It's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses...

Ok, my love of food is hardly a secret and fortunately shared by Dustin. For the first six days of our epic road trip journey, our culinary adventures were limited to sampling stadium snacks, which were sometimes quite yummy but hardly classy. On Sunday, we moved on to the Chicago week of our trip, and fine dining moved to the forefront. We are on a slight baseball hiatus until Saturday, so if you’re looking for stadium pictures, come back then. :-)

On Sunday night, Dustin and I ate at Table Fifty-two, home to chef Art Smith (he’s been on Top Chef, Iron Chef America, and apparently Oprah likes him). It’s Southern food, but upscale. On Sundays and Mondays only, the restaurant features famous fried chicken, which we were eager to try.
Our dinner was very good, including watermelon gazpacho; pizza with chanterelle mushrooms, baby squash, and balsamic reduction; fried chicken and garlic mashed potatoes (Dustin); pan-seared grouper with faro, currants, and baby greens (Skye); macaroni and cheese; fresh blueberry pie; and an excellent bottle of Pinot Noir. Everything was delicious (especially the chicken - a review had described it as being able to "heal the world," and that's not too exaggerated). It was also very rich and filling. We walked around Chicago for a bit after dinner, and then we returned to Dustin’s family’s house for the night.
On Monday, we took the train into Chicago for the Taste of Chicago. It was hot but not terribly crowded, and we enjoyed a number of “tastes” from the various booths, including spinach stuffed pizza, an enchilada, a fried steak sandwich, lemon ice… we had a fun time eating and hanging out in Grant Park and Millennium Park.

Try not to judge my free visor... it was hot!

In the afternoon, we walked over to the Field Museum, where we saw the famous T-Rex, Sue, as well as various other animals, jewels, and artifacts. Overall, the Chicago leg of the trip is off to a great start!