Chicago!

At five minutes to 3:00 yesterday afternoon, my train rolled into the Amtrak station in downtown St. Louis. I was returning from a very short (read: less than 24-hour) trip to Chicago to have dinner. "Wait, what? You went to Chicago to have dinner?" Yes, indeed I did.

L and his parents were there for a few days, and invited me to dinner with them. My first thought: "That's crazy, I'm not going all the way to Chicago to have dinner." My next thought: "Why don't I go to Chicago for dinner? I'm in a position that I can do that, so might as well take advantage of it!"

I opted, against the odds, to take the train. Less stressful than flying or driving, and I wanted to nap and/or get caught up on some reading. I did more napping than reading, but no big deal. The amazing thing, though, was that the trains were dead on! We were supposed to arrive in Chi-town yesterday at 12:20, and we pulled into Union Station at 12:20. No joke. And today, despite a minor delay "due to some freight traffic ahead," we arrived a tad early. Fantastic!

Dinner was at Benny's Chop House, and was quite lovely. I started with the Belgian endive salad, which I would mostly recommend for the cheese that came on it. Dinner was a ribeye (my favorite cut!) cooked to perfection (medium rare) and a side of tri-color carrots (orange, red, and white). Don't see anything but orange carrots most places, so I was excited about that. No purple carrots, however - a little disappointing. L got a side of these little sweet potato patties, and they were delightful, especially the brown sugar sauce that they were sitting in.

We went back to the hotel for dessert, which was a Grand Marnier souffle and a bottle of champagne. How positively celebratory! L and I headed back out to a bar for a little while, and I was up far later than I should have been. (Oh, did I mention I almost slept through dinner? During the time that I was supposed to be getting ready, I instead passed out and nearly missed our departure time!)

All in all, a lovely adventure!