26 Hours In Chicago

Last weekend, Aaron celebrated a birthday! We had plans to go out for a nice dinner in Milwaukee, near our home, but on Monday I saw a tweet from Grant Achatz announcing that tickets were on sale for the Next tapas menu, which had been hoping to try. I logged in and managed to snag a table for two at 7:00 p.m. on opening night, the day after Aaron's birthday. So, I had to plan a quick trip to Chicago. I think it came together quite nicely.

On our way out of town, we stopped in Milwaukee to have breakfast at Story Hill BKC. We'd recently been there for Mother's Day brunch and were really intrigued by the menu, and it definitely didn't disappoint the second time around. I had roasted tomato bread with a side of fresh fruit and some hot tea. Aaron had one of the daily specials. We were in and out and less than 45 minutes, and quite full. Off to Chicago!

Aaron enjoying his birthday breakfast at Story Hill BKC

Roasted tomato bread from Story Hill BKC

Delicious fresh fruit cup

Rishi tea, a Milwaukee favorite

Gotta have your hipster sticker

An hour and forty-five minutes later, we were in Chicago. We parked at Millennium Park, since overnight parking there was much cheaper than our hotel, and walked about five blocks to our hotel, the Hyatt Centric. This is the newest Hyatt in Chicago, and I was very happy to stay in it—because it was free! There were a lot of events in Chicago this weekend, and decent hotel rooms were well over $300/night. But, the night before we left, I found award availability at the Hyatt Centric. I didn't have any Hyatt Gold Passport points, so I transferred 15,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points to my account. They arrived within a few minutes, and I booked a King standard room for free (cash rate would have been $350). When we arrived, our room wasn't ready, so we stowed our luggage and set out to enjoy the day. You can find a full review of the Hyatt Centric here.

We took off on foot towards the Chicago river, and stopped to grab a quick bite to eat at Hoyt's Chicago, a restaurant in the Wyndam Grand. Service was quick, and my smoked salmon sandwich and fries was delicious.

Chicago Architecture Foundation Boat Tour

We arrived at the dock of Chicago's First Lady just in time to stand in line to board (I'd purchased our tickets in advance online and stored them on my phone). It's amazing how many people they packed onto the boat. We snagged seats in front, on the lower deck, to avoid most of the crowds.

We're on a boat!

This is the tour given by the Chicago Architecture Foundation. I had read in multiple places online that it was absolutely the best. Our tour guide was Barry, and he was excellent. Aaron and I have a rudimentary understanding of architecture, at best, and we were interested and entertained for the full 90-minute tour. We learned that an excellent architect not only makes aesthetically pleasing buildings, but he/she adds design elements that allow a developer to maximize revenue. And when he/she adds a nice touch like that for you, you should kiss your architect! (If you've ever taken a CAF tour with Barry I'm guessing this phrase sounds familiar.)

I took a bunch of photos on my phone, and learned at the end of the tour that CAF is hosting a contest on Instagram and giving away a bunch of prizes. So hopefully, I'll be able to go back to Chicago soon ... with a room paid for by CAF :)

Our tour ended around 3:30, and we crossed the river to visit a restaurant that Barry mentioned had hundreds of beers on tap. Of course, the one Aaron really wanted (Zombie Dust) was next in line to be tapped, but we enjoyed a few brews from the massive selection.

By now it was after 4:00, so we walked back to our hotel. We arrived around 4:45 and were able to check in right away. I was pleasantly surprised to learn we'd been upgraded to a Deluxe King room because I was a Hyatt Gold Passport member. This goes to show that signing up for loyalty programs is worth it—while I was a member, I had never stayed at a Hyatt. Our upgrade got us room 808, a corner room with windows everywhere.

We had a quick rest, and then it was time to freshen up for dinner. We hailed an Uber (our first ever, but definitely not our last), and made it to the restaurant a few minutes early for our reservation.

Dinner at Next: Spanish Tapas

If you're not familiar with Next, it's a restaurant co-owned by Grant Achatz, the chef/owner of Alinea, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Chicago. Next hasn't yet gotten its star, but I hope it will soon. Two things make Next distinctive. First, the menu changes every three months. Not just a swap of specials or what kind of steak is on the menu, but it completely changes. The first time we visited Next (also for Aaron's birthday, last year) the menu was Chinese. This time it was Spanish tapas. The week before we visited it was a French bistro. It's a set menu for all the diners, and the multi-course tasting takes a few hours to complete. Second, Next sells tickets in advance instead of just taking reservations. So, when I snagged our table a week earlier, I paid for it, including tax and service, up front. This means we're never presented with the bill in the restaurant (and you really don't want to miss your reservation!).

The meal, as expected, was absolutely excellent. I'm going to gush about it a lot, and many of you will be bored, so you can find all the details in this post. For now, here are some photos of my favorite dishes of the night.

Our meal took about two and a half hours. We stuffed ourselves into a cab, went back to our hotel, and went straight to bed. That's pretty much what we always end up doing after a meal like this.

The next morning, we left the hotel before 9:00 and dropped our luggage back at the car. We stopped at Cosi for a quick breakfast—squagel, anyone?

Then we walked about two miles to the Shedd Aquarium. It would have been a lovely walk, but it was extremely humid, and I'm not good with humidity. But we survived. Hundreds of other people were running a 5K, 10K, and half marathon in the same area, so they had it much worse than I did.

Shedd Aquarium

We arrived at the aquarium around 9:45. Once again, I'd purchased tickets in advance and had them on my phone, so we skipped the line (which seemed long to me, but was nothing compared to the mid-day line when we left) and checked in at the information desk to get our wrist bands.

Neither of us had been to the Shedd before, although we did visit the National Aquarium a few years ago when we were in Baltimore. We skipped the aquatic show, but enjoyed the special Amphibians exhibition, the Sting Ray Touch feature, many of the standard exhibits, and the 4D movie. This was my first 4D movie, and it definitely included a few surprises.

Some of the fish/animals were absolutely awe inspiring. I snapped a few photos.

Frogs from the Amphibians exhibit

Sea lion, just before barking at us

This seahorse was so dainty and beautiful!

Moray Eel 

Blue lobster - got the color from a genetic mutation

I didn't catch this guy's name

Garden Eels

We spent about two and a half hours at the museum, and we were ready to go. When we exited around 12:15, the line was out the door and down the block. Buy your tickets online in advance if you go, it's easier and cheaper!

We walked back up to our car, paid our $53 parking fee (thanks, Chicago), and headed to River North to grab lunch at Xoco, one of our must-stop restaurants. However, I forgot that it was closed on Sundays. Shame on me. So we stopped in next door to Bottlefork, and were pleasantly surprised to find some good food and a very friendly bartender. Check in with Yelp and you'll get a free serving of their bag of crisps and egg—malt vinegar flavored potato chips shaken in a bag with a slow-poached egg. They're quite addicting, and so good I didn't stop eating to take a picture.

Breakfast Sope - ranchera sauce, fried egg, chorizo black beans, cojita cheese, guacamole 

Wood Grilled Beer Brined Chicken

By 2:00, we were ready to leave the city. When we got home, we both crashed on the couch and took a nap. It's great to be so close to Chicago and squeeze a mini-vacation into a weekend. I'm sure we'll be back (we're eying the final menu of 2015 at Next...).

What's your favorite thing to do when you visit Chicago?

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