Happy Monday, everybody! I hope the weekend treated you well – and I hope you stayed warm and safe. This weekend brought some crazy weather over here, and I know it was pretty intense elsewhere, too.
When my parents came to visit, Ohio was supposed to get a lot more snow than Chicago. By the time they were both here? Chicago was supposed to get hammered and Ohio wasn’t supposed to be too bad. Yesterday, Chicago saw blizzard conditions, so my parents opted to stay in the hotel rather than drive home with the near-zero visibility. But the rest of the weekend? It was pretty wonderful, so let’s talk about that.
I have a pretty light week of schoolwork this week, and so I didn’t have much to do over the weekend. Knowing that, I planned to spend Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon with my parents. A little break from the college bubble (and the college food) never hurts, and I truly, completely relaxed and enjoyed.
My dad had a work meeting on Friday, so my mom came up here after my Friday class and we spent the evening shopping at Water Tower Place. But first? We ate. And it was phenomenal.
We had no idea where we wanted to go or what we wanted to eat. We were just hungry. I would’ve eaten McDonald’s, but I am so glad I didn’t. We ended up eating at Ditka’s, splitting a massive shrimp cocktail, a perfect burger and fries, and the peanut butteriest peanut butter pie. It was a ton of food, but a ton of delicious food. We could not stop raving about this meal. After we were all fueled up, we headed to Water Tower and shopped all seven levels. I bought a bunch of new clothes at American Eagle, and we saw this outside the American Girl store. 
This doll has her own (mini) KitchenAid mixer. She’s a baker! I have about seven American Girl dolls (they were my childhood favorite), and I certainly don’t need any more, but she’s a baker! Like me! Okay, I’m done. All in all, my mom and I had an excellent time walking and talking and shopping, and when we were done, we went back to the hotel and totally crashed.
The next morning was kind of a lazy morning, since we thought the hotel served breakfast until 11 am. Oops. Nope, 10:30 was the end. We were both pretty hungry, so we did a little research and decided to head to Yolk for breakfast (but basically lunch… brunch!). It was really close to Target, which was our next stop.
We couldn’t decide what to order, so we split the Iron Man Omelet and the Banana-Blueberry Crunch Cakes. That way, we got eggs and something sweet for breakfast. I know the omelet isn’t that photogenic, but it was delicious. And so were the pancakes. Another meal we couldn’t stop talking about.
Then, we drove to Target and shopped even more, mostly stocking up on groceries for me. I’m sure you’ll see the fruits of our trip over the next few weeks. 🙂
After unloading our stash at my dorm, my mom and I headed to the airport to pick up my dad. The three of us went back to the hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours, and then went to dinner. We thought about going somewhere else (we thought about going a lot of places – it was a tough decision!), but we decided to go back to Ditka’s after perusing their restaurant week menu.
We ordered differently this time, though, so going to the same place was totally justified 😉 I ordered asparagus and a 5-ounce crab cake (deeeelicious), and had a bite of my dad’s prime rib and a couple of my mom’s fried shrimp and French fries. For dessert? We shared banana cream pie and that same peanut butter pie. Ahhh. It was perfection.
Stuffed, we went back to the hotel. I did a little online shopping and we chatted and watched TV. Pure relaxation.
Yesterday morning, we lazed around the hotel a bit while my parents tried to decide if they were staying in Chicago for another day or if they were going to brave the roads and head home. They decided to stay, my mom painted my nails, and then we ate a late Chipotle lunch before I came back to the dorm.
Once I got back to school, I did a little reading, hung out with friends and watched a movie, and baked these for the house with a friend. Some of them got covered in Nutella. All were very well-received by the housemates. 🙂
All that before absolutely crashing around 10 pm.
So, that was a really long recap of my really fantastic weekend. I’m so glad I got to see my family, and now I’m refreshed and ready to get back into the swing of school for the next six and a half weeks.
Have a lovely day, and I’ll check in again soon!
How’s the weather where you are?
Eggs for breakfast or pancakes/waffles/French toast?
Tell me about your weekend!
Oh my yum. I just love all the food pictures and details, ’cause I love good food and hearing about the meals other people have enjoyed (in fact, I have been known to ask family members what exactly was in their sandwich/dish/dessert that they ordered at a restaurant or that they made for dinner, because I love to enjoy it vicariously and imagine how it would taste :P). Thanks for sharing!! I prefer sweets any day of the year, so probably the French Toast/pancakes option, because, well, maple syrup. ;P
Typical PNW weather…gray, cloudy and occasional rain. :/
We had a great time hanging out as a family, relaxing, having a treaty Sunday breakfast, playing a computer game together…it was very nice. Also, I worked on my new phone. 🙂
I love hearing about food, too. Food is a passion of mine 😉
That sounds like a lovely, relaxing weekend!
P.S. I’m working on responding to your email – super busy, but I appreciate you sending it!!
Totally fine…I understand you’re crazy busy, so no worries! 😉