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| Chicago Botanic Garden |
Keith's parents drove up to Chicago to visit with us and to explore the UP in Michigan for a week. They originally were going to visit back in March but had to cancel as the city had just shut down due to Covid. They stayed with us for two weekends and for the week between, they drove up to Mackinaw City to explore that area. They arrived around 9pm on Thursday night and after a quick tour of the house, we had some wine and cheese before they retired to bed for some much needed rest after a 16 hour drive! While they stayed with us, we ventured out to do outdoor activities (thankfully the weather cooperated) and we had some yummy meals.
On Friday, Keith's parents went for a walk on the 606 while we were working and after Shawna finished with her calls, she took them for a walk around the neighborhood. For lunch, Shawna made a chicken chopped salad. That evening, we walked to our favorite restaurant in our area - The Bristol - and had a wonderful dinner.
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| Chicago Electric Boat |
On Saturday, Shawna made avocado toast for breakfast. We then ventured downtown where we rented an electric boat with Chicago Electric Boat Company and rode along the Chicago river for about two hours. We brought wine and cheese and had that on the boat for lunch while looking at all of the buildings. Afterwards, we walked along the riverfront to get some exercise and then headed back home for a nap and to clean up for dinner. That evening, we went to Everest, a Michelin starred restaurants downtown located on the 40th floor of one of the buildings. The food was quite good but the temperature was cold in the restaurant and the wine pours (we had the wine pairing with dinner) were a bit chintzy.
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| Everest |
On Sunday, Shawna made egg white frittata with bacon for breakfast. Keith and Dick went to Home Depot to get a few things to complete a few jobs on Shawna's To Do List - one was to hang some lanterns outside on our patio and the other was to attempt to paint over water stains on our ceiling in our kitchen to avoid paying over $1K to have it professionally done! The good news is that they managed to do a great job with the paint! That afternoon, we walked around the Morton Arboretum which has huge wooden troll statues placed throughout the grounds. That evening, Shawna made Indian for dinner - chicken tikka, chickpea curry, basmati rice and raita.
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| Morton Arboretum |
Keith's parents left on Monday to head up to Michigan and they returned on Friday afternoon, in time for a quick shower, some wine and then dinner at Michelin starred Topolobampo owned by Rick Bayless who we met during dinner! This was our favorite dinner of the two weekends. We started out in a room where they served us drinks and appetizers and then we retreated to the library where we had a six course tasting menu paired with wine. Every dish was so flavorful!
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| Topolobampo |
On Saturday, Shawna once again made avocado toast for breakfast. We then went to the Chicago Botanic Garden and walked around for about two hours. The gardens were beautiful with lots of lakes and a few themed islands to walk around. The trees were changing colors and they had colorful fall flowers and pumpkins throughout the garden. We decided to sign up to become members. We then drove over to the Northwestern campus in Evanston to walk around that area. That evening, we had another yummy meal at the trendy Indian restaurant, Rooh, located in the West Loop. We ordered several appetizers to share for the table and then Keith and Shawna shared an entree.
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| Chicago Botanic Garden |
On Sunday, Shawna made egg white frittata with spicy chicken sausage for breakfast. For lunch, we had cheese and crackers and then we went over to the lake to walk around for a couple of hours - we walked through Lincoln Park and then along the lake. That evening, we decided to enjoy the patio with drinks and bruschetta. For dinner, Shawna made arugula salad and rigatoni which we enjoyed with a nice bottle of red that had been gifted to Keith from his former boss at Livcor. We then had dessert outside on the patio so we could enjoy the lanterns - we had pie that we had bought at the Botanic gardens.
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| Walk along the lake |
Keith's parents left on Monday morning at 5am to drive back to Texas. While it was a long trip for them to drive, it was so nice to have them visit and be able to explore the area with them!
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| Dinner at our house |
