Elizabeth and Michel Have a Date Day

Note:  This is a very long post with lots of pictures.  Be warned!  :-)

It has been a very busy few weeks for us, resulting in the slight neglect of our blog.  Big things were happening in our world: Elizabeth starting a new job, Michel starting his semester and a new job, the Olympics.  Yes, I'll be honest, most of our radio silence for the past few weeks was due to the Olympics.  We watched pretty much every minute we could, and I, at least, discovered a new love of ski- and snowboard-cross. 

If you were reading carefully, you might have noticed something about a job or two in the above paragraph.  Well, I am pleased to announce that after a long and, at times, frustrating search, I have a full-time job!  I actually had two job offers(!), and I accepted a position teaching Business Communications at Year Up, a national non-profit whose goal is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the education, skills, and internship experience needed for them to start a professional career and/or earn a degree through higher education.  My course will cover English and grammar, public speaking, communication techniques, and career readiness skills like how to write a resume and cover letter, network, and interview, giving the students 6 of the 18 hours of college credit hours that they can earn by the time they graduate from our program.  It's a completely different teaching environment for me, but everyone has been very nice and welcoming, and the students that I have met so far in our registration sessions this past week are impressively positive, thoughtful, and determined to make a better life for themselves.  I'm excited to see how it all goes!  Additionally, Michel has started a part-time job at the Chicago Symphony in their ticketing office.  He's enjoying the people he works with, and it allows him plenty of flexibility to work with his class schedule and homework load.  Good things have finally come together during our Chicago adventure!

So obviously, in addition to the Olympics, we've been busy settling in at our new jobs.  It's a pretty good reason to be away from the blog, I think! 

However, we did take a little time last weekend to have a date day and explore a few new things in Chicago.  Our day started with a trip to the Garfield Park Conservatory, one of the largest conservatories in the country.  Located on the West Side of Chicago, it was designed by Jens Jensen and built between 1906 and 1907.  A June 2011 hailstorm caused tremendous damage to the original glass roof of the Conservatory, and since then the Conservatory has been undergoing a campaign to repair the roof and replace the glass with stronger yet greenhouse appropriate material.  When we were there, all but two areas of the conservatory had had their glass replaced and repaired.  The restoration of the Fern House and the Show House is expected to be completed by next year.  We went on a gorgeous day when the temperature was in the high 30's and low 40's, but that didn't make us appreciate the warm temperatures and respite from the cold the Conservatory provides any less!

The Conservatory stop on the Green Line is totally charming and Victorian, 

like something out of Main Street USA at Disney World

 

 The outside of the Conservatory 

The Palm House, just inside the entrance

(The pyramid houses the Fern House, which suffered some of the worst hail damage.)

 

 This sign refers to the palm in the picture above it.  It is, indeed, huge!!

I really like taking close-up pictures of things.  Like a lot.

The Horticultural Hall 

 Right now the Horticultural Hall is filled with azaleas...a nice reminder of Houston!

 The centerpiece of the hall is this gorgeous fountain, described in the sign above.

  The grapefruit smelled delicious!

Sugar from the Sun

This room was all about the five senses.

 Cacao pod!  This, kids, is where chocolate comes from.

 We never found the sign for this one, but we thought it was cool.

Lady Slipper Orchid

There was also a great Children's Garden between the Sugar from the Sun room and the Desert House.  It was well-organized and highly interactive, and the kids who were playing in the garden seemed to be having a great time.

The Desert House

 I especially like taking close-ups of succulents because of their interesting geometric and architectural features.

 This was the tallest cactus in the room.

The Aroid House

Aroid is a family of plants, usually flowering, to which most houseplants belong.  

 The yellow water lilies are actually glass art by Dale Chihuly, 

an artist who specializes in freeblown glass sculpture in public installations. 

Scaffolding for the roof repairs in the Show House, seen through the windows of the Aroid House.

It was a great start to the day!  We are looking forward to our next visit when the weather is nicer so we can explore the outdoor gardens and hopefully the Show House, which is scheduled to re-open in time for Mother's Day.

At that point it was about 2:00 p.m., and we were hungry.  We decided to try DMK Burger Bar for lunch, a place that we had wanted to try for a while.  It was a fantastic decision.  Though it takes a different approach than Bad Apple, its burgers were similarly inventive and mind-blowingly delicious. The atmosphere was much hipper than Bad Apple, and even close to 3:00 (it took a while to get there), the place was packed.  We ended up eating at the bar, which offers full food service.  It specializes in grass-fed beef and lamb, but also has portabello, turkey, and veggie burgers available either as they appear on the menu or for substitution onto any of their beef or lamb burgers.  I believe there is even a bison burger on the menu.  Along with their burgers, they are known for their mac n' cheese and milkshakes, though we didn't try either of those. 

 (See the seafood place next door?  That's where we're going for our anniversary in a week and a half!)

I ordered the veggie burger.  First, it is an actual veggie burger, not a bean burger.  I love a good bean burger, but there is something so disappointing when you order a veggie burger and get a bean burger.  This was not the case.  It was an honest-to-God veggie burger with big chunks of flavorful carrots, eggplant, and other veggies, held together by nutty grains and crispy Panko crumbs, and topped with tomato, melted aged cheddar, and just the right touch of pesto mayo.  (No mayonnaise fairy here, Pearson family.)  It was such a hearty, filling, and wonderfully delicious veggie burger experience that even Michel, an avowed beef burger lover, was impressed.

Michel was similarly happy with his burger, which was pretty tasty as well.

Michel:  I had the roasted hatch green chile burger with a fried egg, Sonoma jack cheese, and bacon.  With the hatch chiles, it tasted like Central Market in August when they have the hatch chile festival.  I am now torn as to which is my favorite burger place here: DMK or Bad Apple. 

We also got the fries with a selection of sauces: parmesan truffle cream sauce, Wisconsin cheddar and scallion sauce, and the house-made ketchup.  I was expecting to like the truffle cream the best, but I actually loved the ketchup.  It was smoky sweet with a touch of spiciness, perfect for their thick-cut fries.  Michel loved all three (I really liked all of them, too), but we definitely ate more of the ketchup.

It was a really fun day, and we were so excited to take advantage of the nice weather to explore a little bit more of Chicago.  And if you are a burger fan, we have yet another excellent burger place to take you to if you decide to visit!

Diana and Ron Visit the Windy City for the First Time!

We were very excited to host Michel's sister and brother-in-law, Diana and Ron, over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend!  It was the first time hosting two people actually in the apartment and the first time breaking out our super spiffy, high-tech, self-inflating-and-deflating air mattress.  You all will be pleased to know, dear readers, that our air mattress works and  four people can successfully navigate our one bathroom for a weekend.  I know you were all very worried about both those issues.

We did a lot of the things already covered on this blog that have become a part of our "usual" tour of Chicago for our guests: visiting a museum, breakfast at Marmalade, dinner at Fountainhead, a walk around the neighborhood and Lincoln Square.  And, of course, we completed our quite popular Battle of the Chocolate Shops: Hot Chocolate Edition with Ron and Diana's help.  Diana and Ron had some specific interests, however, which allowed us to have a few new experiences during their trip as well.  So here are some highlights of the weekend.

First Stop: Lake Michigan.
Diana and Ron had never seen any of the Great Lakes, and doing so was high on their list.  So we headed over to Montrose Beach near our neighborhood to take in the views. 

 There were some pretty spectacular views of the city, even on this cold, grey day.

Michel: Here I am contemplating the significance of human endeavor in a vast, unfeeling universe.  Also, it was totes cold out.

 Ron was very cold.

 I don't think I've ever been this cold in my life, and I have spent New Year's in York, England.
Michel:  It made the Polar Vortex feel like a warm summer day.

 While the lake wasn't frozen here, the marina absolutely was.  It was kind of crazy to see.

Second Stop: Willis Tower. (Formerly Sears Tower) 
We did not go to the top, but Diana's students really wanted her to visit and take a picture.  So we did!

Michel: Still taller than the Freedom Tower.

Elizabeth: Yeah, we have to side with Chicago on this one.

Third Stop: Vosges on the Mag(nificent) Mile.
(Michel abhors abbreviations, or abbreves as I like to say, hence the parentheses above completing the word "magnificent".)
Vosges is a super fancy, specialty chocolate store (though they did not appear to have hot chocolate, hence their absence from the Battle of the Chocolate Shops: Hot Chocolate Edition post), and we had heard of it from several people.  Charlotte, in fact, had given me a small selection of their chocolate for my birthday one year, and I remembered it being delicious.  The shop was tiny, but they were not only sampling their chocolate bars (dark chocolate truffle sea salt and pepper pomegranate were particular favorites) but their truffles as well.  The flavors were exotic and crazy, and I even tried a curry truffle...delicious!

Michel:  Surprisingly, also taller than the Freedom Tower.

Fourth Stop: Ghirardelli, but you already know the outcome of that successful stop!

Final Stop:  Bad Apple.
Bad Apple is a burger place near our apartment (and across the street from Half Acre, from whence you can order Bad Apple delivery!) that had come highly recommended by our friends, Lauren and Mike.  We thought Diana and Ron's visit presented the perfect opportunity to try it!  It was so delicious!  They have a great beverage selection and really inventive burgers.  I ended up going with a sandwich.  The Earthly is wild mushrooms, spinach, caramelized onions, and truffled goat cheese on a foccacia bun.  Sooooo good!  Michel had the Edmund Fig-gerald burger, a burger with fig and bacon relish, goat cheese, and smoked onion.  Diana and Ron had equally delicious burgers as well.  Plus they have a plethora of fries seasonings to choose from!  My favorite is, of course, the truffle seasoning.  It was a fantastic dinner and definitely a restaurant we'll be adding to our meal outings with guests!

Michel: The Edmund Fig-Gerald is made with real Lake Superior water and is seasoned with Gordon Lightfoot's tears.

All in all, we had a great weekend with Diana and Ron and are looking forward to our next visitors...it could be you!

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.