Chicago

So this last weekend, Nate and I decided to take a last minute trip to Chicago. The main event was to go see Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zeros at the Chicago Bluegrass and Blues festival ( Winter addition). We get in on Saturday and check in at the hotel- our first concern was getting something to eat and then heading over to the festival at the Congress Theatre.

We made reservations at "The Gage" down off of South Michigan. It was a gastropub with a quite impressive list of beers, whiskey, wine, scotch and cocktails. In true fashion, we ate and drank like we were on vacation.
Nate had the heart attack on a Kaiser roll aka Pork Belly and grease sandwich. I tried the Briskett sandwich. We also had a side order of curry gravy- which I'm not one to usually need dip for french fries, but this stuff was delicious! And how could I forget, we started everything off with some delicious beers and a scotch egg.

We decided that it was still kind of early to get to the concert so we walked around Chicago for a little bit and found ourselves in a handmade soap store- kind of weird selection but ok. We had our smell of soaps and Nate bought the last needed component to be able to start shaving with his old school shaving blade- something called strap which I had never heard of. We then left and it started to get really windy and snow on us, so we decided to hail a cab and head over to the Congress Theatre.

The theatre itself was really need but really run down. Nate and I also found ourselves surrounded by hippies, hula hoops, and a brass marching band- it's quite a story that we'll have to tell sometime. We even got to witness a crazy man with track pants and a mesh shirt, attack other hula-hoopers by thrusting his hips and therefore his hula-hoop at them- quite a site.

We heard some good bands and some not so good bands, but the Magic hat #9 on tap that they were selling made it all better :)
Hours later and a short nap - I'm sorry but traveling really takes it out of you and what else are husband's shoulders for??- Grace Potter and the Nocturnals came out. She had quite and amazing voice and it was fun to watch. But I was really excited for Edward Sharpe and the magnetic zeros. We only stayed for 45 min of their 90 min set, but after they played "Home" that was all I needed to see. You felt like you when in a different place with everybody singing along and jumping to the chorus- it was unreal.

The weekend was fun, but it is nice to be home and get settle in for a few weeks before the holidays :)