When I looked around at what we wanted to do in Chicago I came up with a few things. Most involved eating, but there are some landmarks and buildings that I really wanted to see. I know we are not going to see and do everything in one trip, so I wanted to see if there was a way to hit the highlights. We found a tour through the Chicago Architecture Foundation that fit the bill.

While a Chicago, like a lot of major cities, is known for skyscrapers, it has a great history of smaller buildings too and is often on the forefront of design concepts. So we saw buildings from the 1880s and then the early 20th century to mid century modern and late 20th century. It was a great experience, but I think my two favorite stops were Robie House and the student center at IIT.

I never quite got Frank Lloyd Write from books and pictures. It always looked interesting, but … nothing special. But in person? To see the detail and thought that went into each part I finally understood why his designs are so special.

The Student Center on the IIT campus was a really cleaver mix of firm and function. The L trains run right over the location of the building, so the enhanced the feature of the train tracks and integrated it into design. I hated the fake zebra wood on the outside, but the use of space and design elements were great. It also has the most unique bathrooms I’ve ever seen. Seriously one lady and I had a whole discussion, in the bathroom, about the bathrooms.

But this trip is mostly about food and high on my list was Slurping Turtle. Japanese comfort food from an incredibly respected chef. We went with tapas and small plates for this lunch, but it was so good, we went back the next day with Brad and Emmie.

After lunch we wandered around the city more. We went through Millennial Park, down Lake Michigan to Navy Pier.

We were exhausted by the time we meandered back to the hotel, but made sure we rested a little before heading out for fancy dinner number two. That dinner gets it’s own post tomorrow. For now I’m going to rest my feet and get some sleep.

The school year ended for me and the next morning Bob and I headed for Chicago for a little vacation. We planned this for a few months – I’ve spent less time planning our trips to Europe – so we were very excited about this. I’ve never been to Chicago and since it has some amazing restaurants I just could not wait.

The trip did not start well. I think I texted something about hating United Airlines more than a few times as we were traveling. From a mess up with seating (Bob and I were not seated together despite the email confirmation that said we were … but we could purchase an upgrade if we wanted to sit together) to the horrible boarding process to the minuscule seats (could not have my arms next to my body at the same time without hitting the poor lady next to me) that we had to wait in since there was a delay (that they knew about before we boarded) to the half hour waiting for a gate in Chicago, it was a rather bad trip. I could deal with a lot of this – the delay, bad weather and the gate issue were not United’s fault necessarily – but the way the treated customers and the very “we don’t care” attitude made everything worse. Good customer service could have made this trip ok if not good, but poor customer service made it horrible.

Adding to my stress (as this ended up being a two hour delay in total) … dinner reservations. I have read about and wondered about Alinea for a while and Bob and I decided to go for it. I read every review I could find (and I do mean every) and one review made up my mind to spend the money. “Alinea will ruin you for five star dining.” With that I had to try it.

We should have had more than enough time to land, check into the hotel, relax, change and get to dinner. Instead we raced off the plane, changed in a stall in the airport bathrooms, hailed a cab and went straight to Alinea. You can probably picture me trying to get my dress and heels out of the suitcase in the stall while getting out of my jeans and top and into the dress. I did brush my hair but went without the make up to save time. We got a great cab driver and a little lucky with traffic and arrived 13 minutes late.

From the moment we walked in, it was incredible. The maître’d simply took our bags, told us to relax, got our name for the reservation and led us to our table. He asked where we were coming from, said they were glad we were there and started everything on a great note. He could have commented on our late arrival, made a big deal about the bags or been stuffy or unpleasant but he wasn’t. This foreshadowed the rest of the evening. The wait staff was relaxing, engaging and fun. The food was not just beautiful it was perfection. Each course was unique and made me smile, but nothing more than when I realized Bob was getting seafood (caviar, skate and lobster) while I had alternatives to the seafood. For anyone who does not do tasting menus, this is highly unusual; in most restaurants everyone at the table has the same dish, so Bob does not get seafood since I don’t.

But not at Alinea. There we each got our own versions of the dish and it was just perfect. I can say I had probably the best meal, start to finish, of my life. Was it expensive? Yes. More than I am comfortable paying, but I would do it again. It was worth ever penny and if I ever have the opportunity to do it again, I will. The food was that good, but the service made the experience.

The final detail. When we were seated the maitre’d asked if we would need a cab after dinner; we said yes. So after the meal ended we were brought downstairs, thanked for coming, given our bags and walked out to a waiting cab. Not one we had to wait for, but one that was waiting for us. It was details like that really show what good service can do for an experience. It really is all about the service.

This past week I had the opportunity to do a Social Studies workshop in a Tallahassee. I haven’t taught history in almost a decade (hard to believe I’ve been out of the classroom that long) but I regularly want to go back to it. As good as I am with Special Education stuff, I am a history teacher at heart, so this was a nice way to reconnect with that part of my brain.

Tallahassee is an interesting place; it is home to FSU and FAMU as well as the state government. Beyond that, however, it is very much an old southern town. On of my favorite things about Tallahassee is the parks and the canopy lined roads. The huge, old live oaks with Spanish moss hanging down from them makes for lovely evening strolls.

The other great part about being in a college town is the plethora of good, cheap food. Mom (who came with me to help with the night driving that I really should never do) and I found a great deli and, to our surprise, a Japanese cafe that had incredible food. Jasmine’s Cafe has apparently been around for fifteen years; this doesn’t surprise me as the food was that good. I went with a tofu bento box for dinner. This place would do well in NYC or LA or any other “food” town.

I ate everything in my box except for a few green beans and was thinking about trying to locate a coffee shop or bakery when I found out they have desserts. I went with the tiramisu. Yes, an Italian dessert in a Japanese restaurant. Odd, but oh so good.

Turns out the owner’s mother makes the desserts for the restaurant. I ate way more of this than I should have (which is a nice way of saying, the entire thing … By myself … after eating dinner) but it was worth it. Now I want the recipe and may have to search for some good ones.

If you ever find yourself in downtown Tallahassee, head near the Capitol area and hit College Street between Monroe and Adams. You will not be sorry.

We also too the opportunity to see Bob’s parents one night. Suzanne and the boys were down, so we had a chance to hang out a little with everyone. Suzanne made a great dinner with a fantastic pork loin for the main dish. It was odd being in a kitchen and not cooking, but she made a fabulous, well cooked meal that we all enjoyed. I also got to make Bob jealous since his mom made the famous Woodville Delight for dessert. I’m just sorry I didn’t take any pictures.

It’s back to the normal grind this week. Tigger is still being nice to Gracie and Jessie seems happy to have me home. Spring has arrived in south Florida, so if you see food pictures taken outside, yes, we are going to enjoy the weather while we can.