Runs With Knives: A Weekend in Chicago

(edit: when using Live Writer, make sure to hit publish, not post draft to blog. whoops!)

My mom’s birthday is next weekend, but because my brother decided that he need to go to Lollapalooza, like he does every year, we celebrated this weekend. My mom loves doing touristy stuff in Chicago, which is great, because my dad grew up in the city and he knows what’s up. Plus my brother now lives in the city, which gives us a free bathroom and somewhere cheap to park. Both good things when it comes to Chicago.

So we took an architectural tour of the city, by boat! I highly recommend this as a fun summer activity. (if any of want to do one, I highly suggest the ones with Wendella or the Chicago Architectural Foundation.) It makes me sad that I will be leaving this beautiful city behind when I move. There is more than enough history here to keep me entertained for years.

My dad and I are nerds and have learned a lot about Chicago on our own. So we were those annoying people talking about the buildings before the tour guide even got a change to say something. At least the people around us found us hilarious, so we didn’t annoy them too much. (But seriously, why do boats have to move so fast? Every time I had my light meter lined up perfectly, the boat would move which would either expose or hide the sun. How rude!)

All you Chicago marathoners should consider doing a boat tour. You will get a good chunk of time sitting down, resting your legs, but you will still get to see lots of the city.

So after the tour, we started hunting for a restaurant. Thank you smart phones for helping make these decisions. We went with a local Brazilian steakhouse, Brazzaz. Twenty-four hours later, and I think my body is still digesting all the yumminess that was presented. I hadn’t eaten for almost 8 hours, so I just went face first and didn’t even think about taking a picture. Sorry guys. But let me tell you, it was amazing. A little pricey, but considering there were oyster on the half shell at the salad bar, it is totally worth it.

For those that don’t know, at a Brazillian steakhouse, gauchos (men serving food), walk around with varities of meat and serve you slices when you say yes. It’s pretty cool, everyone at the table has a chip that on one side says no and the other says yes. The gauchos only come to you if your chip says yes. It’s easy to overindulge in a place like this. I don’t eat red meat, but I was still over eating. For dessert, we all had coffee and I had an extra fried banana that are served as a side dish (seriously, I could eat this every day of my life). Again, this place would be great after a marathon. You know, you burn a few thousand calories and you just want food? All you can eat, baby.

So since there are no pictures of dinner, let’s look at Chicago some more.