This past weekend, we made the trip to Chicago to see my nephew Bruce! Layla was soo excited to finally meet him. I guess face-time and Google chat wasn’t good enough. We flew in on Thursday evening and went straight to Blesson and Jolly’s place. Mom came with us as well. We rented a car from Enterprise (Priceline’d out a discount). It was THE BEST customer service! I couldn’t believe how friendly they were! It was awesome. I wish I snapped a pic of the car, but we got a nice lil Nissan Murano. Not too bad.
Anyway, once we got to Blesson’s place, we saw Bruce and just kicked it for the evening. Layla was in love.
She wanted to be with Bruce the entire time. She wanted to help feed and sooth him when he was crying too. It was a good test to see how she will react when her lil bro comes along too!
Friday we had a leisurely morning. Jolly went to work and Blesson cooked up some breakfast for us. The weather was awesome, so we needed to be outside. We checked out the Lincoln Park Conservatory and the Lincoln Park Zoo.
It was nice to be out and about, especially when the weather was as nice as it was. For lunch we wanted to check out Hot Doug’s. It’s a hot dog joint I’ve been wanting to check out for a long time… probably ever since Blesson moved up to Chicago. Apparently Doug is retiring and closing his doors, so this would be my last chance to try it out. When we got there, the line was crazy!
Although I really wanted to go, having a 2 month old and a 2.5 year old in a line that long seemed like a horrible idea… so we opted to find another spot. Luckily around the corner we found a gem called Honey Butter Fried Chicken.
Great place with local ingredients. It was cool because on the wall they have a little map indicating where they purchase their ingredients, so when I say local, I mean everything seemed to be no less than 15 miles away from the actual restaurant. They’ve only been open for about 9 months, but with food that good, I’m sure they’ll be around for a long time.
Here’s a shot of Layla and I with Brucey!
Friday evening Sheena, Layla, and I went out to the suburbs to meet with Sheena’s side of the family. Sheena’s cousin, Stacey, got married over the weekend as well, so this trip was a 2 for 1! After the rehearsal dinner, we spent Friday night at Sheena’s uncle’s house to make things easier for us. I wasn’t able to get a good shot of Abe and Stacey, but here are some pics from the wedding.
Fun wedding. Its always great to see a young couple start their lives together!
After the wedding festivities, we headed back to the city to Blessson’s place. We hung out for a bit and then Sheena’s Mom and some family came over to visit Bruce. Sheena’s cousin Asha owns a burger shop called the Burger Point pretty close to where Blesson lives. A bunch of us got together and had dinner there.
The food was AMAZING! If you’re in Chicago, you need to check this place out! You’ll note a set of egg rolls (Burger Rolls) in the pic above. I ordered that because Layla was asleep on my shoulder. The egg rolls were an easy thing to eat one-handed. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t get the experience of an actual burger, but I was delighted to be wrong! Just trust me and check the joint out!
The next morning we headed out to Little Goat for brunch. It’s an upscale diner that Blesson and Jolly both love.
The wait was long, but it was worth it for the food! Not pictured above is a grilled cheese sandwich that is awesome! After brunch we headed to The Museum of Science and Industry. One of Jolly’s friends hooked us up with some tickets!
This place was massive! We only visited a few exhibits because we had to catch our flight, but this place had a tornado simulator, body exhibit, avalanche simulator, how toys are made exhibit and a ton more. If you wanted to see everything, you’d probably need two days to cover it all!
After the museum, we headed back to the place to rest up a bit then made our way back to the airport. Sheena and I talked about how many times we’ve actually been to Chicago. We’ve been married for 6 years and we’ve been to Chicago 5 times together! That’s a lotta trips to the windy city, but we love that place! There’s always something new to check out and fun things to do.
It was a really great weekend and awesome to finally meet Bruce in person! Layla still talks about showing off Brucey to all her friends once he moves down to Houston with his parents!
Sajan Abraham 