Chicago x D2

Next day, we started our day with brunch. We went to M. Henry for some new american food. The place was pretty packed and we have to wait a couple of minutes for our tables. I'm usually the type of person who doesn't eat breakfast, but since we're skipping lunch, I guess I just have to deal with brunch for today. 

Latina Omellete

Fried Egg Sandwich

Veritable Vegan Epiphany

French Toast

After stuffing our stomach with all those food, we drove to downtown and started to explore the area. We went to Chicago river, Cloud Gate, and Navy Pier (and their surrounding areas) on foot. There was a lot, and by a lot I mean A LOT, of walking involved that day. The hot temperature didn't help to make it easy either. One thing that I felt when we roamed around the downtown area was feeling sooo small. Chicago is probably one of the cities that has the tallest buildings that I've ever visited. Everywhere you look, you could probably easily spot tall buildings. I felt shorter than usual walking around those buildings. 

Cloud Gate (The Bean)

Since we ate pretty early today and didn't have anything after our brunch, I got really hungry after walking around. So we decided to stopped by Wow Bao that happened to be on the way. I seriously felt like I was going to faint since my stomach was pretty empty. The place have a good selections of chinese buns, which were perfect for snacking before our late dinner reservation.

and then on with our journey...

Then we stopped by Magnolia Bakery, which supposedly has the best banana puding. But we got there pretty late in the afternoon so they sold out. The place was really nice though. I like the interior of the bakery.

Then we went to one of the Garrett Popcorn shops, one of the common souvenirs tourists took home with them when they visit Chicago. 

Then when it was dark enough, we made our way to the Skydeck to see the night view of Chicago. Since it was the holiday weekend, there were so many people there. There were a lot of lining up, pushing, and shoving involved just to stand on the glass boxes. It was mad. Wouldn't recommend to go there during weekends or holidays. 

Then, we headed to Purple Pig for our late dinner. 

Deviled Egg with Arugula & Capers

Roasted Bone Marrow with Herbs

Chicken Thigh Kebabs, Fried Smashed Potatoes & Tzatziki

and that's day 2.

Chicago on the 4th

On 4th of July, I flew to Chicago with a couple of friends to visit a friend of mine. We arrived in the afternoon and went to Ming Hin Restaurant in Chinatown for dinner. Supposedly, the restaurant is pretty famous according to my local friend and the food was really good. Afterwards, we stopped by Joy Yee for some bubble tea since it's in the same area. Their bubble tea is really good. 

We were originally planning to go watch the fireworks after dinner, but we were a little too late since people already filled up the pier and the police closed the streets. So we were in the area, heard the fireworks sound, but fail to see any in any directions. I blame the tall Chicago buildings. They practically made it impossible for your to see far without any obstruction. Since we were also already tired from the trip, we went to our hotel and checked-in instead and call it a night. 

Museum of Flight

The next day, we started our day at Pike Place Market. We went to Café Campagne for brunch with a friend of ours, Cindy. That was my first time visiting the place and the food was great. We ordered a bunch of thing to share and did it family style.

Two scrambled eggs with herbs, with potatoes, chicken & pork sausage, and baguette

French French Toast (Fried in Bourbon Egg Batter, served with Maple Syrup and topped with fresh fruit.)

Oeufs en Meurette (Poached eggs with a sauce of pearl onions, bacon, champignons in red wine – foie gras sauce on garlic croutons, pommes frites.)

Pommes Frites

After we finished with brunch, we went to Museum of Flight because (one of) my sister wanted to go. Thought it'd be fun since I've never been there too. We looked at a bunch of different planes from different eras. It was pretty cool. There was some kind of competition going on too that day (although I wasn't completely sure what it's all about), but we got to see some people building miniature planes and stuff. 

Fall Weekend in Portland

I went to Portland with a couple of friends two weekends ago. We drove there midday on Saturday and stay overnight. We went shopping at Woodburn Outlets, tried a couple new restaurants we've never been before and got to enjoy a gorgeous fall afternoon in the park. Here are some snapshots from my iphone.

Seoul Day 6: Wrap-Up & Goodbyes

Day 6. Last day in Seoul. Our flight is in the afternoon & night. So we decided to go back to Myeongdong for some last minute shopping and lunch since it’s pretty close to our hotel. We stopped by Shinsegae to buy some cosmetics for our family & friends and then had samgyetang for lunch. We started our trip with Samgyetang lunch and ended it with one. I guess we just can’t have enough of those delicious chicken soup :) After lunch, headed back to the hotel, packed our remaining stuff, asked to hotel to call us a taxi to go to the airport and we left Seoul.

I have to say considering we only stayed here for 6 days (more like 5 full days really), I’m glad that I got to see so many places. The weather was great, the food was great, but to be honest, I feel that my traveling buddies made the trip super duper awesomely fun. We created so many good memories during this trip and I’m thankful for that.

A week is probably not enough time to explore Seoul (let alone outside Seoul) since it has so many interesting things to see and explore. Nevertheless, it felt like with this trip, at least I got a little bit of preview of this city. I definitely want to come back again next time, and hopefully I could stay longer then.