Napa part 2 and the Windy City!

I half expected not to be able to walk the day after the marathon, but thankfully I didn't need a wheelchair after all... and I even managed the stairs without crying. 

We stayed in Napa for another 2 days... getting some rest... and a massage! We also went up to David's winery to enjoy a beautiful sunset and a little wine tasting...  then enjoyed a nice family dinner at the Rutherford Grill.

On Tuesday we headed to San Francisco for a day in the city. Dustin and I got to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge (dad dropped us off on one side and waited for us on the other). It was as epic as running across the Brooklyn Bridge. Turned out to be a beautiful day too... but was quite windy on the bridge!

We then had an amazing lunch at:

We went to Golden Gate Park and walked through the Japanese Garden... enjoyed some tea and cookies...

 We drove to the waterfront to try and catch the sunset, but it was too cloudy. Dustin wanted to walk in the water since we were there though... too bad his phone lept out of his pocket while he was out there...

Browsed at City Lights Bookstore... then headed to dinner at Dosa - a vegetarian (as well as organic!) Indian place I had found and wanted to try. I'm so glad we did... it was so delicious!! We ordered 4 different dishes to try and share and they were all great. Dosa is like a crepe, but made with rice and lentils (no wheat) and then they fill it with all kinds of delicious things. I highly recommend trying this place if you go to SF!

We stayed at a Hilton near the airport as we were flying out early on Wednesday morning to head to Chicago. Several months ago, Dustin found out his favorite band from high school was going on tour and he really wanted to go... which was why we had decided to piggyback Chicago onto Napa and just make a vacation out of it all. Neither of us had been to Chicago (but it's been on my list to see) so I was all for going!

It was definitely colder there than Napa...

We navigated to the hotel via the train (or 'L' or subway or whatever you want to call their public transportation) which is just as easy and convenient as the New York or Boston subway - pretty much every major city except Seattle. ;) We stayed at the Homewood Suites on Grand Avenue and it was a great location - easily walkable to everything in the city. 

Despite being done with the marathon, I had a hard time letting go of my eating habits I had developed over the past few months. I still didn't have the desire to eat a lot of junk food or sweets, but I certainly wasn't going to miss out on deep dish pizza. We tried Pizzeria Uno - which was 2 blocks from our hotel. And I fell in love. Chicago deep dish pizza is every bit as good as people say. Then we headed off to the Bank of America Theater to see "The Book of Mormon". It was outrageous and hilarious. We enjoyed it quite a bit. 

We walked home from the theater and took in the city....

On Thursday we got up and went for a run along the waterfront. I wanted to run at least once in Chicago (as we've already signed up for the marathon in October), but I was ready to run by then anyway. My legs felt pretty good and we took it fairly easy. It was a gorgeous run - the lake was partially frozen over and the city was beautiful. 

Then we discovered the city... by walking through most of it! We walked down Magnificent Mile... 

 stopped for a bite to eat...

walked by Wrigley Field... which was amazing! I definitely want to see a game there some day...

We went to the Chicago Diner for dinner - which was a vegetarian place I had found online. It was interesting because it definitely had the old school diner feel to it, but definitely didn't have typical diner food.

Veggie 'wings'

Minus the tofu, my plate was perfect! Black beans, quinoa, sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts! 

Then it was off to the main event - seeing Finch at The Metro. They're kind of a hardcore screaming type band... not my typical taste in music, although they were better than I thought they'd be. And I've never seen Dustin so happy. 

On Friday we walked through Millennium Park - saw the strange sculpture thing that looks like a lima bean. :) It's really cool though. 

We took the subway to Andersonville because I was dead set on eating at Huey's - a place I had found with vegetarian hot dogs. Seemed fitting to have hot dogs in Chicago. They even came with vegan chili! So delicious!

 A classmate of mine (who's from Chicago) had suggested we get drinks at the lounge in the Hancock Center. It's on the 96th floor and the views are amazing, so we did that instead of the Sears tower. We got there right at 5 when the lounge opened and got a table right near the window. We had some beers and and an overpriced appetizer, but you're really just paying for the view - well worth it. There's even an amazing view from the women's bathroom (not the men's though... I had Dustin check).

View from the bathroom!

After watching the sun set, we were off to the United Center for the Chicago Bulls game (against the Utah Jazz!). It wasn't quite as epic as seeing the Knicks at Madison Square Garden (hmm... do I compare everything to NYC?), and the crowd wasn't as excited (until the last 5 minutes when it was a close game!), but still definitely fun and worth going - even if we were in the nosebleed seats. Bulls won with a 3-pointer right at the end! Awesome!

The weather had been cold, but mostly sunny during our trip, but it caught up to us on Saturday and it was windy and a little rainy on our run (it had snowed a little on our first night there, but that was it). We ended our trip with brunch at Nana... I could not resist the oatmeal pancakes. Yum!!

I really loved Chicago. It's an amazing city. It was a great trip and I'm excited that I get to go back in October because there's plenty more to do... and some places I still want to eat at... but oh, deep dish pizza... drool....