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On Heidi's birthday we flew to Chicago and took the "L" into the city where we were picked up by Kim, Chris and Livia Nigro. After lunch at Hot Doug's (The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium) we spent a relaxing day exploring their neighborhood and relived our time in Italy with dinner at Trattoria Trullo in Lincoln Square followed by a game of Scrabble.

After Sunday morning cappucinos, Kim dropped us off at our hotel where we checked in before she shuttled us to the MCA. We spent the rest of the day exploring Millenium Park, exploring the city and sampling chocolates at Vosges (including Mo's Bacon Bar and the Rooster truffle ("a mélange of Taleggio cheese, organic walnuts and Tahitian vanilla beans draped in bittersweet dark chocolate"). Our dinner at Primehouse was fantastic--possibly the best steak we've ever eaten (and the pretzel crusted crabcakes and the Kickin' doughnuts weren't bad, either)!

Our last day in Chicago was rainy but that didn't stop us from partaking in an architectural boat tour and a long walk to Blackbird where we enjoyed the pork belly sandwich, croque monsieur, kalamata olive cake with honeycrisp apples, toffee and buttermilk ice cream and milk chocolate fritters with cured plums, soy and rice milk sorbet!

A month later, the Nigros flew to Kansas City for a wedding on Kim's birthday. We celebrated with Christopher Elbow chocolates, molten caramel chocolate cakes, brunch and a trip to the Nelson!