Chicago

Well, I turned 31 yesterday. As a surprise, Andy sent my sister and I to Chicago for the weekend. It was a wonderful time of relaxing, shopping, visiting, sister bonding, and...eating. My family loves food, and Jenny and I love vegan (gluttony). We didn't do a great job with photos, because neither of us like photos of ourselves. But Jenny's blog includes a lot of food blogging, so we got some good shots of our meals! I missed my husband and babies terribly, but it was a much needed vacation. Andy proved himself a bit more awesome than he already was!

We started our trip off in St. Louis for lunch at my new FAVORITE place to eat here, Sweet Art Bakery. It's in the Shaw Neighborhood and is amazing. I considered the cupcakes we ate "research" for Winnie's birthday party.

Me in front of Hotel Felix, our home for the weekend. I like this hotel a lot and it is in a great location.

We spent Saturday morning with our friend Sarah and her husband, Chris. They live in Chicago.

Jenny in front of Karyn's on Green, the latest in the Karyn's restaurant family. It was beautiful and modern and delicious and was just as good as the other Karyn's spots. And surprisingly, it was showing the Duke game, so I didn't miss out on the action. Surprising because you wouldn't expect a modern vegan restaurant to be carrying the NCAA Final Four, but it was.

One of my maps...of my favorite part of Chicago. I have an iPhone and don't need to carry things like this, but I love a paper map and list and (it's cut out of the photo) a map legend. Every time I go to Chicago, I add more restaurants/stores that I like so that I won't forget. I have maps like this for a lot of places:)

My shopping loot.

And the rest of the trip just consisted of things like this....

And this....

And this...

Andy, thanks so much for such a special birthday gift!