Coffee Break: Chicago Road Trip for the 2014 Lamb Meetup

Our road trip from Baltimore to Chicago started late Wednesday evening. It’s about an 11 hour drive so we decided to just trudge on through the night and arrive in the city Thursday morning. We first caught an outdoor movie in Baltimore (Anchorman 2 for inquiring minds)

It was the first official espresso coffee break of the road trip. Jason, Rob, Jess. Special Guest Dave and I say goodbye to Baltimore!

And we’re off…

Our first stop in Chicago was for some breakfast (and coffee!) at CornerStone Café. It was a sweet little spot for breakfast that served delicious Lavazza coffee. I ate the French Toast with fresh strawberries.

We had time to kill after breakfast before we could check into our place so we decided to explore Lincoln Park. We went to the Zoo which was a enjoyable walk (and free!) For whatever reason, I didn’t take any photos here. I guess I was just too zonked out from the road trip? Not sure but this part of the day remains photo-less.

We sought out on our first real Chicago treat for dinner. A very tasty Chicago-style pizza from Lou Malnati’s. Seriously good eats.

After dinner we walked around the area and had some drinks at a fairly unimportant bar and then headed back to our sleeping domain to get refreshed for the next day.

It seemed like it might take us a little while before we reached our breakfast destination so we walk down the street to a cute little bakery Beurrage to grab a coffee & croissant. We ended up going to this bakery a few more times it was so tasty.

Second breakfast came courtesy of The Bongo Room. The menu was loaded with decadent options and FTS tackled it with the proper amount of curiosity. A chorizo & avocado omelette for myself, lemon & blackberry cakes for Jess and strawberry & banana cakes with mousse cream for Special Guest Dave.

After breakfast we went over to the Sears Tower to check out the views but the line was redonkulous (an 1.5 hour wait) so we decided to change our touristy efforts. On our departure we ran into A LAVAZZA STORE. I’m sorry but it’s my favorite coffee and I was very excited. As you can see above. I got a very scrumptious Affagato.

Then it was off to Millennium Park to see The Bean and explore some more. Look at that good looking group.

THE BEAN

LOTS OF BEAN PICS

Inside the bean

I feel like that picture above describes my life with a solid amount of accuracy.

After all this bean flicking we were getting pretty hungry. Yes, it’s time for a Chicago dog.

We trekked through a surprisingly lovely neighborhood to get to the Wieners Circle. The dog was good but there were no rude encounters despite all of the stories we had heard about the place. We were there way too early. If you want to understand what I’m talking about – or you just want to laugh – watch this clip.

Since we were so close, we headed back to Lincoln Park despite the drizzle.

It was certainly worth our time.

THENNNNNNN we made our way back to our place & gussied up to meet the LAMBS! We stopped in at The Congress Hotel aka “Meetup Headquarters” for a few drinks and conversation. I was a bit star struck meeting all the awesome bloggers hence the lack of photos but please make sure you check out Fredo’s post featuring the initial meetup here . Then some of us Lambs headed out to a bar for more fun. Take a look at some of the group below!

Time to meet the Lambs! Starting from the far left corner and going the way a clock goes we have: The man Dylan from Man, I Love Films, THE Vern from Vern’s Video Vortex, The intensely sexy Wunderklaus from the FTS Podcast, host with the most Jason Soto of Your Face, SOME GUY NAMED BEN THAT WE FOUND OUTSIDE THE BAR, (Special Guest Dave is somewhere in the back), the super pleasant Clint from Alcohollywood, much happier than his disposition in the photo would suggest – Fredo from Film Yarn, and finally my gorgeous bffs (also from FTS, duh) Jess + Rob.

Yay for crappy camera phone pics! That night was a lot of fun though. If you are a blogger, YOU SHOULD MEET UP WITH OTHER BLOGGERS! It is so choice. I highly recommend it.

Like I said earlier, I missed the opportunity to snap pics but I wanted to give a special shout out to a few bloggers that I meet that Friday not featured in the photo:
Bubbawheat from Flights Tights and Movie Nights
Daniel Lackey from Forced Viewing AND Nightmare Gallery
Nick Jobe also from Your Face
Fredo Castil from Film Yarn

After a late night at the bar (followed by an even later night spent walking!) we were all pretty whooped. We slept in and ventured out around noon, just in time for more Chicago hot dogs. After some heavy internet research, we learned that one of the city’s best hot dog shacks was located a little ways away in the county. Undeterred by the distance, we headed out to Gene & Jude’s.

Okay, let’s recap what’s happening in the photo set above.
That first pic of Special Guest Dave, Jason and I was taken in the backseat of an car while we waited impatiently for a TRAIN to pass so we could get some hot dogs! Come on train!

Obviously, we made it & the dogs were definitely worth the wait! Also, look at all those handsome men in FTS shirts! Delightful.

Then it was time to make it over for the second day meetup for dinner at Ed Debevic’s. This time we also met Steve Honeywell from 1001Plus and Dan Heaton from Public Transportation Snob! I got a chance to talk to both bloggers a lot after dinner when we escaped to another bar.

After drinks, Dan, Dylan and the FTS crew shared an intimate experience with Jason Soto and Nick in their hotel room. I will never forgive/thank those two enough for… MAKING US WATCH THE ROOM. Never have I been subjected to such torture and while on vacation no less. I’m kidding of course because it was totally fun and weird and worthwhile.

Unfortunately though, after the movie was over it was time to say our goodbyes. It was almost more awkward than meeting everyone for the first time as I stumbled to find the proper words to end our journey. I’ll just say again that it was a sincere pleasure meeting everyone.

Sadly, we couldn’t stay long on Sunday because we had to hit the road. I wanted – nay NEEDED some doughnut before our trip was over so we went to the adorably titled Glazed & Confused to partake in their well known Maple Bacon doughnuts.

OH WOW. I love doughnuts so much. I’m getting hungry looking at these pictures. Seriously, I took a lot of photos because they were all so beautiful. And huge. If you happen to go there, I recommend just picking up one Maple Bacon at a time. It will be more than enough.

AND so concludes our Chicago adventure. I hope you enjoyed the recap (sorry there weren’t more photos of all the Lambs but if you want to see more, please check out Fredo’s posts over at Film Yarn!

And don’t forget these other recaps of the meetup from:
Your Face
Flights Tights and Movie Nights
Nightmare Gallery
Public Transportation Snob
The Lambcast