Be in my heart

Six years ago, Steve and I fell in love in Chicago. On somewhat of a whim, we decided take our vacation to the Windy City because for the past 6 years it has been tugging on our hearts. And while searching for our favorite memories, we made new ones along the way.

We spent most of our time reveling in Chicago's warmth! The warm air embraced our skin and cuddled us up. Hey, cool - it's raining and STILL warm! It's past 5pm and it's STILL warm!? Wow! I just woke up and I am already WAAAARM! Hi Shorts, nice to see you, it's been a few years since I've felt so WARM! Let's hunt down every quaint patio in Chicago so we can stay outside in this warmth! We devoured every warm drop.

The only touristy thing we did was visit the bean!!

Can you see us?

We ate pizza every day! We didn't get to town until about 10pm Monday night and walked straight to Pizza Uno where we waited at least 90 minutes for a seat and pizza. It was soo worth it! There's nothing better than deep dish Chicago-style pizza, sangria, and your true love to share it with.

Another night we met up with Steve's cousin, Paul who took us to Gino's East for pizza. Here, we learned that there are many restaurants in Chicago where you can BYOB!!! Yes, BEER! We couldn't believe it that we were allowed to stroll into a neighboring bar to order a 6-pack of beer TO GO and drink it on the patio of the pizza place! Gino's even put our beer in their fridge to keep it cold for us! 

Our favorite pizza spot during our 2007 trip was Eduardos - the place I order pizza from for special occasions and they ship it frozen from Chicago. Well, we were finally back to get it fresh and we could barely find the spot! Well, it has since turned into an Eduardo's wine bar, where they stopped serving deep dish pizza and now serve artisan flat pizza! BOO!! So we had one tiny appetizer and a drink (on the patio!) and sulked out of there.

And finally, on the last night, we were wiped out from a day of sailing on Lake Michigan and ordered pizza take-out from Pizza Due - our second favorite spot.

Here is the famous Chicago water tower. This was one of the only buildings to survive in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. It stood as our landmark for getting around the downtown area because our hotel was just around the corner. 

Steve's cousin took us sailing on Lake Michigan. We'd never get another opportunity like this to see Chicago from such a neat perspective! Thank you so much Paul for taking us out and showing us just how cool Chicago really is! Besides the seasickness, we had a blast!!! It was so nice meeting Paul and getting the behind-the-scenes tour of his awesome t-shirt company, Ript Apparel. 

My cousin Zac and his wife Kate also live in Chicago and it was such a treat to visit with them while we were there. Zac is a chef at the Four Seasons and he gave us a grand tour of the kitchens. It was absolutely amazing and impressive how many kitchens and staff there are! We also met up with them in their cute tree-lined neighborhood where we took a nice walk to Wicker Park and tried bone marrow for the first time ever! It was...delicious!

Bathroom Renovation FINALE!!!!!!!!

Project Timeline: 1 year, 7 months - January 2012 - July 2013

Project Cost: 1/3 of the cost of hiring a professional to do a complete bathroom reno.

Lesson Learned: The key to success is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.



Bathroom Renovation from Jaime Dwight on Vimeo.

Soundtrack: "Deconstruction" by Fanfarlo

Long Lost Bees

A couple of months ago our bees left the hive in search of another home. Experts say that there are multiple reasons bees swarm, including overpopulation, which is what we think happened to us. At some point when there are too many bees in one hive, you are supposed to split your hive to make more room for the colony to grow and flourish. Well, we never split our hive so one day they just vanished! 

Steve heard that sometimes a new colony of bees can move in if their scouts find the hive, but most likely we would have to replenish the hive with a new set of bees next spring. In the meantime all of that delectable honey would serve as a food source for other roaming bees and probably ants. ;( 

But that all changed last Thursday! Steve arrived home from work with a wonderful surprise! NEW BEES! And these are not just any bees, they are eager bees! Check out his footage and cross your fingers that this batch of bees sticks around!

Bees Are Back! from Jaime Dwight on Vimeo.