30 Days at a Time: Ericka: A Taste of Chicago (7.13.13)

Hi guys, sorry about the posting delay, but we had a busy day yesterday. Between packing, bicycling, walking, catching taxis, getting to the airport and spotty Wi-Fi service, I just didn't have time to post. But even though we didn't get in until a little past midnight, I woke up bright and early to spill the tea!

So yesterday was our last day in Chicago. Well let's start with Thursday night. We walked to a place called Tavern at the Park for dinner and it was really good. Chris had a cup of chili and some of the best wings ever. They were smoked, not fried. I had a scallops, shrimp, avocado and cod ceviche for my appetizer and a manchego caprese napoleon salad for dinner with a glass of rose. I guess I was a little tired from all the walking and late nights that when I got to the hotel I laid down for a nap at 7 p.m. (yes a nap) that ended up being 4 hours long. Of course by the time I woke up Chris was sleepy, and I was ready to go out. He was not getting out of the bed so I aggravated him until we both fell asleep around 1 a.m.

Back to yesterday. We slept in a little, because we had a long day ahead of us. Our flight wasn't until 9:05 p.m. Once we got out of bed, I made Chris do some yoga poses with me to loosen us up for our bike ride. Wow that boy is not flexible at all. He is like a rock, unbending and unyielding. We then set out for our first destination, the bike shop. The plan was to rent a tandem bike for the day. So neither Chris nor I have gotten on a bike in years. I don't know why we thought we could ride a tandem bike which requires synchronized movements. We tried, but it was a comedy of errors so we returned it for 2 bikes. Then we set out on our adventure, and boy was it. We are not used to riding in the street, especially streets as busy as Chicago's. I'm glad we lived to tell the tale. So here was our route based on Google Maps:

1. Hotel to Bike Shop 19 minutes- Walked

2. Biked to Yolk 12 minutes

3. Yolk to Grant Park & Soldier Field 10 minutes + 25 minutes riding around

4. Soldier Field to Navy Pier 14 minutes

5. Walked 15 minutes around Navy Pier

6. Water Taxi to Michigan Ave- 5 minutes

7. Walked Up and Down Michigan Ave= 1 hour 45 minutes

8. Water Taxi to Navy Pier- 5 minutes

9. Navy Pier to Bike Shop 14 minutes

10. Bike Shop to get Froyo at Starfruit Café- 10 minutes

11. Then back to the W- 11 minutes

Now again this is based on Google Maps. It doesn't account for A. Neither of us has ridden a bike in years much less on busy Chicago Streets so that took a little adjusting to B. we did not know where we were going and took quite a few wrong turns, and C. by the time we started walking back from Michigan to water taxi stand my feet and legs were tired; I’m already a slow walker so you can imagine the snail pace we were moving at. We had the bikes from 12:30- 6:15 and other than the time we spent eating brunch (45 minutes) and taking the water taxi (30 minutes including wait time) we were either walking or biking.

I got on the scale this morning, and much to my surprise I was 1 pound lighter. I know I did a lot of walking and biking, but it was still vacation so I did a lot of carb free eating too. Speaking of carb free eating here is a taste of some of the food we ate: