![...2 tickets to Paradise [the Taste of Chicago]](http://racheljacob.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/train8-150x150.jpg "...2 tickets to Paradise [the Taste of Chicago]")
The hubby and I took a little trip to visit family and the City this past month. We had a lot of fun visiting with family, eating at a lot of great places, watching Knight and Day with Gramma Pat, and visiting the hubby’s hometown.
We took a little trip down memory lane in Crystal Lake, ILL. We also met up with family for a great family dinner at Gramma’s house. We took Gramma out on a date to Leona’s, and saw Knight and Day (which I thought was pleasantly entertaining). Then we made a pineapple upside-down cake, which we ate at 12:30am when it was finished baking.
The next day we took the Metra into downtown Chicago for the Taste of Chicago. We had some great tastes! Chocolate covered banana, Pad Thai, Pickle, Chicago style hotdog, Jumbalaya, Pot stickers, and Lemon Italian Ice. We also went to Dominick’s Cooking Corner and this egotistical chef was telling the audience how to loose weight (How he did…) it was ridiculous! Then he had about 15 minutes left of his hour time limit to cook….lame. But we took a lot of great pictures and saw some interesting people. We also got some great tan lines!
We had a great time in Illinois! We hope to go back often 
On our way back to MN, we stopped at Portillo’s, a really cool retro diner with hotdogs, beef and burgers. Great food!
“The hubby”? Is that all I am to you now?
The chatty chef was Dave Samber, and he even has a website for his restaurant! As expected, the website is truly awful. I mean, it’s a complete train wreck with no survivors. The neon blue is literally making my eyes bleed right now.
I swear we ate more food at the Taste, too. Did you mention the roasted corn on the cob? What about the sweet potato hash browns?