food (and a tangerine mojito) here, we saw Oprah's chef and ate catfish here.

We had a really creative meal at Graham Elliot, where I snuck this photo (complete with invasive flash) of my stater, which was an unconstructed Caesar salad. It featured tiny segments of lettuce, rolled in parmesan and topped with an anchovie. The rectangular bit at the bottom of the plate was a cheesy twinkie, filled with garlicky cream. So good.

And we went out of our way to go to Blackbird, where the food was great, and the clientele super stylish. I captured a photo of the finale to the meal, which featured parsnip ice cream. Really!

And the best ending to the trip was running into Tommy Smythe (from Sarah's House) in the elevator at our hotel! That's the second time I've met him, so I think that qualifies us to be BFFs, and he'll certainly be redecorating my house very soon.