I am currently en route back to Charlotte from a great weekend in Chicago.

Highlights included…

– Spending time with my wonderful girlfriends
– Amazing weather!!! (the weather totally changed and it was high 60s and sunny all weekend – I didn’t even need my boots!)
– Really, really delicious meals
– Great runs along the lakefront
– Fun entertainment

I took a break from the blog while I was there so I could totally focus on getting the most out of my short time there so I have tons to catch you up on. I have about a million photos to edit and several recaps to write but I’ll start with our arrival and Friday night.

The reason for our girl’s trip was to visit a friend of ours who moved to Chicago from Charlotte last fall. We arrived in Chicago around 7:30 on Friday night after some minor flight delays. We met our friend at our hotel around 8:30 p.m. to get checked in and ready to head out for our evening plans. She was so sweet and surprised us with wine, beer and cupcakes for the room.

We had dinner reservations at Adobo Grill. We had tickets to the late show of Second City so Adobo Grill was perfect since it’s located right next door.

A round of drinks was in order to kick off our weekend. I am not usually big on cocktails but I loved the drink I ordered – tequila blanco, fresh lime juice, cucumbers and agave with a smoky salted rim. It was very refreshing and not too sweet. A fun spin on a margarita.

Guacamole was a must. It was made table side to your preferred level of spiciness. They were very generous with the portions and used over two whole avocados. This big bowl of guac didn’t stand a chance with four hungry girls and we devoured it along with three baskets of chips in record speed.

There were several items on the dinner menu that looked good to me so I recruited the waitress to help me make a choice. She recommended the Lomito en Mole Negro so I decided to give it a try since I enjoy pork tenderloin. This dish was grilled pork tenderloin in Oaxacan black mole with corn tamal and spinach. The tenderloin was fork tender, the mole was thick and flavorful and the corn tamal and spinach were a nice complement to the pork and suce.

We had tickets to the 11 p.m. seating of Second City. This was midnight Eastern time so in preparation I drank a double latte at the airport. 😉

For those of you unfamiliar with Second City, they do improv-based sketch comedy. The first theater opened in Chicago in 1959 and they now have another theater in Toronto, training centers in Chicago, Toronto and Hollywood as well as a traveling tour ensemble. Many of the cast members of Saturday Night Live got their start at Second City. Here’s a list of Second City alumni who went on to achieve film and TV fame. Some of the names you’ll see include Steve Carell, Andy Dick, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert and many, many more!

We had so much fun at Second City. At one point during the show they asked the audience for a topic theme for one of the sketches. We all quickly shouted out “YOGA!” and were so excited when they used our suggestion. That sketch and the entire show were super entertaining and fun. It lasted about 2 hours with a short intermission halfway through. One thing I loved about the show is that the sketches tied in to a main story theme that came out in the end. It was kind of a sweet story!

So, that’s night one for you! Stay tuned for lots of walking and sightseeing, a 3-hour epic dinner, lakefront runs and more. I really needed this weekend with my friends.