The Anniversary Weekend – Part 2

Ok, so were did I leave off? Oh, yeah, we dropped Wednesday off at a friend's house and came back downtown for our anniversary dinner. Before we going, we watched our wedding ceremony video, and then went to a neighborhood place called: The Bad Apple.

It's a neighborhood "gourmet burger" place. Chicago is starting to be known for these and gourmet hot dog stands. The most famous are Kuma's Corner and Hot Doug's. Cora and I got cleaned up (and boy does she clean up NICE), and walked to the Bad Apple. I had the "Margherita burger". Fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil pesto on rosemary focaccia bun. It was okay, but there was no real pesto flavor (and I love me some basil). The burger itself was good, but the pesto was so flavorless that it just left the mozzarella and the tomato for support, and they weren't up to the lifting. But I had them put Old Bay seasoning on the fries. Not the most common seasoning in the Midwest. But awesome on fries.

Cora had "The Earthly." A grilled portabella with truffled goat cheese, caramelized onion and spinach on the rosemary focaccia bun. Did she like it? She tried to recreate it at home. And we went back this last Saturday, and she had it again. I tried a bite, and it was GOOOOOD.

When we got home, we had some of our wedding cake. No, we didn't freeze the top layer. When we got our wedding cake, it was from the Safeway grocery store chain. So we just went to our local one, and picked up a cake. Then we danced to our "First Dance" song: Joe Satriani's "Always with me / Always with you".

The next morning (yes, the next morning) we got a text from Wednesday. Then another. Turns out that after we left, the stomach flu hit the girl she was visiting. So, instead of a relaxing morning lounging around on our actual anniversary, we hopped out of bed and got ready for the day. After getting back from the 'burbs the three of us hung out until about dusk. We then headed up to the roof to see the fireworks.

We have a great view of the neighborhoods and the nearby suburbs putting on their shows. It's really awesome. Granted, the pictures don't really do it justice, but they are kind of fun.

The 4th of July was a lot like the 3rd. We hung out. It was insanely hot. We played with some of those snap-n-pop things that explode when you throw them. We also had some of those party poppers. We had a lot of fun with those out back in the alley.

And once again, at night fall, we hit the roof for more fireworks. Cora took her tripod and got some great pictures, but I'll let her share them.

And with that, our first anniversary weekend was over. And with the breakdowns, and the stomach flu, and all of that, I wouldn't change a ding-darn-dang thing.