Day Two - Chicago

Mmmm, Chicago. Delicious.

Bear and I love cities. We lived in Chicago for about a year back in 2006. When we got here yesterday, I was so excited to see people, buildings, trains, and all the other things I used to barely notice.  Coming from an island with one [mediocre at best, especially for a vegetarian] restaurant makes the city seem even better.

We went shopping on State Street yesterday afternoon.  It's not so different from going to a mall, except the Macy's is breathtaking and nine stories, everything is outside, and all the stores are six times larger. Actually, it's totally different.  Just the stores are the same - H&M, Forever 21, Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, and maybe 4 million others.

Oh, we had a pre-shopping cocktail at Rudy's, as seen to your left.

Last night we went to dinner at Japonais, the restaurant where Chris works.

Pause for a background on how we know Chris:

Bear met Chris maybe ten years ago when they were sophomores at Ohio University in Athens. They were roommates in Athens for awhile and Chris was spending the summer on Put-in-Bay in 2005, when Bear and I met. That fall, Chris was planning to move to Chicago with his girlfriend to go to culinary school. When they broke up right before they were planning to move, Chris couldn't afford the rent by himself at the apartment they had rented. Bear offered to go with him and I was planning to move back to California. Bear and I had only been dating for a few months, but in the way only a 19-year-old will do, I decided to move to Chicago with Chris and Bear instead.

There you have it.

Anyway, Chris works at Japonais and Bear took me to dinner there last night.  It was a beautiful restaurant. We ate lots of seafood and Bear grilled a steak appetizer on a hot rock at the table. Love it.

Today we're going to the zoo lights at one of my absolute favorite places in the world, the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's free and wonderful.

It's true, it's New Year's Eve and we're going to the zoo. We're old!

We'll probably go out after that. Maybe not. Maybe we'll go back to Chris's and eat hummus. Whatever.

Here's Chris's cat, also named Charlie. He thinks my computer case is a bed. I'm not a cat person, but I love this cat. He was born five years ago, around the last time we were in Chicago. Super cool kitty. Sorry for the weird photo, it's a Photobooth.