Chicago, IL - May 2011

In order to keep in the will, Shawna and Keith met Keith's parents in Chicago for Mother's Day weekend. While we have now been to Chi-town a few times for long weekends, this was the first time that Keith's parents had been to Chicago other than transferring through O'Hare on the way somewhere else.

Accommodation:
We only know of two places to stay in Chicago as we use our points at either the Hyatt Regency or the Park Hyatt.  Since this was a serious sucking up weekend, we got 2 rooms at the Park Hyatt on Watertower Square.  The only bummer was that the restaurant, gym, and rooftop bar were all closed for renovation - but at least next time we'll be able to see the place fixed up.

Activities:
Both Saturday and Sunday were almost carbon copies of each other: wake up, breakfast in the hotel lobby, relax in the room, work out in the temporary gym, lunch at the food hall in Watertower mall, show in the afternoon, followed by a nice dinner.  The two shows we saw were Peter Pan and Cirque Eloise.  Peter Pan was pretty cool - it was the traditional play but done in the round with the characters flying overhead during certain scenes.  The Cirque show that we saw is not of the Soleil family but was still very interesting with amazing acrobatic stunts.  On Sunday, we also saw the "Our Body - The Universe Within" exhibit at the IMSS Museum - quite interesting and disturbing to see what our bodies are made of and how they can be destroyed by poor eating and diseases.

Restaurants:
The Girl and The Goat
This was our second trip to GATG - our new favorite restaurant in Chicago.  The food was just as terrific as before: the only drawback was that it is incredibly loud - hard to even hear the people speaking across the table.  We shared several small plates among the four of us - each of them quite flavorful!

Bistro Campagne
This restaurant was selected by Keith's dad, who has never met a french bistro he did not like.  Bistro Campagne is a quaint little place north of the city, and the food exceeded our expectations.

Veerasway
Veerasway was recommended by Christine, one of Keith's colleagues at work.  It is located on 'restaurant row' as the cab driver called it as if there is only one street with a concentration of restaurants in Chicago!  The food is fantastic, fresh Indian food - we shared several delicious entrees along with naan, rice, raita and of course mango chutney for Keith's dad!