we wanted an adventure. so we drove up to chicago. we hadn’t had our own internet since houston – so we planned the trip on my phone on the way. as for accommodations – tony’s highschool friend was kind enough to invite us into her living room.

on the top of our list of things to do in chi-town, deep dish pizza, hotdogs, and “the bean” were on top. i’ll have you know we did each one – multiple times. we pulled into Duks and chris ordered a “double dog with everything on it” for like $5. he had no idea what a double dog was, turns out it’s two dogs one bun. his rating was “mehhh …”

then we navigated to Logan Square, a little north of Ukrainian Villiage to traci’s apartment. chris was excited that we were going to be 7 people sleeping in a two bedroom apartment. he told lots of people that fact.

after visiting for a little in the apt we headed out for more food. and by food i mean hotdogs. VEGAN HOT DOGS at phil’s last stand. we met up with some of tony’s other high school friends too. we told everyone chris was on the trip for research. research on hotdogs – since you might know he has a hotdog cart in houston and is hoping to get it up and running this fall. tony found out the recipe for these vegan dogs. here’s what we know: sweet potatoes + brown rice + black beans + assorted veggies, all mashed up and DEEP FRIED. the dog and fries were only $4, and very very good.

chris rated this one much higher and healthier.

we saw this smoke coming from an inclosed patio and thought it might be a fire, a few minutes later a small Ukrainian man stuck his head out and waved, then proceeded to show us the kabob he was grilling. pretty weird/funny.

later that evening we we to the chicago diner, a hip vegan restaurant a little closer to town. we had vegan milshakes, tony and i shared a vanilla chai one. chris had a peanut butter chocolate one. and traci had a carrot cake one.

“a motivational sign in a grassy field is nice and all … but it is not going to do the hard work for you. thats up to you.”