Sophistivacation

This is always the worst part of a trip, hanging about, waiting for a flight to take you back to reality. We were awake reasonably early as we had to pack up our suitcases and vacate the hotel by 12 noon. I wanted to have a look around Macy’s as every time I am in North America, there seems to be a sale and some bargains to be had. Firstly, we decided to go for some breakfast at a family run place called Sunny Side Up & Coffee Shoppe. I was between original Eggs Benedict and stuffed French toast so you can guess what I went for. After a coffee, and two slabs of French toast slammed together with whipped cream, berries and raspberry sauce, I was done. Unfortunately, Macy's paid the price as I couldn’t physically be bothered looking at anything. We headed back to the hotel, and after stocking up on a few souvenirs, we booked an Uber to the airport. We checked the price earlier in the morning, but because of the rain, there was a surge in price. Still, my ca...

Friday was a new day but much else remained the same; our first stop was a beer tour at Goose Island Brewery. We decided to walk the 3 miles to th e brewery, knowing we would have to get an Uber back to the downtown area for our next tour. It was a beautiful day in Chicago so the walk was quite refreshing and probably sobered us up from the night before. On the way to the brewery, we stopped by Starbucks to grab a coffee and let me write/post some of my blog. We went to Goose Island Brewery early as we thought we might try and sample a few before starting the tour; I’m sure everyone had the same idea. The brewery is situated in, what is known as, the Chicago Beer District; there are a number of breweries in the area (6 I think!). I had a pint of Natural Villain and Iain had a Next Coast IPA. We had almost finished the first pint when we were told we could buy another and take it on the tour with us; think I might need to tell a few whisky distilleries about this trick! We we...

We did a food tour in Iceland and kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into so we didn't bother with breakfast! After a lazy morning, we wandered south of the river and grabbed a coffee on the way; it was a 20 minute walk to Pizano's Pizza & Pasta where we were meeting the tour guide, Elisabeth. I booked the "Famous Tastes of Chicago Food Tour" which started with deep dish pizza at Pizano's, one of the famous pizza restaurants in Chicago. Pizano's is owned by Rudy Malnati Jr., one of the sons of Rudy Malnati Sr., the founder of the deep dish pizza! Pizano's has a very different crust (olive oil with seasoning and crispy) compared to Giordano's (Fluffy and more doughy) and the mozzarella and tomato is made onsite; although there are only a few chefs, each one has to sign an agreement that they will never disclose the recipes! We had a sausage pizza which was incredible! Pizza for breakfast is the way forward! After 2 slices o...