Elizabeth, Michel, Kathleen, and Mark Hunt for Cool Things in Lincoln Park

Though we have not been posting recently, we certainly have been busy.  Michel finished up a very successful semester, I've been really busy at work, and both of our younger siblings graduated from college, meaning a trip home to Texas!  However, we've also continued our stream of visitors with my dear friend and college roommate, Kathleen, and her fiance, Mark, visiting from sunny Phoenix!  We had a wonderful, if quick trip with them, visiting some favorite restaurants, having a delicious dinner at home of Kahlua pork lettuce wraps with jasmine rice and avocado and mango salsa, along with my first ever attempt at fried plantains (pretty good!) and cupcakes for dessert, and hanging out in Lincoln Square.  Plus Kathleen and I got pedicures while Michel and Mark visited Half Acre.  A pretty great 36 hours!

You've probably figured out by now that if you visit us, we will probably take you to Fountainhead, Marmalade, or both.  For those of you lucky enough to visit us between May 1 and whenever it gets cold, we will take you to Fountainhead's rooftop, which was our first stop upon their arrival!  Despite a super long wait (go early for a seat on the rooftop!), rose cava for Kathleen and me and cold beers for the guys started the trip off right!

 Roomies reunited!

After our delicious lunch, we headed off to Lincoln Park to start our scavenger hunt.  You may recall Michel's and my scavenger hunt in River North about a month ago.  We had a great time, and Kathleen and Mark thought a scavenger hunt in the gorgeous Lincoln Park neighborhood sounded like a great way to see a part of the city on such a short trip.  We started at the statue of Abraham Lincoln near the Chicago History Museum.

 We were instructed to pose holding our coats like Lincoln.

The first of many four-person selfies!

The tour took us through the park, past the baseball fields and the original shoreline of Lake Michigan to the Shakespeare garden and the pond on the south side of Lincoln Park Zoo.  

 Apparently the baseball fields are located on one of the first four cemeteries in the city of Chicago.  Michel and Mark were excited to find the marker after we made a wrong turn that sent us all the way around the fields.  Kathleen was sad that the marker was for a cemetery.

 Apparently the shore of Lake Michigan used to be 20 feet higher.  As amazing as that is, we almost missed the tiny marker!

 The Shakespeare garden was gorgeous and blooming and is filled with bits of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.

 

We then headed to Michael's Landing, a beautiful dock on the pond.  Michel was concerned that they had misspelled his name.

After the park (and narrowly avoiding a small flock of Canadian geese roaming the path), we were directed into the neighborhood.  Much of what our clues pointed to were unusual architectural details on historic buildings, so we only took a few pictures.  But the feel of this part of Lincoln Park was quite distinct from other parts of the neighborhood I had been to.  It felt more Colonial than late 1800's, like so much of the city, and we really enjoyed seeing some of these more unique houses.

 Second four-person selfie!  We are not sure why we were directed to this blue door, but we got a good picture out of it!

 Mark enjoys soccer just like the kids in the window, a part of a historic building in a gorgeous, almost Colonial-style section of the neighborhood.

After a while, we were spit out into a more business-y part of the neighborhood.  It was filled with gorgeous little shops, including two floral shops, historic restaurants, and this adorable little Polish coffee shop, where we stopped for a snack.  I also introduced Kathleen to the Polish version of kolaches, a yummy but rather disappointing little cookie.  Her response: "Oh...that's cute..."  A cookie kolache simply doesn't cut it when you are expecting the wonderful sweet bread filled with fruit or sausage.  But the rest of the snacks did not disappoint!

 

After our snack, we headed into the last leg of our scavenger hunt, focused around the bustling intersection of North and Wells and heading into Old Town.  It was Kentucky Derby Day, and there were a ton of people enjoying the festivities in the many bars.  We, however, started at one of Chicago's most famous institutions, The Second City.  We did not go in for very long, focusing mainly of the "Hall of Fame" room, but seeing a show there is definitely on our Chicago to-do list!

 We were instructed to laugh at the hilarity happening around us.

 Next, we headed to the Old Town Aquarium, a super cool sea-life and aquarium store.  And, of course, everyone had to do fish faces.

On to The Fudge Pot, famous for delicious chocolate and once hosting Tom Cruise!

 Finally, our last stop in Old Town and of the day was The Spice House.  It is a beautiful, antique-looking spice shop, and we enjoyed learning about the history of saffron, even if they did mix up the dates.  That being said, our little spice shop in Lincoln Square, The Savory Spice Shop, is still the best!

It was a really fun afternoon, but we were happy to head back up to our neighborhood to pick up cupcakes and get ready for dinner.  Despite their luggage not arriving until the next day, we had a really wonderful time with dear friends, and we're looking forward to their fall wedding and a visit to Phoenix in the next year!