When planning a small trip, even if it's just for a day and a half: plan ahead. A few of the siblings and I thought it would be nice to visit Chicago during Memorial Day weekend. Being the procrastinators we are, most of the planning was done Saturday night. We tried squeezing in as many activities within the time frame as possible, knowing it was a holiday weekend, not knowing how much walking we'd be doing. Tapping my brain as I write this to recall what we did...
Driving into the city...the buildings are a beaut.
First stop: M. Henry. We waited outside for an hour before being seated. I ordered the fresh fruit crepe which the waitress forgot. When it come out, I ate a little of the crepe not drenched in the sauce and all of the garnishing nectarine. Of course she didn't charge us for the dish and even gave me a free oversized chocolate chip cookie. The crepe was too sweet (first time having crepes), but that cookie...sure was good!
Great Lawn and Pavilion @ Millennium Park
The infamous "Bean" @ Millennium Park
Nice.
Crown Fountain
Walked down Michigan Avenue to the Magnificent Mile to do a little shopping. The walking and beating from the Sun was taking it's toll...we got tired..checked into the hotel...rested for a few minutes then made our walk to the Navy Pier.
Seadog Speedboat Ride on Lake Michigan. Much needed. Being on the water was refreshing, cooling on such a hot day, and fun .
We caught a sub taking us into Chinatown to check out this Joy Yee's Noodle restaurant and see what all the rave was. We got off in the middle of nowhere requiring another 10 miles on foot before we actually reached the restaurant. Hot, tired, and nauseous, I ordered a bowl of pho...because Pho cures everything. The 'bowl' came out and the thing was humungeous. It could've easily served 3 people. I stared at it and realized I was no longer hungry. Too tire to eat or walk...I just wanted to sit. That's when I realized that I was TERRIBLY out of shape. Need to hit the gym asap.
Springrolls. The only picture I got because I was too beat.
Hailed a cab (a first), hoped on the sub, walked a little more and we were back at the hotel.
The next morning, we were all aching. Good laughs. haha
Spent the last few hours in Chinatown and Viettown. We ate dim sum at Pheonix Restaurant. Am I crazy to say that the dim sum at Pheonix taste better than Golden Harvest's? =0 Friendly service too. After breakfast, we went to Ba Le Sandwiches to get a few banh mi for the ride home. Lisa and Phuong went in while the rest of us waited in the car. They came out an hour later. Madness!
Chicago is a really beautiful city. Although I can't imagine myself living there. I'm already a terrible driver and the whole bumper to bumper parking deal just won't do. Chicago, see you again?
I'm going to visit Chicago next month. Is there any good food place do you recommend?
ReplyDeletebtw, happy belated birthday to you. Hope you have an awesome year ahead :)
Thank you Nick! So far, the year has been pretty great ^_^ Hmmm as for recommendations...Joy Yee's is all the rave - Large portions w/ good prices, but it was missing the authenticity to me - great place for boba tea though! On my last trip, I was staying at a friends place and down the street was a nice little banh mi shop called Nhu Lan Bakery - we stopped in there a couple times. They have good banh pate so, eggrolls and banh mi! here's the link for more info if you're in the area: http://www.yelp.com/biz/nhu-lan-chicago
DeleteThen there Sun Wah bbq, we pigged out on the Bejing Duck which is served table side. You must try if you get the chance http://sunwahbbq.com/menu.html Have fun on your trip and stay warm!