Taste of Chicago!

It's that time of year again, folks! Time to venture downtown, brave the crowds and the heat, to enjoy a wide variety of yummy Chicago food.

We hopped on the train and headed downtown.

It was another hot, hot day, but, tradition is tradition! The boys are getting bigger and, as it turns out, that makes them a little more adventurous about what they eat. This year they both ate a good number of new things! (maybe I should just start feed them new foods in small paper bowls.. haha)

The highlights were gater sausage, Tex-Brazilian garlic steak, Billy Goat's cheeseborgers, and watermelon gelato. I was particularly tickled by some Indian rolls that shared my name - kati rolls, which were delicious:

Of course, we passed by the Buckingham Fountain while we were wandering around.

However, the heat eventually won out and we headed home.

Another successful visit!

Taste of Chicago!

This has been a crazy few weeks and, in all the hullabaloo of coming back from vacation and a week with the boys being sick, we almost forgot about the Taste of Chicago! Crazy, I know. However, while we only went once this year, we squeezed it in just in time.

Remembering the wild and crazy crowds from last year's Saturday visit, we opted for a Friday evening. It was better, but still impressive:

It being an evening and wanting to get home at least mostly on time for bedtime, we went in with a plan and zipped through pretty quickly. Thus, I didn't get any pictures of our food, but there were ample opportunities for some scenery photos:

First, we headed downtown:

We met up with Hubby at the Flamingo statue (my favorite of all the downtown statues):

Of course, there's the gratuitous shot of the Buckingham Fountain:

It was another hot, hot day.. too hot for bike rides earlier, but never too hot for the Taste!

 

So, we made the most of the misty sprinklers they had around, and made a visit to the cooling bus:

It's always fun to see what artists take to the streets during the festivals:

live statue

I love this city!

The Taste! 2017

Again we come to the wonderful time of year: Taste of Chicago!

This year was extra exciting because, after years of threatening to come for this food festival, my parents actually made it! They happened to be down for the 4th, and the Taste started the next a day, so we made a trip downtown before they headed home.

Then, since Hubby wasn't able to come for a lunch trip, we were forced to go again. Oooh, the agony. This time we went on a Saturday for lunch. Much deliciousness was had by all!

 

It was funny to me, the contrast in the crowd size from Thursday to Saturday. I thought Thursday's wasn't too bad (Mom may or may not have disagreed with me):

But Saturday... woo! There were a few more people there; trying to push our double stroller through that was slooooooow going. Still, worth it!

The Taste 2016

Our family has a few Chicago-centric traditions, and I think the Taste is one of my favorites! Crowds nothwithstanding, it's just a fun festival!

This year, rather than my taking the kids downtown to meet Hubby after work for the Taste, we all went together on a Saturday. Riding on the trains is always an exciting event for Townshend, however, Moon seemed unimpressed by all the rumblings and swaying.

In the last 10 years or so that I've lived in Chicago, the city's emphasis has moved away from solely focusing on developing the tourism for just downtown to more general taking care of *all* parts of the city. I support this trend 'cuz there are lots of areas that could use some attention, even if it does mean that the Taste gets a little smaller over time. Still, there's been some creativity with scheduling and they've invited the city's army of food trucks, so it's still worth a visit every year.

Some years it's hard to find weird foods that I've not tried before, but this year there were some new ones! From Chicago's Dog House, I had some rattlesnake and rabbit sausage. It was a wee bit gamey, but tasty!

Also, from a food truck - Chicago Lunchbox - I tried a Thai chicken taco with pickled daikon. Hubby tried alligator sausage (same place as the rattlesnake and rabbit) and also had some havarti mac-n-cheese from MAD Social.

This year Townshend actually was the most into it that he's ever been (meaning he actually ate stuff). He enjoyed a hot dog and a pulled pork slider, and everyone enjoyed some yummy funnel cake.

All in all, another successful gastronomic event. I'm excited to see what next year brings!

Happy July!

Though not even half-way through, July has been a fun month! This year, Townshend is 2.5yrs old, so we thought we'd be brave and see how well he'd like a 4th of July fireworks display. Grandma Thea and Papa Phil came down for the weekend too, so that added to the fun weekend.

Our little guy is definitely not a fan of big, loud noises (they generally send him ducking for cover), so when I saw some toddler sized, noise-canceling headphones on sale a few weeks before the holiday, I jumped on them. Turns out, they were a good call. He preferred to have them on for the whole display (saying his ears felt better with them on), and with that added buffer, he loved the fireworks! Yay!!

Following the 4th, of course, was our annual trek downtown for the Taste of Chicago. Origianally, we'd planned to go on the Wednesday (hoping for a little less of a crowd), however the rain had other ideas and we went Friday night instead.

Townshend and I took the train downtown to meet up with Hubby. 

We got there a little early, so we hung out by my favorite statue for a couple minutes. Then, we all wandered over to Grant Park for the Taste. 

So. Many. People.

hush puppies were his favorite

Typically, I take more pictures of the fun. However, between the crowds and the lines, plus an impatiently hungry toddler, I got fewer pictures this year. Still, it's a tradition I'm happy to continue!

The Taste!

This past Friday evening, Townshend and I went downtown to meet up with Hubby to all go to the Taste! It was a bit of an adventure taking a little one, but he was a good sport!

no break in the crowds for picture taking!

Whenever I'm going to be riding the trains, I like to put Townshend in the baby carrier rather than using the stroller (easier to navigate the stairs at the stations that way). But, this time, I took the stroller along with us as well. I'm not sorry I did it that way; the stroller was really handy once we got downtown... but the trek with him strapped to my chest and the folded stroller in tow was a rather a lot to carry. Still, once we met up with Hubby, it was great!

Townshend isn't much for eating solid foods yet (he prefers gagging and occasionally puking when we try to be too adventurous), but he enjoyed munching on the Puffs we brought while Hubby and I sampled the tasty fair from the booths.

navigating through the crowds

In the end, we stretched Townshend's tolerance a little, but we all survived and I'm glad we went. Maybe next year the little guy will be able to share in the tasting as well!

The Taste!

This year, due to budget cutbacks, the Taste was really short and had fewer restaurants present. However, my Hubby and I were able to go a couple times and enjoy ourselves all the same!

trying Celtic corn (they gave me an extra one "on the house".. I say it was for the little one)

he found crab cakes!

The second time 'round, we even had some visitors come with us:

we'll never get any food! that line's too long!!

we got pretty rained on, but the food's still good!

trying some African plantains and goat..

Yum!