Elizabeth and Michel Go to the Chicago Travel and Adventure Show

So I love to travel, and I love planning travel, but I don't do it nearly enough.  Michel is the same way, and one of our favorite things is to talk about future trips we want to take.  Right now Brazil is in the lead, but Ireland, Austria, and Thailand are always in the conversation, along with a glorious long weekend in the California wine country.  Fortunately we both travel well and enjoy traveling together, so our very real goal is to make all of these trips happen.

Some of you know my love of travel shows (The Getaway on the new Esquire network is a current favorite), and if you are Michel and my college roommate, Kathleen, you know of my weirdly inexplicable love of Rick Steves' travel show, Rick Steves' Europe.  I have a vivid memory of watching his Christmas special with Kathleen and Michel one Saturday morning senior year of college, laughing at his utter granola nerdiness yet being inspired by his wholly sensible travel tips...and making fun of his poor attempts at multi-cultural humor.  Rick Steves's guidebook even accompanied us on our honeymoon to Spain, and he only steered us wrong once.  (DO NOT eat the fried cod in Sevilla, no matter what he says!!)

So you can imagine my excitement when I opened a Travelzoo e-mail in December to find a deal for super discounted tickets to the Chicago Travel and Adventure Show, at which Rick Steves was speaking.  (Samantha Brown of The Travel Channel, another favorite, was also on the docket.)  There were enough promises of delicious food samples to convince Michel to agree to go with me, and so I purchased the tickets to the convention in Rosemont.

Thus began the Great Chicago Travel and Adventure Show Adventure of 2014.

First Up: The Mexico Booth!

Elizabeth:  The Mexico booth was right inside the door, and I was hoping, nay, determined to find a delicious, fresh avocado in my bag.  This is mainly because we have not been able to find good avocados since late September, and my avocado-cravings are getting out of control, not because I actually thought there would be avocados.  Of course, I was disappointed.

Michel:  More broadly, I was disappointed not because there were no avocados but because there was no Mexican food of any sort. 

Next Up: The Other Booths!

Elizabeth:  The booths around the stage were mostly for North America.  The American booths were theme park focused and aggressive, and the Canadian booths were outdoorsy and polite.

Michel:  There was a booth for Oklahoma.  I understand the inclination to entice people to visit.  But seeing as Oklahoma is the geographic equivalent of un-anesthetized dental surgery, that battle has already been lost.

Next Up: Rick Steves!

Elizabeth:  So Rick Steves has way more personality than Michel gives him credit for.  His presentation was thorough, interesting, informative, and humorous.  As he says, he travels and makes the mistakes so we can travel smarter.  Plus he signed my book!  After his hour and a half long presentation, we all lined up in an orderly queue to await our turn for an autograph.  I had brought my copy of his Travel as a Political Act (a really well-written and thoughtful read on the philosophy of travel) and was excited to speak with him.  However, Steves went rogue.  He came back to the line, said, "Everyone gather round!" and signed whatever was put in front of him as he turned in a circle.  Not one to miss out on a good opportunity, I slipped around the the back side of the circle, got my book signed, and was off to find Michel and some food within about 5 minutes. 

Michel:  Rick Steves was surprisingly human.  I went in expecting the charisma vacuum one sees on television but instead got a mildly engaging travel expert with moments of genuine wit.  I enjoyed 90 minutes of Rick Steves far more than I thought I would.  Rather than get something signed, I went off in search of cheese samples upon the conclusion of the program.

Cheese Samples and Other Treats!

Elizabeth:  The cheese was tasty!  We made multiple passes by the cheese booth.  We also met a super nice operator of environmentally and culturally sustainable safaris.  We're besties now and are planning a safari with his company for some time in the next 25 years.  That is to say, we took a copy of his brochure.

Michel:  As with most things I do, my primary motivation for attending this convention was food.  I enjoyed the cheese.  However, the level of food available for free was far less than was depicted in the literature.  The proprietors of this convention can look forward to a strongly worded letter pertaining to this most disappointing instance of false advertising.

 Elizabeth:  RAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!  Rage, born of hunger and perhaps the beginnings of a migraine, is how my feelings about the food demonstration should be characterized.  We were told that there would be plenty of food demonstrations with free samples.  There was ONE food demonstration booth that ran throughout the day.  We attended a demonstration by the very nice, talented head chef at Thunder Bay, a resort town in Ontario being heavily pushed by the convention.  You would think that when free samples are promised to those who show up, they would have those samples in a warmer ready to be handed out at some point during the demonstration.  NO!  This lovely, charming chef cooked two filets of salmon and 4 chicken breasts and then these super slow assistants cut them up to be handed out.  It took FOREVER!!!  Add to that the irritation of the lady behind me hitting me in the back with her purse so I would pass her some leaflet on my table for her to look at, the fact that I was missing the beginning of Samantha Brown's presentation, and that the food cooked in the presentation was nothing special, and I was quickly becoming cranky.

 The Chef--he really was such a nice man.  It's not his fault.

The George Kennedy-looking gentleman with the microphone is the moderator.

Michel:  Holy shit, the moderator.  This guy had the personality of the hackiest Catskills comic you have ever seen.  His behavior suggested to me that he firmly believed that were he not the center of attention for even a second, he would immediately die.

Elizabeth:  He slowed things down so much!

Michel:  I have never experienced such visceral distaste for a master of ceremonies in my life.  He was the worst.

Next Up:  The Mexico Booth Again!

Elizabeth:  As we wandered our way toward the Samantha Brown presentation, we began to see people clutching large flat corn disks covered in a gloriously bright and creamy green concoction and sprinkled with bits of red and purple which can only be described as a tostada smothered in guacamole and pico.  Immediately knowing that our avocado dreams had come true, we beelined for the Mexico booth again.  Never have I ever been so utterly crushed to discover that a free sample had run out literally right before I arrived.

Michel:   Frankly, I blame the moderator at the food demonstration. 


Final Stop:  Samantha Brown!

Apologies for my cell phone camera.  It does not do well with long distance.

Elizabeth:  Samantha Brown is as lovely and genuine in person as she is on tv.  She gave an excellent and interesting speech on how to travel meaningfully, and I loved what she had to say.  Unfortunately the hunger was beginning to become more of an issue, and Michel said he would defer to me on what we did.  I decided that the only thing that would make me feel better would be a hot dog and Dr. Pepper from Budacki's, the great little hot dog shack down the street from us, recently featured on an episode of Anthony Bourdain's The Layover.  So we called it a day.

Michel:  I recommend the Polish sausage with the hot peppers.  

 

Elizabeth:  While parts of it were frustrating, I'm still glad we went.  It's always exciting to see "celebrities," and it was a new experience.   Maybe not one worth repeating but one worth doing once!

Battle of the Chocolate Shops: Hot Chocolate Edition

In Houston, we are blessed with a plethora of Starbucks, including the famous "2 Starbucks Corner" at Shepherd and West Grey that earned a mention in a Lewis Black rant.  (There is actually a 3rd in the Barnes and Noble at that corner, but Michel points out it is not actually a Starbucks, just a coffee shop that is licensed to sell Starbucks and so looks, smells, and tastes exactly like Starbucks but won't accept Starbucks gift cards.)  In Chicago, while we have plenty of Starbucks, it seems that chocolate shops are the ones doing battle on the corners, specifically the Hershey's store and the Ghirardelli shop, both at the corner of E. Tower Court and E. Pearson Street, just behind the Water Tower on Michigan Avenue.

First, let's acknowledge something great.  Both of these shops are on E Pearson Street, which is clearly named after me.  My birthday, I also recently discovered, is National Chocolate Day.  Obviously, chocolate and I are made for each other.

The Battle began in late December, when our dear friends, Josh and Mallory, visited Chicago with Josh's band students.  Fortunately, they were released from their chaperoning duties for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, and we met up with them for an afternoon of shopping and drinks on the Mag Mile (and a late lunch at Fountainhead the next day, after which we traveled back to Houston with them for the holidays!)

Michel's side note: Have no illusions, all of these drinks were Elizabeth's.

Elizabeth's rebuttal: Noooooooo!  Not true.

Michel: *wink* 

Good food, good friends!

But first, we decided we needed hot chocolate.  Josh and Mallory voted for the Hershey shop, so in we went.

Hershey was founded in 1894 by Milton S. Hershey, after he sold his Lancaster Caramel Company upon seeing a chocolate making machine for the first time.  As Mr. Hershey supposedly said, "Caramels are just a fad, but chocolate is a permanent thing."  One of the oldest chocolate companies in the country, Hershey is a member of the World Cocoa Federation, and its products are sold in over 60 countries today.  The Hershey Companies include not just the chocolate factory but also Hersheypark, the Hershey Bears minor league hockey team and the Giant Center where they play, and Hersheypark Stadium.  

Inside the Chicago Hershey store, the decor was decidedly, though festively, commercial, focused on merchandising as much as the chocolate itself.  Even the "chocolate silo" was a money-making venture for the store.

However, you can't go wrong with Hershey.  One of the most famous chocolate brands in the country, if not the world, Hershey is a familiar, comforting reminder of our childhoods.  On Halloween, it was always exciting to find either a small Hershey bar or a Hershey's Special Dark bite-size chocolate piece in the candy pumpkin.  And Hershey did not disappoint.  We received cups of delicious, frothy, actually hot hot chocolate, rich and velvety with flavor.  Michel got the coconut hot chocolate, which he loved (Michel: it was like drinking an Almond Joy) but I know was actually disgusting as I hate coconut.  The freshly made cookies and brownies looked absolutely decadent, and it was hard not to go back for an additional treat.  My food dislikes aside, we were all very happy with our choice for the day. 

Michel: It was neat, but it was no Hershey's Chocolate World.

 

Hershey had thrown down the gauntlet, and it looked like Ghirardelli had a long way to go to win.

It wasn't until Michel's sister and brother-in-law, Diana and Ron, came to visit over MLK weekend that we had a chance to complete the Battle of the Chocolate Shops: Hot Chocolate Edition.  Fortunately Diana loves chocolate about as much as I do and was eager to taste test.  After a busy day seeing the downtown sights, we ended our trek across the street from Hershey at the Ghirardelli shop.

The Ghirardelli Chocolate Company was incorporated in 1852 by Domenico Ghirardelli, an Italian chocolate maker who spent time in Uruguay and Peru before coming to California for the Gold Rush.  It is the second oldest chocolate maker in the country, after Baker's Chocolate, and is currently a subsidiary of Swiss confectioner Lindt and Sprüngli.  Ghirardelli is one of the few chocolate companies in the country that controls every aspect of production, including rejecting up to 40% of cacao seeds intended for use to ensure the highest quality chocolate possible.  Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, location of many of the original Ghirardelli Company buildings, is now an official city landmark and a wonderland of delicious, delicious chocolate.

Entering the Chicago store, it is very similar to the original Ghirardelli shop in San Francisco: an old-fashioned candy shop vibe with warm wood trim, vibrantly colored chocolate packaging, and a charming little seating area.  It also has a bit of a commercial feel with all of the various Ghirardelli products lining the walls and tables, but that feel is mitigated a bit by the ability to order an ice cream sundae at a vintage ice cream counter and eat it at real tables and chairs.

When we entered the store, we were the only people there.  However, sensing our presence, people started flooding in shortly after us, desperate to get their sweet treats where the arbiters of taste (us) had decided to do the same.  As a result, the charming little seating area quickly became much less charming and much more crowded.  However, it was absolutely worth it for the hot chocolate that soon appeared.

Michel and Diana both ordered the salty caramel hot chocolate, easily one of the creamiest, chocolatiest, most delicious hot chocolates any of us had ever had.  Ron and I both ordered the Decadent Drinking Chocolate, hot chocolate made entirely of melted dark chocolate chips and reminiscent of the hot chocolate of Chocolateria San Gines in Madrid, where the chocolate is so thick, you can stand your churro up in in it.  Inspired, I tried to stand my spoon up in my hot chocolate.  It worked.

Michel: It took four hours and eighteen yards of fishing line to get this picture.

It didn't hurt that they gave each of us a free dark chocolate caramel upon entering the store and a free sea salt caramel along with the salty caramel hot chocolates.  But the flavors and quality of the chocolate were just so intense and so far above anything else we'd tried that it's now hard to even consider any other option for our hot chocolate needs.

Winner of the Battle of the Chocolate Shops Hot Chocolate Edition:  Ghirardelli, hands down.

Michel: A note to Hershey: We will gladly change the result of this competition in exchange for free chocolate.

Michel and Elizabeth Survive the Polar Vortex of 2014

So it's been cold this week.  But not just regular cold.  Abnormally cold. Our return to Chicago from balmy Houston was greeted with the Polar Vortex paying a visit to most of the United States.

In case you haven't heard, the Polar or Arctic Vortex usually hangs out above the North Pole.  Occasionally it will send its tentacles (yes, tentacles) down through Canada and into the northern US, but it is not usually worth a major mention of any form.  This time, as many of you know, the entire vortex decided to come, plunging much of the country into ridiculously low temperatures.  Here in Chicago, we reached what the media called "dangerously low" temps, which resulted in the city partially shutting down.  (This is unheard of.  Chicagoans go to work and school in the most shocking weather).  At our apartment, our lowest was -16 degrees Farenheit with a wind chill of -41.  I heard it was even colder in other parts of the city.  Predictions were for 60 continuous hours of below 0 degree weather.  On Monday it was colder in Chicago than it was at the South Pole.

After making a last-minute grocery story run on Sunday that ended in us pushing our car over the snow back into the garage, we holed up for the next few days in our apartment, only stepping outside to take a few pictures of the truly spectacular icicles dripping from the roof above our back porch.  Honestly, we had a great time!  Our radiators made our apartment quite toasty, and we spent our time reading, playing games, cooking, and watching movies and the much-anticipated premier of Downton Abbey!  Indeed, we even managed to not only cure all of the diseases but also eradicate them in our first two-person game of Pandemic.  (For you, Pändas and Alexanders!) 

That being said, the world outside our apartment has been a pretty weird and spectacular place for the last few days!

Our friend, Matthew, sent me these pictures of the effects of the Polar Vortex on Chicago:

And enjoy these pictures from around our apartment:

There was close to a foot of snow in the courtyard that had accumulated after several days of snow over the holidays.

 Icicles on the back porch!

 At one point, this icicle extended all the way down from the roof to connect with the icicle on the bannister of the stairs.

This is after part of the icicle broke, but you can see the mound of ice on the bannister to which the big icicle connected.

 

 The windows in the sunroom completely iced over.