CHICAGO

During my summer break from work, I got to go spend a couple weeks in Chicago where Morgan is working.
I spent the weekdays being lazy at the hotel waiting for Morgan to get out of work and the weekends were spent exploring Chicago.
Luckily for us, Morgan's work paid for our food and hotel stays, so we were able to stay right downtown and enjoy a lot delicious eats.
We basically loved EVERY place that we ate at. We tried The Girl and The Goat, Mity Nice, Lou Malnati's, RPM Italian, Pierrot Gourmet, and India House Restaurant.
We also bought a City Pass so that we could see some of the Chicago attractions. I think our favorite places to see were the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry.
Of course, It was also fun just walking around and relaxing together.
We really loved Chicago.

Throwback

A couple weekends ago, we packed our bags and headed to Fredericksburg to celebrate my great grandmother's 102nd birthday. Fredericksburg is a small German city right in the middle of Texas that is full of a lot of family history (on my mom's side). I get nostalgic every time I go there. It is small and you drive though the hill country to get there. Main Street is lined with bakeries, breweries, toy shops, trinket stores, and any other shop you can imagine. The streets are wide and the festivals are always a big deal there.

My Oma owned a big house that was right across the street from a beautiful Catholic Church, it had a huge backyard with big trees and it backed up to a large piece of land. The land was flat and she let the high school behind her house use it for football and later donated it to become their football field. When we were younger and would go for holidays or just family get togethers, we would all climb through the wire fence and play football and baseball on the field. She had a big attic that was turned into 3 large bedrooms with a lot of beds to fit all of her children and grandkids that came to visit. I always loved exploring her attic and sleeping up there.

A few years ago, the church bought her house from her and in return bought her a newer home in a different neighborhood that was easier for her to maintain as she aged. So now when we go back, it always feels a little different not being able to go back to the same house that we used to spend weekends and holidays in.

She is still the same kind lady that makes the best oatmeal ever, who did races, walks, and participated in and ran clubs until she was 90,  and who brings our entire family together.

We spent the day going to a few shops on Main Street that I used to be obsessed with as a child, like a candle store where they hand carve and dip them right in front of you and a 5, 10, and 25 cent shop. We went to lunch with my aunts, uncles, and cousins at a brewery on Main and we both got different kinds of schnitzels even though we had no idea what that meant. They turned out to be delicious. And we went to visit with the birthday girl herself, who still insists on getting up and walking herself over to pick out her own cookies and birthday pies.

1. Polaroid from a August 2012 with Oma

2. St. Mary's Catholic Church across the street from her old house

3. Some candle making action

4. A small view of her collection of metals

5. Her old house, which has now been restored a lot. New paint, a smaller porch, smaller top windows.

6. The birthday girl

7. Schnitzels

8. Main Street

Fried Life

This weekend we went to the Texas State Fair with our friends rachel&aaron.

That place is a carnie food paradise. And where else can you get fried butter, fried cheese curd, fried lemonade, fried nachos, fried pizza and fried sugar all in one place? I could keep listing the different kinds of fried foods for a very long time. EVERYTHING is fried. Even if it doesn't say it is fried, it is fried. Even if it is liquid, somehow, it is fried. We had buffalo chicken wrapped in a flapjack (fried) on a stick. It's very popular to put everything on a stick. 

And every once in a while, I NEED to have a funnel cake. The day we went to the fair was one of those days. And they had red velvet funnel cake.

The fair was full of strange animals, strange people, more rides than I thought possible, and enough bright lighting to induce seizures. It was perfect.

1. buffalo chicken in a flapjack, fried, on a stick. fantastic. (served with syrup and/or bbq sauce)

2. big tex

3. animal looking into my soul.

4. red velvet funnel cake with sugary frosting.

5. family portrait in front of a magical mural.

6. swings

7. ferris wheel