Elizabeth and Michel Dye the Chicago River Green

Ok, so we didn't really get to dye it.  Some guy in a tiny boat, with the help of his imaginary friend The Leprechaun, does that.  But we did get to see the river dyed a beautiful and festive Kelly green and experience a little of Chicago's famous St. Patrick's Day festivities.  These pictures do not adequately capture the creativity of some people's costumes: from tutus and shamrock headbands to medieval dresses with elf ears, people were decked out in their St. Paddy's finest!  If only I'd gotten a picture of the lime green Wookie boots...

Things You Might See in Chicago on St. Patrick's Day Weekend

 Parts of the river that you thought were supposed to be green that aren't.

 People bundled up because years that are warm on St. Paddy's are anomalies.

 Construction sites getting into the spirit.

 People lined up on the street waiting to get into a restaurant or bar for St. Patrick's Day brunch.  (That's a thing here, like Easter brunch in Texas.)

 

People dressed up in their finest Kelly green.

 Breathtaking views of the city...while still waiting at the wrong bridge.  

(Hint: It doesn't turn green down at LaSalle Street.)

 Crew teams getting into the spirit of the day.

 Party boats!

 Super cool police boats!

 More party boats...

 ...being followed by more police boats?

 The river finally starting to turn green!

 People lined up for blocks along the river and across the bridges to see the color change.

 Stand-up paddleboarders (Most of them were wearing wetsuits.)

 A leprechaun and his pot of gold  (This pic is larger so you can see the brilliance of their costumes.)

 People moving to better see the green part of the river.

 (We're both wearing green under our coats...don't worry!)

Green puppies and their green owners.

 Finally!  The part of the river dyed green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Michel and Elizabeth Celebrate An Anniversary

 

This week was our three year wedding anniversary!  The morning dawned with a fresh 6 inches of snow, but despite Mother Nature's slap in the face, March 12 was a great day.

 

For a while I had been seeing ads for a Groupon-esque website called How About We on my facebook.  It was so relentless in its presence that I finally decided to see what it was.  It turns out it is a website that provides really cool date experiences for a good price, and they just happened to have a one-month free plus credit toward your first date promotion.  I decided it might be fun to try it out (it was free, after all), and signed up.  That is how I came to find the glory that is Fish Bar and snag us a 9-course anniversary dinner for $19.

We arrived to find a much more casual restaurant than expected with a menu that was super exciting.  We sat in a booth in the back next to the kitchen.  Our waitress, Sara, explained that the way it worked was that we got to pick one course from each section of the menu below for a total of 9 courses, plus do-it-yourself S'mores for dessert. 

Michel:  We also got a cocktail and a beer each. 

Elizabeth:  I started with my cocktail, The Jackhammer.  Described as a margarita (on the rocks) with a kick, it was super smooth with a decidedly spicy finish.  Really interesting and delicious!

Michel:  I started with the Half Acre Daisy Cutter, a decent local beer but not my favorite of the Half Acre stable. 

Elizabeth:  Then came our first two courses:  smoked whitefish to spread on toast and a spicy crab gumbo.  The gumbo was absolutely delicious, but the whitefish blew me away.  It was the perfect balance of smokey and salty.

Michel:  I agree with both.  The whitefish had lemon juice and capers in it, and it was delightful.  The gumbo was Gulf Coast quality.

Elizabeth:  Third course was our vegetable dish: a beautiful cobb salad.  Best avocados I've had in a while.  Chicago does not get quality avocados year round like Houston does.  It also had a really tasty, tangy dressing.

Michel:  Seeing as this was a salad, it was by far the weakest course.  However, it was still good.  Really great bacon.

Elizabeth:  Fourth course was raw oysters!  Michel discovered the deliciousness that is oysters on our mini-moon to New Orleans, but we haven't really had them since.  As you can see, we were so excited that we ate them before pictures could be taken.  The large ones were from Martha's Vineyard and the small ones were from British Columbia.

Michel:  Had I not been thwarted, all of the food would have been eaten before pictures could be taken.  These were really great oysters.

Elizabeth:  5th course was spicy shrimp cocktail and 6th was a heavenly, buttery lobster roll.  The shrimp cocktail was amazingly fresh with delicious chips and the perfect amount of heat.

Michel:  The bun for the lobster roll was the most perfectly buttered thing I have ever had.  The lobster portion was also incredible.  The shrimp cocktail was probably the best I've ever had.

Elizabeth:  I think for Michel, the lobster roll was a food experience.

Elizabeth:  For my beer, I ended up choosing a Belgian-style wheat beer.  I am not a beer person, but I believe I have found the only beer that I've ever liked enough to drink most of.  It was very nice, almost champagney.

Michel:  For my cocktail, I had the Bourbon on Belmont.  As the name would suggest, it is a bourbon based cocktail that also had citrus and mint, so I guess it was like a bourbon mojito.  It was really good.

Elizabeth:  7th course was fried calamari, and 8th was salmon a la plancha with lentils and broccolini.  The fried calamari paired nicely with the tangy, pickled banana peppers, and the salmon was flavorful, if a bit dry.

Michel:  This is probably the best calamari I've ever had.

Elizabeth:  And finally, 9th course was fried scallop tacos!  Normally, I don't care for scallops (they're one of the few foods with which I have a texture issue), but these tacos were pretty tasty.

Michel:  Scallops are among my favorite foods.  Frying them and putting them on a taco only enhances their glory.

Happy and very full!

Elizabeth:  And then it was time for the build-your-own-S'mores portion of the evening.  They gave us our own mini-campfire, brought marshmallows and skewers, and delivered the graham crackers with the chocolate already spread on for us.  It was awesome!

Michel:  It was a tasty way to finish an exquisite and profoundly filling meal.

Elizabeth: It really was a wonderful anniversary experience.  We're looking forward to our next trip to Fish Bar, maybe for their new Sunday brunch.

Michel:  Despite all that seafood, no mercury poisoning!  

 

Sabrina Visits Chicago!

This spring both Michel's sister, Sabrina, and my brother, Ben, are graduating from college, and for their graduation presents, we invited both of them to come visit us for a long weekend in Chicago.  Sabrina came to visit this past weekend, the first weekend of both her and Michel's spring breaks.  We visited some favorite restaurants, toured downtown and Lincoln Square, and she and Michel went to the art museum and Half Acre on Monday and Tuesday.  The big event of the weekend, though, was the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater performance at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University.

 Lobby of Auditorium Theatre

 It's gorgeous and beautifully preserved.

 

The theatre was open to the staircases, creating a really cool space.

 

 Michel thought he was buying tickets in the upper right balcony.  Instead he bought front row box seats for a fantastic price.  It was pretty awesome.

 

Happy graduation, Sabrina!

Elizabeth: The show was absolutely phenomenal.  I had never seen an Alvin Ailey performance before, and I was glad to be correcting that.  The first act consisted of two pieces performed to music by Duke Ellington called Night Creatures and Pas de Duke...very cool!  The second act was a multi-movement piece called The River, which was probably my favorite, and the third act was a multi-movement piece performed to arrangements of American spirituals called Revelations, one of the landmark pieces choreographed by Alvin Ailey that launched the company to national recognition.  

Michel:  It was really wonderful except for the baffling occurrence of people clapping at moments when absolutely nothing was happening on the stage.  

Elizabeth:  It seemed like audience members were clapping for specific moves they thought were cool rather than looking at it as a whole piece of art, so that was irritating and distracting.  But that had nothing to do with the dancers themselves.

Michel:  I never said that it did!  I was merely pointing to the audience ettiquette.

Elizabeth:  I know, I was agreeing with you.  

Michel:  Ok.  I liked the large group numbers, but my favorites tended to be the pieces with two to four dancers.  The dancers in the smaller numbers were given more opportunities to be impressive.

Elizabeth:  It was really amazing, and if you have the chance to see an Alvin Ailey performance, you won't be disappointed.

On the train platform after the performance, we met (or, more accurately, were cornered by) a failed comic-turned-carney who regaled us with his entire, terrible stand-up act.  

Michel: Anyone looking to hear a five minute chunk on being cold should seek this guy out.  

Elizabeth: Though nice, he was rather aggressive and unrelenting in his presentation, and after a while I extricated us by looking through my purse and announcing that I had lost my phone.  My delivery was believable enough that our new friend believed me, and we were able to wait for the train downstairs.  Finally, it arrived, and we headed to Fountainhead for dinner, eschewing our new friend's suggestion of checking out the wrestling themed restaurant in Wicker Park.

A nice surprise of Sabrina's visit was discovering the American stained glass exhibit behind the chocolate department at the State Street Macy's.  (Yes, they have a chocolate department, and it is glorious.)

Michel:  Amidst these piece of stained glass was a trashcan that smelled as though only moments earlier someone had urinated directly into it.

Elizabeth:  This being Chicago, this is not an unreasonable assumption.  However, the stained glass was gorgeous and worth the smell.

Other highlights of the weekend included Sabrina's first visit to Tiffany's, at her request.  We had the nicest salesman who let Sabrina and me try on several rings and a pendant, and it was really fun.  And, of course, now that we have established Ghirardelli's supremacy in the realm of hot chocolate, we had to test their ice cream this time around: all agreed it was delicious!  It was a great weekend, and we're looking forward to Ben's visit later this spring!