We walked along the river to Michigan Ave. and visited the University of Chicago’s bookstore. We then window shopped our way up the Magnificent Mile taking in sights along the way. Although it’s theoretically an impressive shopping thoroughfare, Dubai has really spoiled us — nothing else (that we’ve seen anyway) compares.

At 10:30, we headed to grab brunch at Frontera. Yeah, yeah… I know. We just ate there the night before. But, we already had reservations, and brunch is different than dinner. Indeed, by having dinner the night before, we were now free to try actual brunch/breakfast food. That’s my story anyway…

Frontera did not disappoint. I had a chocolate cappuccino, and Libby drank fresh squeezed orange juice. We started with a melon and mint guacamole, which was refreshing and excellent. My meal consisted of Iroquois corn hotcakes, chili glazed bacon, and scrambled eggs. Libby ate a chorizo and jack cheese queso fundido with fresh corn tortillas. All was excellent!

After brunch, we headed over to Millennium Park and on to the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to the permanent collection, the Institute was holding a major retrospective of Lichtenstein’s iconic Pop art work:

Excellent show!

I also greatly enjoyed seeing Ellsworth Kelly’s Chicago Panels and other works on display.

The permanent collection of this encyclopedic museum is very impressive. Highlights included a number of famous (and less well known) works, such as Grant Wood’s American Gothic. In all, we spent about four hours at the museum.

After looking at art, we grabbed some coffee at Intelligentsia (the Chicago equivalent to London’s Monmouth Coffee Co.). Fantabulous…

Next, we spent some time exploring State Street.

For dinner, we’d intended to visit the Purple Pig for tapas — too long of a wait. So, we went to Emelio’s for tapas instead. This seemed like a popular choice with a mostly local crowd. The food was very good, especially Emelio’s famous potato salad (garlicky goodness from the aioli… total yum!).

After dinner, we walked around town a bit, and I went out to take some night photographs of the Windy City. I think they turned out well. I’ll have to post them soon.

Tomorrow morning, we fly home to Tampa.

All in all, we’ve had an excellent time during our mini-break in Chicago!

Crazy, I know. But, we need to make progress in visiting states!

We started with Indiana, the state line being just south and east of Chicago, where we visited a recreation area on the shores of Lake Michigan. We then drove back through the city and continued north to Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, which indeed seemed both pleasant and prairie-like. It’s also home to an outlet mall.

We returned to the airport, dropped off the car, and were in downtown Chicago by 4:00. We’re staying at the Renaissance Downtown Chicago and have a fantastic room overlooking the river:

As we were hungry and somewhat tired, we opted for an early dinner. Lucky for us, Frontera Grill was nearby and just getting ready to open! So, we headed over there, stood briefly in line, and managed to quickly get a table. We started with the guacamole (very good, but no more so then mine), then soups (tortilla for me; poblano gazpacho for Libby), and two different sampler trios:

Street Food — potosinas (fresh cheese, avocado, crema, Tamazula), sweet potato garnachas (pork chilorio, grilled orange, red beans), sopes (shredded beef, roasted tomato, green chile)

Old School Frontera Trio — smoked chicken taquitos (sour cream, guacamole), Mexico City-style corn masa quesadillas (artisan cheese, epazote), ceviche fronterizo tostadas

Libby loved the garnachas (sweet and savory) and sopes (earthy and beefy). My favorites were the Frontera ceviche (bright and citrusy) and potosinas (spicy and smoky). Here’s what it all looked like:

For desert, I had a corn and blueberry torta with sour cream ice cream, and Libby enjoyed a mint chocolate tres leche cake with berry sorbet. Both were amazing–Libby declaring it perhaps her favorite desert ever!

I should mention that I washed all of this down with a local Goose Island draft beer brewed especially for Frontera, called Marisol (a Beligian style wheat ale brewed with citrus & green coriander). Libby had the excellent, homemade limeade.

We walked around a bit after dinner and then returned to our hotel looking forward to tomorrow’s further adventures.

Today’s box score: +3 states (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin)