Well…not set an alarm for one! That was easy! We got up eventually, took showers and got ourselves ready to greet the day. First…since we didn’t want to have to carry our bags around the city all day, so we arranged with the hotel to keep the room for the day, wahoo!

Eventually, we ventured out in search of breakfast. I was disappointed that the Chicago Diner ‘Meat Free since ’83’, one of my favorite places to eat in Chicago, unfortunately, it wasn’t open until 12p, maybe next time we go to Chicago, we can eat there. We decided on a place that was less than a mile away, Wildberry Pancakes & Cafe. It had a high rating, so we were excited. We put our names on the waitlist, we didn’t actually have to wait too long, it was quite busy. Chicago seems to still be waking up from quarantine.

When we finally got a seat, we waiting for quite a while before anyone came over to the table, our server was nice enough, but frazzled, according to her, it was crazy busy and they were backed up in the kitchen. Not sure if they had enough staff working. We finally got to order, PSM got his decaf coffee pretty quickly, but my chai latte, on the other hand, came just before the food, which was about 20 minutes later, and it came in a to-go cup, that was a first. I watched several drinks come out of the kitchen like that, I have a feeling they were low on kitchen staff. I was watching the people at the table next to ours, who were seated at the same time we were. Their drinks came at the same time mine did, and they still didn’t have food. Our food got there and we started eating.

We had ordered a vegetable skillet, requesting the hash browns be fully cooked, I don’t know if we’ve talked about this, but I don’t like my hash browns white, still looking like it was a just shredded potato. The veggies were good, the eggs as well. I will say the pancakes were good, we hoped they were since the restaurant was called Wildberry Pancakes & Cafe! The toast, on the other hand, was cold. Oh well.

We headed out for a stroll down Michigan Avenue, also known as The Magnificent Mile. You might be wondering why it’s called Michigan Avenue is known as The Magnificent Mile, click the link! It really is a beautiful street, the flowers are in bloom and one thing Chicago is known for, well in my opinion at least! is the artwork that is found on the streets, be it in the floral arrangements, sculpture, graffiti, even, and you know how much I love graffiti! I didn’t take any pictures of it this trip, sorry.

There were also quite a few businesses boarded up along Michigan Avenue, in preparations for the protests that happened on Friday. Many of those businesses were still open, and the foot traffic was lively, but not unreasonable and everyone was respectful of their space. We made our way to the T-Mobile Flagship Store, PSM had some questions, and if you remember my time in Chicago, I love that particular T-Mobile! After T-Mobile, we walked down Michigan Avenue, our end goal was Millennium Park, just looking in windows and watching people, and taking photos of the flowers as we went.

We were about to pass a Starbucks, what we thought was just an ordinary Starbucks, when it turns out to be quite a bit more than that! It was the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. Yeah, try saying that 5 times fast! ha ha. I can’t think of a better way to describe it “If Willy Wonka had built the ultimate coffee shop instead of a chocolate factory, the result may have looked a lot like the 15,000-square-foot Starbucks Reserve Roastery.” That is the description from their website about the first Reserve Roastery that opened in Seattle, of course, where it all began.

The Chicago Reserve Roastery is a five story building and each story houses something different, although, you can get coffee and tee on every floor, although, they don’t have all the same traditional drinks that you would get at your average, on every block, Starbucks. First floor: Coffee, tee, pastry, merchandise. Second floor: dedicated bakery. Third floor: the art, science, and theater of coffee: coffee creations, flights, nitrogen-infused gelato, and more. Fourth floor: Alcohol! A cocktail bar. Fifth floor: Rooftop terrace, reservation required.

It was quite the experience. After we toured each floor, and it really was something to see, and something to see at every turn, we ordered drinks. PSM got an iced decaf something and I didn’t want a hot drink, so I tried to order something similar to the Dragon Drink that I like, which is sweet mango and dragonfruit flavors, with creamy coconut milk, ice and a scoop of real diced dragonfruit. I love it! They didn’t have anything like that so I ordered something the person at the register recommended and I ordered it with oat milk. She looked at me kind of funny, I said I wanted something similar to the dragon drink, here goes. First…they made it incorrectly and while they remade it the way I ordered it, I got to keep the incorrect one. SO glad I did because the one with oat milk…yuck! it was awful! wow!

After Starbucks, we kept walking and eventually ended up in Millennium Park, across from where we had breakfast. We started with The Bean, which is technically Cloud Gate Park, it is a 10-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above. Basically, it looks like a giant bean! It was designed by Anish Kapoor. The cool thing about it is when you get under it, your reflection is inverted and sometimes it’s hard to find yourself in it. It was gated off, which makes sense, since so many people get in there and touch it. Safety first! A cool thing…as we were standing there, we saw a couple just after they got engaged, the eruption of cheers and the now fiancé’s tears were very touching!

Then we walked to the gardens, flowers were in bloom, some just coming to life, some dying. I liked that there was one patch where they left the dying flowers to feed the new growth and the insects who live in it.

After the gardens, we walked to the Crown Fountain, two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool, designed by Jaume Plensa. They project images of faces which are animated and in the summer, they are true fountains. The fun thing is to sit and watch all the kids, young and old, running and playing in the fountain/water spouts. Right now, not much water happening.

Then there was an installation by a Chicago based artist, Christine Tarkowski. “When we call the Earth by way of distinction a planet and the Moon a satellite, we should consider whether we do not, in a certain sense, mistake the matter. Perhaps- and not unlikely – the Moon is the planet and the Earth the satellite! Are we not a larger moon to the Moon, than she is to us?“

This was the end of our tour of Millennium Park, thoroughly enjoyable! Now, we’re hungry! A few blocks and we are at a place I la la la loved when I was in Chicago, Native Foods. I would not have subjected PSM to an entire weekend of vegan, but I wanted at least one, maybe two meals, and this is the one I got. One of the things I have been thinking about since we planned this trip is their vegan Reuben sandwich, O M G! I lived on it when I was there, introduced so many people to it, who couldn’t believe it wasn’t real and my mouth is watering just thinking about it now! And it was the vegan Reuben I compared all other vegan Reuben’s to.

And guess what they didn’t have… O M G! NOOOOOOOoooo! I was heartbroken, what was I to do?! I ended up with a meatball sub with provolone and sweet potato fries, PSM had a brisket sandwich, remember…all vegan. For dessert, we didn’t care much for the peanut butter parfait, but my other go-to favorite…their oatmeal creme pie! It’s more like an oatmeal whoopee pie, to give you a visual. Oh wow! I was going to say OMG again, but you’re probably tired of it! It is so yummy and good, another thing I got my non-vegan friends hooked on! I still get texts from friends I was on that project with, who will go there on occasion to get just that! Wow, that’s saying something! It’s so tasty, but soo, sooooo, soooo sweet! I couldn’t eat it all in one sitting and it was a little much for PSM, he did try it though, and declared it was all mine! muwahahah. Needless to say, it is going to take me a few days to eat it! Ha ha.

After lunch, back to the hotel to chill for a bit, then head to the airport, we have puppies to see! I can’t wait to find out what they got up to this weekend. First class home, then puppies! What a weekend! What’s our next adventure?!