Chicago!

This past weekend I went to Chicago with my lovely friend Kendall Hawkins.

We ran the half marathon, my first and her third, and ate… A lot. I wanted to share all the awesome photos. Enjoy!

We asked the concierge at our hotel for a salad and sandwich place that was walking distance. She recommended this adorable place Pastoral. The restaurant was tiny with super friendly and knowledgable staff. Above is the Harvest Salad, field greens with prosciutto bacon and blue cheese, which I gobbled up in no time!

This is the Spanish cheese and olive plate. It was so yummy. I can’t even remember all the lovely cheese but there was one that was rosemary flavored and I practically fell in love. There was also this great olive bar and you can try all the different olives your heart desires. My favorite were the garlic olives, which are shown above.

At the last minute, Kendall splurged on this chocolate chip cookie with potato chips. Perfect salty and sweet treat!

For dinner Friday night before the big race, we went to Quartino. It was a great Italian place right downtown.

This was another great cheese and olive sampling plate. We had a great mix of prosciutto, Gorgonzola, parmigiano, artichokes, roasted peppers and few other pairings. Definitely was plenty to share!

We may have gobbled up the pasta dishes before I could snap a picture… That’s how good they were! But above is our dessert, yummy homemade doughnuts with powered sugar and chocolate sauce. Devine!

Here is picture of our group!
Left: Daniela, Kendall, me and Suzie

I woke up to this gorgeous view from our hotel and was ready to run those 13.1 miles!!

Kendall and I before the big race. We could not have asked for better running weather. In the low 50s, sunny, brisk and not very windy!!

This was the post race grab bag of food. It included a whole wheat bagel, banana, cheese stick and peanuts. Water and Gatorade of course were on hand.

We finished the race, survived actually! We finished in exactly 2hrs and 15min!!
The race route was gorgeous, started in Grant park then up Lakeshore drive to Lincoln park then back down Lakeshore to Grant park again. It was an awesome way to see the city!

Post race we were ready to celebrate! I, of course, had to have a bloody Mary! The rest of the team celebrated with a variety of beers.

We brunched at this great place, Pierrot Gourmet. They had a wonderful Oktoberfest spread. Above is the lentil soup, which to be completely honest, I thought was a questionable choice. I could not have been more wrong, it was delicious! That’s sausage she’s cutting, which was perfect with the thick soup. Now I am determined to make lentil soup!!

Kendall ordered this awesome florentine frittata, yum!

I went with the PG breakfast flatbread and was not disappointed!

This was a Swiss cheese flatbread that Daniela’s husband got. Very good!

This was a bite of the Weiner Schnitzel, so good, especially post race. And of course, an Oktoberfest special!

After we napped and came out of our food and race induced coma, we went out to enjoy Halloween festivities dressed as little Indians!

The next day we had to get some more great Italian and we went to Lou Malnati’s.

This is a slice of the stuffed spinach bread, which was quite yummy. It was not what I was expecting though, it was a small loaf of bread that is literally baked with the spinach, cheese and garlic inside!

I had to try the spicy, Chicago style bloody Mary. It was right up my alley! And yes, those are little pepperonis and olives on the toothpick.

This is a big slice of the deep dish pizza. Ours was sausage and pepperoni ( guys choice) haha

Of course, as the saying goes… When in Rome… It was my favorite of the two pizzas we got. The deep pizza came out in this big, black dish that the waiter had to use tongs to carry. The pizzas stay on a tray next to your table while you eat because they are too big for the table!

Lastly, this is the spinach and tomato thin crust pizza. It was not really thin crust though, haha.