For spring break (well not ours but the nieces/nephews), my sister had mentioned taking her kids to Chicago (to check out colleges for the oldest). We decided to sorta tag along (they were flying to the East coast and then driving to Chicago whereas we would just fly into the city). D had never been so I thought it’d be fun to show her around the city, and also I wanted to visit my alum, Northwestern University.

I found a decent deal for flights on Southwest but that also meant flying into Midway (at least the flight there was direct). From Midway, we grabbed a taxi into the city to our hotel, Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile. We had previously stayed at the Intercontinental in NYC and figured we’d stick with them – cost was comparable to other places. The location was fairly ideal in that we were in the River North neighborhood right on Michigan Ave, which is also known as the Magnificent Mile.

Chicago is definitely an eater’s town and we had planned much of our meals prior to arriving. We didn’t plan far enough ahead to get reservations at a steakhouse that we wanted to try, Bavette’s. Given Chicago’s history as the center of the country’s meatpacking industry we knew we had to get steaks at least once. D had read that you could possibly get a walk-in table at Bavette’s, especially on a Tuesday night. After dropping off our luggage we walked over to Bavette’s. We put our names on the wait list but eventually found a spot at their downstairs bar (which also serves a full dinner menu). I started with a couple of fresh oysters and we shared the mixed greens and apple salad. They’re also known for their hand-made sourdough bread so we got some of that. I will say that the bread and butter was a highlight of the meal. For our main, we shared the Dry-Aged Bone-in ribeye (20 oz 42 day dry aged) along with a side of broiled asparagus. For drinks I had a Rittenhouse Rye Old Fashioned and a Cognac Sazerac. Both very good.

On the walk back we stopped at CVS to pick up some things and happened upon the Wings of Mexico, a permanent art installation by artist Jorge Marin in the Plaza of the Americas. We grabbed some pictures here. I had seen people posting pictures of this but didn’t know the backstory.