Team DJ Takes Chicago: (Part 2, the Rock N' Roll Chicago 5k)

To read part 1 of my Chicago adventure, click here.

Saturday morning we got up early to get dressed for the Rock n' Roll Chicago 5k. We decided when we signed up that we needed that remix medal! Thankfully the race started at 7:30, so it wasn't too bad. We looked at the outside temps and saw it was in the low 60s. I'm from Miami, so that's cold for me. Plus the AC in our room was freezing, which messed with our brains. I put on my hoodie and we headed towards the start. Once we got outside we noticed the hoodies were overkill. Around my waist it went.

We lined up with perfect time, since our hotel was literally across the street, took some pics, and then off we went. I very purposely tried to be slow. I wanted to save myself for the next day's half, and I knew we'd be walking a LOT during the rest of the day. So we took it easy.

We ran through the museum campus, saw The Field Museum and the Aquarium, and then ran alongside Lake Michigan. It was a gorgeous day. The temperature was good and the sun was out making it all so pretty.

It was nuts, my friend from across the country and I were running side by side together. Pretty amazing.

We ran back through Grant Park, and crossed the finish. Not an amazing time, but not horrible.

Then we crossed the street to find the Bean, and take all of the pics.

The We Run Social meetup was also at the Bean. It was my first WRS meetup. I got to chat with some really cool people. Hope I can make it out to another one!

We rushed off after out group pic, cause it was time to get cleaned up and head out for our food tour! It started at the Merchandise Mart, which was an amazing gorgeous art deco building. We ended up getting some info about the city and its architecture too.

This was a sidewalk walking food tour, so some stops were eating on the sidewalk. The first stop was the Doughnut Vault. And there was a line for this place, so you know they had to be good.

Buttermilk Old Fashioned with glaze. OMG, just amazing.

Our next stop, was the famous Chicago deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's. We got to sit in the restaurant for this one. Part of the reason chose this tour was because we could get the pizza, and not have to make a meal of just that, since neither myself nor Jenn was too sure about it. And I'm glad I did that.

This was the most tasteless piece of "pizza" ever. Nothing had any seasoning on it. But I was hungry, so I ate the bland bread and cheese pie, which it totally what it was.

We walked around and learned more about the city, and took tons of pics along the way.

Our next stop, after seeing some amazing buildings and learning some more Chicago stories, was Xoco.

I was hungry when we got here, and stared in the window looking at what they were preparing. Little did I know that it was what we were going to eat next.

And hands down, this open faced veggie torta, was my favorite thing on the tour.

Our next stop was another sit down in the restaurant stop, Cafe Iberico, and the guide had mentioned that they had great sangria, so we had to get some to accompany our chicken pincho tapa. The onions were so delicious.

And our last stop was a great little local bakery, Fabcakes. We had a chocolate cookie nutella filled sandwich, and it was finished with sea salt. OMG perfect dessert.

The tour was great and more than enough for lunch. After we enjoyed our cookies, we headed to the Field Museum, to see dinosaurs and animals and stuff. We upgraded and got entry into the Jurassic World exhibit, cause, let's be serious, I'm a dork.

It was so cool. they had audio animatronic dinosaurs, a lab just like in the movie, with lots of amber mosquitoes, even "hatched" baby dinosaurs in incubators.

After that exhibit, we went back and explored the museum a little more. The "Sue" t-rex skeleton was amazing.

Now, I haven't been to a lot of natural history museums. I think maybe once in my life, so all of the taxidermied animals freaked me the hell out. If I just imagine they are models, I'll be fine!

We checked out as much as we could, and truth be told we were dead. We headed back to the hotel to rest for a bit and put up our feet.

After our little chill break, we headed to eat some sushi, at a great place that our food tour guide recommended. It was delicious.

Then it was back to the hotel to rest up before our early wake up for the race in the morning. I was so tired, I didn't even post my flat runner til the next morning.

Read about the half marathon in my next post!

Team DJ Takes Chicago (Part 1)

After signing up for the race forever ago, booking plane tickets, and a hotel, the time finally arrived to head to Chicago. I was meeting up with one of my best friends, Jenn. Now Jenn and I have only met in person for about an hour last year at the Tinkerbelle Half Marathon. But just cause we live on opposite coasts doesn't mean we don't text all day, and talk about anything and everything.

Lately, my trips have all had a monkey wrench thrown in. As I was at the nail salon the night before I left the power went out. There was a crazy thunderstorm, and apparently it knocked out the power. Everyone in the salon used their cell phone flashlights to light the place up as best as we could. As my nail lady was packing up her stuff to take it to my house to finish up my mani, the lights came back on and we were back in business. I finally got home, and was checking my email, when I saw my 10am flight was canceled.

A craze of phone calls and texts ensued, but eventually Jenn was able to book me a flight out to Chicago, and I snagged a flight back. After all of that crazy, I'd be flying out of Fort Lauderdale, not Miami like I originally planned. So Pop picked me up and we headed about an hour away to Fort Lauderdale. I got there, and luckily my flight was not canceled. It was just delayed an hour. UGH1 The weather was bad up by Fort Lauderdale. Eventually, I boarded and was headed towards Chicago.

After waiting for my delayed flight to land, I met up with Jenn at the airport and we headed into the city. We checked into our hotel and rested for a second before getting dressed to grab dinner and go see Aladdin, which we had tickets for. We of course had to toast with a glass of wine first!

One of the things we wanted to do in Chicago was see a show. We both love musicals and Disney, so we got tickets to Aladdin. And mostly cause Hamilton was mad crazy expensive. The show was spectacular. Lots of glitz and fireworks (not even kidding), and singing and dancing.

The theater it was in, the Cadillac Palace Theater, was old and just amazingly gorgeous inside. I couldn't stop looking around at everything.

After the show, we walked back to our hotel. And as we walked through the theater district, we stumbled across the Chicago theater! It was definitely on my to do list, and I'm glad we got to see it all lit up.

It had been a long day of travel, so we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. We slept in a little on Friday, cause no races! We grabbed a great breakfast and headed out to explore the city.

Our hotel, the Congress Plaza Hotel. We found out on our last day it was haunted by Al Capone.

As we walked around, we saw so much. Gorgeous buildings, statues all over and street art too. I loved seeing all of the old buildings mixed in with the new. Older cities fascinate me.

We headed to the Willis Sears Tower. And OMG, it's huge.

And we headed right up to the Skydeck, 103 floors up. The elevator gets you up there so fast, and my ears totally popped. LOL!

Luckily we had the GoCity Card, which we got with a Groupon, so no waiting in line for us. We got the fast pass lane. These Disney girls do love them a fast pass.

We got to the top and, just WOW. Those views were amazing. You could see the whole city and the lake (but you couldn't see the other side of the lake, it's that big).

And since we were up there, we got brave and took pics in the glass that overhangs the building. It was crazy!

And we laid down too. OMG that was so nuts, my heart was beating so fast when we finished.

After getting back on the ground, we headed to the expo to grab our bibs and do a little shopping, cause let's be serious, you always need more running stuff.

But we both noticed that this expo was a little smaller than we had thought. I know Jenn sees crazy huge expos in California, and I'm used to runDisney. But we were able to scoop up a few things.

Since we had such a big late breakfast, we found a little bar on yelp to grab some bites and a drink. OMG, it was amazing. Can you say homemade tortilla chips?

Then it was time to meet Cintia! My friend Cintia moved to Chicago earlier this year. So I had to see her while we were there. We went up to her office and saw the views from there, then headed to the Riverfront for wine, and the worst sandwiches ever.

We decided we needed a dinner re-do, so she suggested Mario Batali's Eataly. It was like a wonderland of food and cheese and kitchen stuff. Plus, of course they have a restaurant.

We ordered some real food from there and it was amazing! Handmade pasta and a handmade pizza. All of it was so delicious.

And on the way out, we got cannoli from their cannoli bar. Yes, a cannoli bar! We took the cannoli to go, and parted ways. Jenn and I had a race in the morning. And that cannoli was the perfect midnight snack!

Then it was time for flat runners and get to bed. We had a 5k in the morning.