Everything nice.: Chicago weekend: Part 1

Like I said in my Friday post, I could not be more excited to get away from Decatur and spend time in the city for the weekend... as soon as Nick got off of work, we quickly went home, packed him up and then packed up the car, ran to the bank, made a quick run to the drive-thru at Taco Bell for some road food, and were on the freeway by 4! We made great time and arrived around 7 to a welcome from my lovely friend, Jordan. I hadn't been to see her since she moved into her new apartment, so it was fun to see it! We were all starving, and of course were excited to enjoy some Chicago cuisine, so Jordan suggested Bad Apple, a great bar with amazing burgers. It was a lot like DMK, a great burger place close to Jordan's old apartment, with a crazy awesome burger menu and extensive beer list, many of which you could get on draft. Since there was a bit of a wait, it being Friday night, we went straight to the bar (duh) and I started with the Pum-king beer. It was literally a pumpkin pie beer. Oh. My. God. So good. It wasn't super sweet like I thought it would be, and I was glad, but it had just the right amount of vanilla and spices in it. I could have probably tapped the keg it was so good. We got a cozy little table in the corner and enjoyed an appetizer of fried cheese curds (YUM) while trying to decide which burger to eat! I ended up with the Edmund Fig-gerald, with Edmund Fitzgerald porter, fig and bacon relish, goat cheese, and smoked onion. It was amazing! It came with fries and you could add a special seasoning for only 75 cents - my choice was truffle seasoning. Nick got Elvis' Last Supper, which had bacon and peanut butter on it. Sounds weird, but it was really good. He got the garlic seasoning on his fries. Jordan chose the burger that was second on my list, the El Chupacabra, which was topped with braised goat chili, roasted garlic purée, goat's milk cheddar, and avocado. That combo was also amazingly delicious. We ate to our hearts' content and enjoyed another beer. Well, mine was a hard cider called the Zombie Killer, as per Jordan's suggestion. It did not disappoint!

After dinner we went to our friend Steve's apartment, and his girlfriend, and one of my Delta sisters, Michelle was there! I hadn't seen her since she graduated in 2011 and the went off to be a Field Consultant for Tri Delta for the year. It was so good to drink wine and catch up. Since I'm old now, the clock stroke midnight and I was ready to go back to Jordan's place and hit the hay! It was definitely a great first night in Chicago!

Here are some pictures from our first day: