A Look Inside: Taste of Chicago

Taste of Chicago is back! This means more delicious food, sunshine, and fun! This past week my friends and I decided to spend the afternoon eating lots of food and trying new things. We took the train downtown, which was strange because we saw tons of other people that we used to go to high school with. Yeah we're those whiney people who don't want to revisit people in high school. But after getting downtown and successfully completing the 40 minute walk to Grant Park, we finally arrived at the Taste.

While there were less vendors and space this year, the Taste did not fail to show us a good time. For a week day there were a fair amount of people there. It's always cool to see the different types of people that show up at these festivals around the city. Although, one of the best parts is picking out the tourists from the rest of everybody else.

We saw tons of food throughout the Taste. I ate fried ravioli and bulgogi, a Korean grilled beef dish. It was a nice mix of different foods. My friends had berry gelato, nutella crepes, and spiced grilled chicken. The food was all delicious, and the servings were pretty generous. If you have never been to the Taste before it works like this; you buy tickets, and these same tickets are used to get food. There are two sizes, a "normal" size and a taste size. The "normal" size is between a small entree and an appetizer size, while a taste size is a smaller appetizer size.

Crepes and Smiles

Besides all the food, we also had fun visiting the fun things around Grant Park. We stopped by and saw Buckingham Fountain and resisted the urge to jump into it, since it was so warm. We also saw a news broadcast for CBS Channel 5 and attempted to worm our way into the shot. Who knows though if we actually got into it.... My friend Rachel was even briefly reunited with her roommate!

My friends and me at Buckingham Fountain

Channel 5 New Report

After all of the walking, eating, and such, we limped back to the train station. We all acquired some sore feet, but our stomachs were full of delicious food. Although like typical Chicagoans, we had to end the day right... with some of Chicago's best food! Once we got home, we popped in a DVD and order deep dish pizza. The best food to end such a yummy day.

We love the Taste!

A Look Inside: Chicago Day Trip

Yesterday, was one of the best ways to kick off summer! I went downtown with some of my friends and we decided to hang out in the city all day. I got to visit some places I've never seen downtown, and I finally learned to conquer the Red Line on the L.

We started our day on the L headed towards DePaul University to visit our friend Rachel. Poor soul, she's still in school till mid-June. The campus is beautiful! The student center is adorable, everything is centered around the quad, and the closets in the dorm rooms are beautiful! We ate lunch at a cute little restaurant called Jam N'Honey. It was super cute and the food was delicious! There was even jars of Nutella on every table!

Afterwards we headed to Lincoln Park Zoo. Which is wonderful because we not only got to see all the adorable animals, but the zoo is completely free!

The zoo had tons of animals from lions, polar bears, giraffes, and monkeys. While some of the animals weren't on display (we're not sure why-- but it was quite humid, so we're thinking they wanted the day off), most of the animals were, and they were pretty active. The polar bear, which is one of my favorites, spent his or her whole day chilling and swimming in the pool. We even got to watch the cutie munch on some food.

Later we headed to Rachel's favorite bakery, Sweet Mandy B's. This place was so cute! It reminded mee a bit of my school's area because it had that old fashioned family owned business feel. Let alone all the food looked delicious, and they tasted even better!! The cupcakes were simply magnificent and the size of the cookies were bigger than my face! 

Several painful steps later (and I mean painful - I recommend never wearing flip flops for a walking day in the city) we ended up at Millennium Park. Doing the typical tourist routine, we took plenty of pictures at the Bean, creating new and interesting poses. 

While chilling at the Bean, we kept hearing music. We were so close to leaving, but on a whim we decided to check out who was playing. Turns out it was Lady Antebellum. And to make everything that much better... it was a free concert!! So, we got to enjoy a free concert in the amphitheater at Millennium Park. For more pictures and videos from the concert read my Lady Antebellum Concert Review. 

All in all it was a beautiful day! I had such a fun day hanging out with all my friends and enjoying the wonderful city we have. What a terrific Friday.