Everything nice.: Chicago weekend: Part 2

On Saturday, Jordan was busy til 4, but it worked out since Nick and I wanted to go downtown and check out Opera Fest at CCPA. I never actually went when I was a student that one year at CCPA, so I was excited myself! Plus, I was excited for Nick to hear some students and see what he could be doing - I am so excited for him to go to grad school! I can wait another year, haha.

We made it downtown just in time for the Diploma students' program at 1. It was really really cool! We started in the lobby of Ganz Hall, the recital hall, with one short performance, then headed to the Ganz Hall stage. We were surrounding the action, and it was nice because you could really watch their singing! The way the program called "Dreams" was organized was also really cool, with an amazing song cycle by Wagner (the soprano was so good!) and a shorter one by Debussy that I'm actually currently working on. You can bet that I took those translations with me! :)

After Opera Fest we grabbed some lunch at Thai Spoon, one of my favorite places to go when I lived in the UC downtown. I got pad thai, Nick got a sushi box. Yum!

It was getting around the time that Jordan would be home, so we met her back at her apartment around 4. Nick had a few more SAE brothers wanting to hang out with him, so they came and picked him up, while Jordan and I planned a girl's night! Jordan asked if I wanted to go to this little boutique called Hazel, down the street from her place, and of course, I said yes. She told me it was cute, but I was not prepared for how much cute and one-of-a-kind things I found! It also wasn't too expensive, especially for certain things, and almost everything was my style. I had a pile of things I could have bought after trying on, but I settled on an impossibly adorable fox sweater... don't worry, I'll post a picture later ;)

On our way back we were figuring out what we wanted to do for dinner, and we passed a newer restaurant called Troquet. We checked out a menu because we weren't sure how much it would cost, but we found that the most expensive thing was only $12! We decided we'd go back to her place, "get cute", and come back for a fabulous meal.

And fabulous it was! We started with wine (my pinot noir was really good) and split two plates: mussels and fries (I had never tried them before!) and a cheese plate. There were salads that sounded amazing, as well as sandwiches that sounded amazing, so we decided to each order one and split some things. I ordered the chevre salad with mixed greens, candied pecans, cranberries, prosciutto, goat cheese, and a cider vinaigrette, while Jordan ordered a croque-madame. Both were so so good and even though the salad cost $12, it was completely worth it. It was HUGE. Biggest salad I've seen at a restaurant! And everything was so fresh and delicious. I had never had a croque-madame (a sandwich with gruyere, ham, and an egg on top... and deliciously buttery), but I will be trying to recreate it at home!!! We enjoyed one more glass of wine and ate to our hearts' content and, for what we got, it really wasn't that bad! I told Jordan that the next time we visit we are going there again.