Rox Visits Chicago (and Sour Cream Strawberries)

So I had Saturday off (and a lighter day on Friday), so my mom and I planned a quick trip for her to come down to Chicago to visit, Thursday-Sat.  Incase you're curious, here's a little of what we did :)

Thursday, my mom rolled in right as I was getting off work.  Traffic wasn't bad at all, and I was concerned about that, considering NATO is in town=crazy protestors, who knows what we'd be working with....Nothing special that day, just a long walk with Lady, fun catching up, and a great homemade dinner (complete with my zucchini brownies for dessert...more on that later!!)

On Friday, I worked, but Rox and Pete enjoyed a leisurely 18 holes on a golf course downtown.  She even got some action shots of his game.

Afterwards, I took her to Whole Foods, one of my favorite places in the city.  I know, it's a grocery store (what lame-o takes a guest to a grocery store as a tour stop?) but I knew she'd appreciate all the fun stuff and beautiful presentations.  

I adopted one of these herb gardens...Complete with basil,
thyme, rosemary and parsley.  Lets hope I don't kill it.

 We went out to eat at Thalia Spice, a Pan-Asian restaurant about a 20 minute walk from our apartment.  It was a beautiful night, and the food was amazing!  We all got adventurous with our ordering, and everything we tried was beautifully presented and great.  We also got to dine outside, one of my favorite summertime activities.  We'll definitely be back there.

Dessert was at our place: a simple one of strawberries, light sour cream, and brown sugar (yes, this is the recipe portion of this post :)  It sounds weird, I know, but my aunt and uncle introduced it to us last summer and I can't get enough when berries are ripe.  Please promise you'll try it...it's really pretty and super easy (obviously...you scoop some brown sugar and sour cream into separate bowls, plop strawberries on a plate and voila...dessert!)

Saturday was a leisurely morning complete with pedicures (I have blue toes now....not cyanosis, but paint, thank you very much).  I love our time together, even though it is much too infrequent :(

On a side note, NATO is crazy....we have dignitaries/leaders from 60 countries here, including Obama...plus all the protestors.  We just watched live news coverage of a protest that almost went south...the riot police kept it from getting out of hand (our good friends live blocks from where it happened).   Cook County Hospital has both of their mass casualty triage semis ready and raring to go, and when I was in the ER today admitting a patient, they looked eerily organized (Cook's ER is never very organized).  Lets hope we can just put those trucks back in the garage when this is all over Tuesday.

Double side note:  Congratulations to my brother, Tyler, for graduating last weekend with a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering!  He's packed it up from Platteville, WI and is making the move to Weston, WI where he'll start his first "big boy" job as an engineer.  I'm super proud of you!!