Beer, Workout, Eat, Repeat.

Hi, friends!

This weekend was an interesting one to say the least… and as I type up this post the Bears are off to a piss poor start, so let’s hope that changes by the time I’m done here.

Friday after work, a group of friends and I had tickets to go to the ‘Lions, Tigers and Brews’ beer festival at the Lincoln Park Zoo.  If you live in Chicago, then you know Friday was just an awful, awful day to be outside.  It was 55 degrees, windy and rainy.  Yuck.  I had a sweater and leather jacket on, but that really was not enough to block the piercing wind while holding a cold beer.  Needless to say, the “festival” was very short lived for me and my crew.  We managed to snag about 3 or 4 beers (the lines were outrageous considering the weather), and visited the lions.

He was the best part of the fest.

The low-key Friday was okay by me because we had ANOTHER beer festival to go to on Saturday, and luckily this one was indoors 🙂

The Chicago Beer Festival was held on Saturday in the Great Hall at Union Station.  There were two sessions you could attend and my friends and I choose the 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. time slot.  Day drinking at it’s finest.

The Great Hall is huge and there were at least 50 different breweries at the event.  Including:

• Lagunitas Brewing
• 3 Sheeps Brewing Co.
• Summit Brewing Co.
• Dark Horse Brewing Co.
• Off Color Brewing
• Finch’s Beer Co.
• Atlas Brewing Company
• Penrose Brewing Company
• Founders Brewing
• Rogue
• Transient Artisan Ales
• Local Option
• Bell’s
• Upland Brewing Co.

… and so much more.

Upon entering the event, we received our ‘tasting’ mugs, which were actually a really decent size for tasting pours!

We took our time pretty much sampling every vendor.  I sampled all kinds of IPA’s, Saisons, Porter’s, Cider’s, etc.

My favorites from the day were:

• P.2 Pale Ale from Penrose Brewing Company
• Really Cool Waterslides IPA from 3 Sheeps Brewing
• Crooked Tree IPA from Dark Horse BRewing
• Rasberry Ale from Dark Horse Brewing
• en Seine Pearis Saison from Bucket List Brewing

So yummy!  We had an absolute blast at the event – it’s always fun to go with such a great group of people!

After our 4 hours were up, we were HUNGRY (and severely buzzed) so food was in order.  We headed over the Haymarket Brewery, because clearly we had no had enough beer yet, and ate some delicious pizza.

After that Brian and I headed home to let Bailey out and uhhhhh pass out.  🙂

I was up bright and early Sunday morning to immediately start working off all of the beer/pizza that was in my body.

First, a long morning walk with Bailey.

Then, a spin/pump class at Go Cycle courtesy of my ClassPass subscription.  The class I signed up for was called ‘Go Pump’ and was 40 minutes of cycling followed by 20 minutes of weights.  Go Cycle is not just a spin studio, they have lots of other combo classes such as:

• Go Core: 30 minutes of cycling followed by 20 minutes of core
• TRX Training
• TRX Express
• Go Yo: 40 minutes of cycling followed by 20 minutes of yoga
• Go Ripped: Alternating intervals of cycling and weights

My instructor was Sara B. and she was AWESOME!  High energy, tons of fun… she even danced during some songs!  I absolutely loved the class.  I left SUPER sweaty and my booty was on fiiirreee.  I will definitely be going back and can’t wait to try out all the other different types of classes.

Welp, the Bears still aren’t doing good, but it’s only the 2nd quarter.  Here’s hoping they big home the W!

 

 

A Perfect Summer Night

Last night was an awesome night.  I headed home after work to meet my dad at the tennis court complex by the lake.  It was an absolutely beautiful night – no clouds in the sky, a perfect 75 degrees.

My dad is the whole reason I started playing tennis as a young toddler to begin with.  Growing up, I knew it was always summer break when dad would have Wimbledon on every t.v. throughout the household so if I was doing chores, I could watch the match as I moved around.  It’s one of those sports I will always be grateful I got into at a very young age.  Tennis, like snowboarding to me, is a life-long sport that I will be able to play until I am old and gray living in Hilton Head Island.

We got to the courts with about 30 minutes to spare before the next round of play began.  If you’re not familiar with how to “reserve” public tennis courts, let me give you a crash course.

Play begins every hour on the hour.

If you want to reserve a court, place your racquet on the court-specific peg board.  If your reserving it for an ‘odd hour’, ie: 7:00 p.m., place it on the left.  Even hour, ie: 8:00 p.m., the right.

If for some reason the people you are waiting for on court 4 get off at 6:40 p.m., don’t you dare remove your racquet and go to that court.  Wait until 7:00 p.m., so you secure the full hour of play.

I hope that was helpful 😉

Dad and I got to play a whole hour between 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. which was the perfect time before the sun went down.

After tennis, we headed over to the local pub Wilde to grab a couple beers and grilled salmon sandwiches on their patio.

It was a perfect summer night.

Well folks, I’m off to Lolla Land starting tomorrow aka Lollapalooza! Being the type of person I am, I have already mapped out the bands I want to swing by and already packed my backpack.

Bailey is interested to know what’s in my Lolla backpack, so I’ll share with the class:

1. Cash money – I opted out of the ‘Cashless’ wrist band option because that feels dangerous to me.  I’m on a money diet, so I want to know how much I’m spending!
2. ID, credit card, medical insurance card – My mother taught me to never go anywhere without it
3. Sunscreen & chapstick – FYI you’re not allowed to bring spray-on sunscreen into the venue
4. A poncho – This is just for Friday… 40% chance of rain, so who knows what will happen
5. Portable phone charger – CLUTCH
6. Refillable water bottle – I have like 10 of these, so if it doesn’t make it home with me I won’t cry about it
7. Ziploc bag – If it rains, I’ll put my phone/charger in it
8. Sunglasses – Obvi.
9. Granola Bar – pretty sure this isn’t allowed, but I need snacks!
10. Mini deodorant – no body likes to stand next to stinky people.

… and obviously my 3 day pass will be on my wrist.

See you next week!

Pints for Precious – Revolution Brewing

So that storm last night was pretty awesome… I wish I had a super fancy camera that could have captured the lighting show – it was insane.

For the most part, I stayed dry and safe. After work, Brian and I headed over to Revolution Brewing in Logan square to attend a fundraising event called ‘Pints for Precious’ hosted by It’s A Pittie Rescue Shelter.

Precious is one of It’s A Pittie Rescues’ most popular dogs.  She came to us about a year and a half ago from a horrible shelter in Indiana where she didn’t receive any human attention except to be fed and let out to go to the bathroom.  She was emaciated and heart worm positive and we didn’t know if she would make it or not. After undergoing treatment and successfully beating the parasite she went to live in a boarding facility until we could find her a home.  Precious was mistreated in her early life – before she came to IPR she was over bred and possibly used in dog fights.  Because of her past Precious needed to be in a home with no other animals.  She spent many months in boarded waiting for the right home where she became a volunteer favorite with many of our walkers and even became famous!  Precious was Miss October in Blackhawk’s player Bryan Bickell’s “Bick’s Pits” calendar to raise funds for the breed.  

One day, a few months ago, Precious finally caught a break and we found the perfect foster home for her to live with while we continued to look for her forever home.  While in her foster home one day, Precious chewed up a blanket and ate the lining.  She got quite sick from this and in the end needed to have a surgery to remove the blockage and have the tears in her intestines repaired.  She was given a 30% chance of survival by the vets.  We worried so much about her over the few days after her surgery but our prayers were answered and slowly she began to recover.  We are happy to announce that Precious has made a full recovery but now IPR has a $3,500 bill to pay.

Needless to say, I was more than happy to spend my money where it would be well received.

The deal to get into the event was actually really awesome – $35 all you can drink of Revolutions signature beers: Bottom Up Wit, Anti-Hero, Eugene Porter, Iron Fist Pale Ale and Cross of Gold. The entry fee also included food: smoked wings, pull pork sandwiches and sweet potato cakes with a spicy pepper sauce.

There were a lot of people who attended and it was great to hear others stories of how they fell in love with the pitbull breed, their rescues stories and why it’s so important to volunteer. It’s always fun drinking with like-minded people 🙂 Stories were shared of how people have judged or misunderstood the breed only to turn around and find that they can be the most loyal and loving. It was truly an awesome experience and as you can tell I was just gushing with pride.

The event also had a lot of raffles/silent auctions that we could enter in, so Brian and I pushed our luck and pretty much entered in everything. Historically speaking, I have never really been lucky when it comes to raffles… But last night we were on fiiirrreeee.

Our donations won us a craft beer basket, wine basket and a Bryan Bickell signed mini Blackhawks helmet. If you read my blog, you know I’m not particularly a Blackhawks fan (Go Sabres!), but I do know who Bickell is and I do know that he is actively involved in the Pitbull Rescue community.

We were pretty happy 🙂

This week is jam packed with activities pretty much everyday –

Monday – Pints for Precious

Tuesday – ‘Top Gun’ Summer Movie in Millennium Park

Wednesday – ‘kFit 60 Day Challenge’ class (more on that later!)

Thursday – My best friend, Lauren’s, birthday

Friday – 4th of July!

Saturday – MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

I’m pretty much exhausted already, but what this really means is that I have to work extra hard to fit my workouts in for the week.  Yup, those good ol’ 5:00 a.m. runs have been calling my name and luckily, I have been rewarded with some pretty awesome views/weather.

Fit it in people!  How else are you going to work off all that craft beer/wine over the holiday weekend 😉

Good Eats – The Radler & The Dawson

These past two days have been stupendous in terms of my eating. My exercising, wellllll… not so much.

Tuesday night a couple of coworkers and I went out to The Radler in Logan Square to enjoy some delicious German beer and shared plates. The decor of The Radler is my favorite part about the place. It’s large with German Hall style seating, a massive bar area that sits in front of three giant handmade wooden clocks and a mural that was restored from the 1800’s.

 

“The mural was uncovered during demolition and was an advertisement for Bohemian Export Beer. The beer was brewed by West Side Brewing Co. and was only on the market for 10 years, from 1881-1890. The brewery was founded by German immigrant Conrad Seipp. During the time it was open, the West Side Brewery was one of the largest producers in the U.S.A. The brewery also produced about eight other beers as well as the Bohemian. The mural was also painted by Thomas Cusak Company. The company painted many of the advertising murals around Chicago during that time frame. It was also one of the last murals that they painted at street level, soon after Thomas decided to paint on higher elevations to make them more easily seen.”

There are touches of old and new with modern paintings on the wall and bike sculptures from a local Chicago artist.

We sat down, took a look at the menu and decided we just wanted to split a bunch of dishes to get the most out of the meal. Side note: dining with people who are so easy going and not bit picky over checks or food are my favorite kind of people to dine with.

To start, we ordered the Sourdough Spring Pea Pancakes with shaved vegetables and the German Onion Pie.

Both were delicious, but the onion pie really stole the show. It was creamy like a quiche with a perfectly flaky crush and a bacon vinaigrette – perfecto.

As our mains, we split two types of house-made sausage: the Jagdwurst and the Boarwurst and the roasted rabbit.

The sausages were good and had two very distinct flavors, one was made with pork while the other had boar in it.

We took our time nibbling our way through dinner and ordering multiple rounds of beer and radlers. If you don’t know what a Radler is, it’s a mixture between German beer and usually homemade fruit juice soda. So crisp and refreshing and not too sweet!

My second stellar dining experience was last night when I met my dad after work at The Dawson in River West. The Dawson is another huge dining venue with a fabulous outdoor patio complete with wood burning fires and cushioned seating.

We started our night outside at the bar and ordered a round of Chardonnay and the Shishito Peppers as an appetizer.

If you have not had these peppers before, 1 in 5 of then are hot which makes it all the more fun to gobble them down 🙂

Right as we finished our first glass of wine the heavens opened up and it started POURING… Oh and thundering and lightening. The staff did a great job of breaking down the bar quickly and transferring all of us indoors.

Once inside, we both decided we were ready for something more substantial, and split the Steamed Mussels with chorizo in a tomato broth and the Crispy Soft Shell Crab. Both delicious and light – the perfect meal!

The key to dining out at great places and not getting fat is of course portion control and lots of exercise. While I was able to squeeze in some strength training, the wine really got to my running! It’s a good thing I have soccer tonight and a race on Saturday. All about the balance!  Bon appetit, my friends!

Chicago Food/Drink Hot Spots

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

BAHHH.  I wish I was a millionaire for the sole reason that I want to frequent all of these restaurants every night of the week – without getting fat.  In honor of the spring/summer season approaching, here is my HOT SPOT list for Chicago restaurants/bars.  This may need to be a reoccurring post as my taste changes all the time and there are always new and exciting restaurants coming out each week!

I apologize in advance if this post makes your crave sushi, pizza, and slushies at 8:00 a.m. in the morning.

Chicago Restaurants I’m loving lately…

1. Kai Zan

I was first introduced to this amazing sushi place by one of my coworkers who lives in the area.  After my first bite of their famous ‘angry crab’, I was hooked.  Now, I stalk their Instagram feed daily to see what their newest creations are and when they have open tables available.

Note: Double the points – this place is BYOB.

2. Coalfire Pizza

There is something about coal burning ovens that really speaks to me… oh yah and pizza!  This Neapolitan style pizza place has my hands-down favorite margherita pizza in all of Chicago.  It’s something about their thin crispy crust and unique toppings that really make me go weak in the knees.

3. Pastoral

This little artisan wine, cheese and bread shop is just a couple blocks away from my apartment.  I can’t help but stop in every time I pass by and pick up some good stinky cheese and a fresh loaf of bread.  Heaven.

4. Kinmont

She had me at first oyster.  Have I mentioned that oysters are at the top of my list for favorite foods.  The collaborators behind Nellcote and Old Town Social have done it again – great addition to the Chicago restaurant scene.

 

Chicago Restaurants that really speak to me in the summer

1. Piccolo Sogno

You’ve heard me say this before, but Piccolo Sogno is my FAVORITE restaurant of all time.  Especially in the summer.  When you sit on their patio you completely forget your are in a busy city with your first bite of their parpadelle with spiced wild boar ragu.

It should be noted that I am referring to it’s original location on Halsted and Grand Ave.

2. Fish Bar

Another great restaurant that is just minutes from my apartment.  Their patio is in the perfect location for people watching and for dog mingling 🙂

3. Three Aces

Although I have only been to Three Aces once, it is on my list of go-to places for the summer.  Their patio is amazing with a great view of the Sears Tower ( not the Wills Tower, okay!).

4. Parson’s Chicken & Fish

Negroni Slushie.  Outdoor Patio.  Fried Chicken.  Enough said.

 

Chicago Restaurants I NEED to try (speak up if you want to go with me!)

1. Honey Butter Fried Chicken

2. The Radler

3. Cicchetti

4. Fat Rice

 

I need a cocktail… STAT.

1. Billy Sunday

2. The Berkshire Room

3. Chicago Distilling Company

4. Sportsman’s Club

 

You know who to call/text/email if you need a dinner date 😉  Have a fabulous weekend.

Hilton Head Recap: Food

It’s no secret that I have a weird obsession with all things food related – I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that most bloggers do.  However, this past week at Hilton Head was awesome in part because I didn’t have to worry about cooking for myself for seven whole days.  Plus, my mom and dad made most of the reservations which meant I was in a total state of RELAXATION. Here is the recap of the week and my recommendations for some dinner/lunch hot spots.

Saturday: Uhhhh we got in at midnight sooooo I had a few bites of mom’s leftover sushi and then hit the hay.

Sunday: Skull Creek Boathouse

Skull Creek Boathouse is a great family-friendly restaurant on the island that is perfect for al fresco dining and an amazing view of the sunset.  This restaurant is one of the more popular ones on the island and there is always SUCH a long wait.  I’m not sure how it happened, but we were lucky enough to snag a tall-boy table by the bar outside without having to put our name on the waiting list.  Noteworthy – don’t wait for resos – grab a seat at the bar – it is always a good time.

For the table we ended up splitting an order of the hushpuppies which were so delicious.  For my main course, I opted for the peel n’ eat local shrimp – for obvious reasons.  It’s funny, on the menu they had peel n’ eat shrimp and then shrimp that were already peeled for like $5 more… are people that afraid of peeling shrimp.  C’mon.

Monday: Low Country Boil – The only meal I cooked all week!

This is an awesome recipe I will have to share with you later, but it was super simple.  I basically threw some fresh jumbo shrimp, corn, turkey kielbasa (for us heart healthy folk) and red potatoes in a pot of boiling water with old bay and lemons.

It was super yum and you best believe we ate the whole damn thing.

Tuesday: The Black Marlin

Another really popular restaurant on the island, however, we did not go out until 8:00 p.m. so we beat all of the family rush 😉  The Black Marlin has a really awesome patio that overlooks the bay.  My mom and I weren’t super hungry, so we just ended up ordering a bunch of appetizers: Sushi Nachos (oh, yes), Crab Cakes and my favorite… fresh oysters.

To die for.  Right from the Skull Creek Bay.

Wednesday: Sunset Grill

This restaurant is not as well known so… shhhhhh.  Don’t ruin it! 😉  It’s tucked away behind a trailer park on top of a laundry store.  Despite it’s appearances, it is THE BEST restaurant i’ve been to on the island.  The atmosphere is small and intimate with just enough glamour to make it feel like a special occasion.  PLUS, it has the best view of a sunset on the island (hence the name).

As an appetizer, Brian and I split the wild mushroom pizzette.

So fresh and delicious.

My main course, however, stole the show.

Seared Scallops with a vegetable rice succotash.  Ohhhhh Myyyyyyy Loooorrrddd.  The best meal of the week.

To top it off as my “dessert” I ordered a 1664 Blanc which is a beer that I drank all the time when I studied abroad in Paris, France.

Thursday: Dinner made by Dad.

Fresh peel n’ eat shrimp as an appetizer.

Local trout, salad and wild rice as the main course.

I’ve been raised by excellent cooks in the family, it’s not wonder my obsession with food has gotten so out of hand 😉

Friday: The last supper – Harold’s Diner  – plus copious amounts of mimosas!

For lunch, Brian and I biked to our favorite local diner that has the BEST grouper sandwich – with a side of attitude!

We order grouper sandwiches from this diner every time we are on the island and they never disappoint.  They also have phenomenal looking burgers, cheesesteaks and breakfast food galore.  Seriously, THIS is what diner food is all about.  Fresh, local and unforgettable.

As you can see, the daily activity was much needed in order to ‘balance’ out my daily eats.  The food on the island is so fresh and delicious, if you don’t like seafood… we probably can’t be friends.  KIDDING… or am I?

Welp, that’s it folks.  My Hilton Head Recap is complete which means vacation is officially over. 😦  Until we meet again.

Punk the Monk 5k.1

ello ello!

Hope you all had a fabulous St. Patrick’s Day weekend.  Mine was a bit untraditional… in a good way.  Living in Chicago, my celebration usually revolves around lots of green beer, dyed rivers and bag pipes.  This year, however, I took a much more active route.

A group of my really good friends and I got together to run the Muddy Monk Punk the Monk 5k out in Buffalo Grove.  This was my first time running a Muddy Monk race and I was so excited!

Bailey was terrified.

Brian, myself and our other friend Brian spent the night at my parents house Friday so that we didn’t have to travel far for the race.  The “5k.1” started at 10:00 a.m., so we took our time waking up and eating some pre race fuel before heading out to the trails.

In the pre-race email, the Muddy Monkers gave us a heads up that the course would be a wee bit challenging due to the awesome weather we’ve been having here, and that the course was measured at 5.2 kilometers instead of 5.1.  That extra point 1 really gets yah 😉

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day for a race… despite the fact that it was only 30 degrees outside.

One of the things I like best about this company is the fact that all of their races are rather small.  We didn’t have to worry about gear check or registration lines, or long lines for the bathrooms – getting there and getting ready was a breeze.

We could tell that the course would test us a little bit from the starting line alone.  It was an entire sheet of ice!  As we lined up to the start line people were already slipping – it was pretty clear no one would be running a PR that day 🙂

Despite the course being muddy, icing, snowy and hilly it was such an awesome race.  I actually found that since I had to concentrate so hard on my footing/which path to take, the 3.2 miles literally flew by.  I also enjoyed watching everyone manage their way over the ice and snow – such funny times.

At the finish line, we were greeted with some of the best post race grub ever – Chicago Hot Dogs, Craft Beer, Candy and CheeZ-Its.

Hell yah!

I felt really good after the race.  I was happy, I was with good friends and it was a beautiful day.  We made a brief stop at my parents to shower and grab some lunch and then we were back on the road into the city.  Since Chicago celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday, I met some of my friends at one of the local bars in my area.  At this point I started to feel a little funny, but just figured it was from the race and maybe a little dehydration.

The night really only got worse from there.  I stayed out with my friends as long as I could, but ultimately ended up in bed feeling really awful.  When I woke up on Sunday morning, I knew I was in trouble.  I had a very low grade fever which didn’t really concern me, but my throat was scratchy and I had the chills.  Not cool.  Not cool.

Ever since then I’ve been trying to nurse myself back to 100%.

I’m not really sure what it is I have but it’s really putting a damper in my week 😦  Especially because I JUST started my half-marathon training plan.  I guess the bright side is that it is still early and I can easily catch up.  I hope it doesn’t last past Friday because I’m going to HILTON HEAD ISLAND on Saturday!  And I will be drinking summery drinks on the beach whether my body likes it or not!

PEACE.

Party in Plymouth

Guys, I just had a really good weekend and i’m really pissed that it is already Monday.

This past weekend, Brian and I were invited to the wedding of one of Brian’s good friend, Chris.  The wedding was held at The Inn at St. John in Plymouth, Michigan – a suburb of Detroit.  We took Friday off of work so we could take our time traveling and it was an absolutely gorgeous day to do so!

The hotel was only a 4 hour drive from Chicago, so when we arrived we had plenty of time to relax and explore the area.

First off, let me just say that our room and stay at The Inn at St. John was fabulous and we had THE most comfortable bed I have ever slept on.

My life will never be the same.

After we settled into our room, we met up with a few friends to explore the downtown area of Plymouth.  First up, was a visit to Liberty Street Brewing Company for a couple delicious craft beers.  The brewery itself was small, but the space where people could lounge was huge – two stories!

Downtown Plymouth was very cute and full of little shops and restaurants.  We got hungry pretty fast, so all we had to do was venture next door to Hermanns Olde Town Grill for some good pub grub to fill our bellies.  The place was packed and featured an AHMAZING playlist of 90’s hits – It was basically a recipe for a good time.

We didn’t make Friday a late night considering the wedding festivities were the next day and also because I had a 5 mile training run scheduled.

The gym at the hotel was rather small considering how many rooms there were – two treadmills, one stationary bike, one elliptical and a handful of free weights.  Since my plan was to complete the run, I obviously needed to get on the dreadmill – I mean treadmill.  But alas, they were both already taken.  I was surprisingly not very tired considering my 7 am wake up call, so I hopped on the bike for 20 minutes until one of the treadmills opened up.  The run itself was pretty good – wasn’t the easiest but wasn’t too hard.  One of the best parts about going to the gym is people watching – am I right?  At this gym, the people watching was at a minimum so I found myself having to entertain my brain a little bit more.

After my run was done and I spent a good amount of time stretching, I took full advantage of the room service offering for breakfast.

Boom.  Poached eggs, fresh fruit and multi grain toast… plus an ENTIRE pot of coffee 🙂  It was such a simple breakfast, but really hit the spot after a good sweat session.

The rest of the day consisted of more townie adventures and a visit to the hotel hot tub.

I’m personally the type of vacationer who just likes to go with the flow and relax.  I’m not a ‘need to do this’ or ‘need to see that’ kind of person.  In fact, we could have spent the entire weekend in the hotel and I still would have had an amazing time.

Around 3:00 p.m., we started to get ready for the wedding!

It was an absolutely gorgeous evening full of delicious food and fun people to party with.

I haven’t been to a wedding I did not have fun at, but this one definitely made the top of the list!

Question of the day: What kind of vacationer are you?

A Festive Fall Weekend

Good Morning!

I’m back from a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend.

As you know, I left for Buffalo, New York Thursday afternoon and although my flight was delayed an hour… I still managed to make it to my grandmother’s for dinner time.  She was so happy that I had gotten in safely that she paid no attention to the fact that we were eating dinner at 9:30 p.m. (a little late for her!).  Although we had a lot of catching up to do, we went to bed shortly after dinner because there was a full day of activities planned for Friday.

Early Friday afternoon, my Aunt Natalie swooped my FarMor and I up and took us on a road trip adventure.  It was the final weekend in Buffalo for good foilage spotting, so we drove all around the Buffalo/Niagara area taking in the beautiful scenery.  Our main destination was Ellicottville, a quaint ski village and hour and a half south of Buffalo.  My dad used to work in Ellicottville when he was growing up as a Ski Patrol member.  It was really neat driving around and seeing all the places my dad had gone to.  The view from the top of the “Hill” was gorgeous.

After a long journey down, we got out of the car and walked around and looked at all the boutiques and specialty stores.  My favorite store had these cute little signs in them:

I wanted one real bad, but I need to stop spending money on so much STUFF!

We took our time walking up and down the downtown area until we decided it was time to get some food/drinks!  There was a local Brewery, Ellicottville Brewery, that we decided to check out.

The Brewery had a fairly decent selection of on tap brews, I stuck with the Pale Ale for the majority of the evening while my FarMor enjoyed the Blueberry Wheat Ale.  It was a lot of fun relaxing in the cozy brewery and ordering a couple appetizers including these delicious crab cakes:

They were not as good as my dads, but still tasty!

We made the long journey back to Clarence Center after dinner, arriving back at FarMor’s just in time for a piece of her homemade apple pie.

Oh. My. Gosh.  If you know me well,  you know that I am not a cake lover.  But man – oh man – do I love pie.  I am going to have to recreate this baby sometime soon!

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early to squeeze a quick 3 mile run in before my dad arrived at the airport.  I woke up so early that morning, I was able to watch the sun rise of my FarMor’s house!

Seriously, upstate New York is so gorgeous… It’s hard to believe that the hustle and bustle of New York City resides in the same state!

My dad’s flight got in around 9:00 a.m. and I was very happy to see him as he and my mother had just gotten back from their Anniversary Trip in Asheville, North Carolina where… THEY BOUGHT PROPERTY to build a custom house!  I am so excited for them, Asheville is such an awesome city – but this does mean that I will be the only left in Chicago.  Tear.

Around lunch time, the three of us headed to downtown Clarence Center to window show and grab lunch.  My favorite store is in Clarence Center – Perfect Gift.  They have so many cute little nick nacks and trinkets, it is the perfect store to waste time in!  There is also a little shoe and clothing boutique attached to it that had a lot of great items, but came with a rather $$$ price tag.  I didn’t buy anything in the stores, but I did get some really great ideas for Christmas Gifts/Stocking stuffers!

Next door to Perfect Gift, was a little cafe where we had lunch.  I had never been before, but when I walked in a saw that they carried METROPOLIS coffee, I knew I was going to love the place.  For those of you who are no aware, Metropolis coffee is a delicious roast that comes straight out of Chicago.  We found out moments later that the owner herself was from Chicago and featured a Chicago Italian beef sandwich on the menu with giardinera (people in NY have no idea what giardinera is).

I stuck with a light grilled chicken salad to save room for a evening activities, but it was very tasty!  We left full and happy 🙂

Months ago, when I originally booked this trip I told my dad that I wanted to go to a Buffalo Sabres game (they are our favorite hockey team).  My FarMor is 98 years old and is an avid fan, but has never been to a game!  My dad agreed that it would be a really special gift if we could take her, so he decided to make a trip of it himself.

Around 5:30 p.m. Saturday evening we all jumped into my FarMor’s car and headed downtown to Buffalo.  My dad had set up special wheelchair accommodations so that my FarMor could get around the stadium easily.  When we arrived, she was so excited she hoped right into the chair and we were escorted to our seats!  Thanks to my dad, we had REALLY GOOD SEATS.  I’m talking 11th row – 100 level – right in the action.

If you cannot tell from my FarMor’s face, she was loving life.

Although the Sabres are having a rather… rough season… groooan.  The game itself was still a lot of fun.

I was able to get my Beef on Wick fix in – a Buffalo specialty and a couple beers to wash it down.

It was a really special night.

I still can’t believe how quickly Sunday came…  My dad and I decided to do a 4 mile run along a local running trail to start our day off right.  We were blessed with another gorgeous day, which made leaving this special place even harder.

To send me off with a bang, we whipped up some traditional Swedish pancakes and a side of turkey bacon.

It was the perfect end to a lovely weekend.

Off to Buffalo!

Hello Hello!

It’s a rainy, dreary day here in Chicago which is fine by me until 4:00 p.m. when I have to board a plane to BUFFALO!  I’m heading out East to visit my 98 year old grandmother who lives in Clarence Center just outside of Buffalo.  I am so excited because I have not seen her in a while and we will be able to spend a lot of quality time together, and also because the foliage in Buffalo is supposed to be beautiful this time of year!

It’s kind of funny that I am talking about foliage, because when I was in high school and visiting colleges the tour guides would always ask if anyone had questions at the end of the tour.  Mostly parents would speak up and ask questions like, “Are the dorms safe?”, “What is the Cafeteria food like”, “When does football season start?”  Not my parents, nope – they would always ask “What is it like here in the fall?  Is there great foliage?”  At the time, this would send me into an embarrassed flush, but now I guess I’m tu rning into them!

I also saw this funny article on Facebook that talked about how Gen-Y girls tend to instagram the shit out of fall leaves pictures this time of year, which is so true as I saw 3 posted pictures last night!

Annnyyywayyss.  Speaking of last night, I decided right after a busy day of work that I wanted to take the time celebrating… finishing work haha.

I busted out a Moon Man and relaxed on the couch for a little while with Bailey.  We are getting kind of low on our New Glarus stock, but luckily I have a friend in Wisconsin this weekend who agreed to bring us back some!  It’s always good to have friends who travel to Wisconsin often!

After I finished the beer, Brian and I walked over to Dry Hop Brewery for a couple rounds of their delicious craft brew.  The place is ALWAYS packed and we were lucky enough to snag two seats at the bar.

We were going to grab dinner out as well, but decided to be responsible adults and save some $$ by making something at home.

I was not really in the mood to “cook” after a couple beers, so we opted for Turkey Bacon TBLTS.

Yummy.  Not as yummy as a juicy craft burger would have been… but a much healthier option 🙂

I spent the rest of the night packing and relaxing and managed to fit everything into my carry-on even though I am a classic over-packer.  Plus, it’s boots season and those babies take up so much room!

Ta Ta for now, folks!