Happy Birthday, Paul

Props to this dude. He's made it 57 years today. Happy Birthday, Dad.

More on Chicago..

This appetizer was sooo goood -0 yeah- that's a 3 o on the o scale. It is unfortunat?e that you haven't invested in the new "scratch and sniff" monitor. This was as good as it looks. This restaurant experience was at the Frontera Grill - run by Rick Bayless (a public television dude in Chicago?). It was recommended by Laura and Brian.


Michelle thought it was cool that she was able to catch up with Laura in person and see the family.
According to the website it is the 3rd Best casual restaurant in the world. I can't vouch for that acclaim, but Michele and I enjoyed the interesting & authentic dishes quite a bit. Michelle laughs, but I like to take pictures of the food we eat while out of town - got a problem with that?

Pizza Uno

Here is what I took home from Chicago - a pizza that I'm still digesting. They do make a good pizza, however, Michelle and I are more fans of the thick and chewy crust for deep pizzas. This crust was almost "pie" like - flaky and crispy. Acer enjoyed the pizza much more than Salix (surprise?).

Speaking of Acer, he took this great self portrait in Chicago. We'll be posting more Chicago pics shortly. While in the second city, we also hit the aquarium and some restaurant run by a dude on public television. Remind me to post about the awful Sheraton Towers at some point...I'm still recovering from how dry the room was.

Chicago Style

Wow, what a great time we had in Chicago. We took a mini vacation down to the windy city while Salix was competing in the Chicago Style Invitational. It is the largest women's gymnastic meet in the world. Roughly 3,500 gymnasts participated in the event. Salix wasn't feeling as good as normal - still feeling the effects of strep throat - so she was a bit of her game. She still tried very hard and impressed us with her tenacity. Salix was in love with the American Girl store~! This event was like Christmas all over again for the store. Thousands of girls staying the weekend on Michigan Avenue = $$$$ to the American Girl store. We were one of the lucky families and escaped with only purchasing a flapper outfit.