Mom & Dad's visit.

I'm pretty sure I've eaten enough calories in the past 5 days to keep me alive until the end of 2011.  Mom and Dad came to town and we ate our way through it!  Well, we did lots of other fun stuff too.  We started with lunch at O'Sullivan's, an Irish pub that was having a Mexican food special day (random, right?) but we just partook in $2 Mexican beers and the typical bar food spread.  After letting mom & pops rest up after a long flight (note sarcasm), we walked back down to Madison St. for dinner at The Duckfat Tavern & Grill.  Yum yum.  Started with duckfat fries with yummy dipping sauces.  By the end of a day filled with booze and grease, I opted for the grilled vegetable plate, which was actually pretty amazing.  Grilled veggies drizzled with balsamic vinegar...DELISH!  Dad and Tim indulged in the bacon mac & cheese (YUMMY).  After stuffing ourselves at dinner, we thought it was only appropriate that we end the evening with ice cream at The Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor.  I think I was in a food coma, because I forgot to pull out my camera for day one!

On day two, Tim had to work (sad face!) so the three of us donned our Cubs gear and hopped on the train towards Wrigley Field.  It was a PERFECT day for a baseball game - 80 F weather, clear blue skies, sun shining...

We had hotdogs with grilled onions, beer, and smiles on our faces - even though the Cubs suck - and had a fun afternoon.  Later on, we decided to give our tummies a rest so we went to Whole Foods and made a yummy dinner at home -amazing Icelandic salmon, sauteed asparagus and a mixed salad.

Day three - Tim was still working (super sad face!) - we hopped back on the train and headed to the city for some tourist action.  We walked down Navy Pier and had a beer at the Landshark Beer Garden.  We also decided it was necessary to get some pictures with the Bean.  Again, beautiful weather.

 

The Bean!

That evening, Tim finally got done working (happy face!) and we had an amazing dinner - again on Madison St. - at Francesca's Fiore.  We thought we were just going to sit on the patio for a bit and have a drink before Tim met up with us, but the weather was amazing (again) and the menu looked pretty good, so we decided to make an evening of it.  Our waiter was fun and the manager liked us (who wouldn't !?!?) so they took very good care of us.  After a few bottles of wine and some amazing Italian cuisine (calamari, insalata caprese, pasta, etc.) we were officially stuffed (again).  Somehow, Dad and Tim found the strength to finish the evening back at the Brown Cow for ice cream (even though we got a mini dessert for celebrating my birthday - which is in November - at the restaurant).  We decided to celebrate early because I probably won't see my parents again until Christmas!

Maybe that was three bottles of wine...

My birthday dessert.

They treated us with Limoncello after dinner!

Dad had to fly back Saturday, so Tim and I took mom around Forest Park a bit more.  We did a bit of shopping, had lunch and saw a movie - Crazy Stupid Love.  It was awesome - go see it!  After a lazy afternoon, we mentally prepared ourselves to eat (once again) good ol' Chicago deep dish pizza - per mom's request (she didn't have to twist our arms).  Dinner at Edwardo's Natural Pizza was the best decision we had made all day. 

I took mom to the airport this morning.  It was such a fun five days and I knew it would fly by.  I'm one lucky gal to have such fun, cool, awesome parents.