Le Lundi

It's been a happy Monday! No school, or work for the roomies. I slept in (while my roomies went out to exercise) and after a quick lunch we (me, roomies, and two other NW kids, Matt and Elise) headed downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago. They have quite a few well-known pieces, to name drop a few:
Water Lilies - Monet; Self-Portrait - Van Gogh; A Sunday on La Grande Jatte - Seurat; Paris Street, Rainy Day - Caillebotte; American Gothic – Grant Wood; The Old Guitarist – Picasso; and others by the same along with Matisse, Chagall, Manet, Dali… basically, I enjoyed myself :)

From there Janice, Matt and I traveled to Wicker Park to wander around before our reservation at Le Bouchon (or the cork). As it was below freezing point outside today and very windy, we stopped in a few shops and then found a coffee shop to warm up and chill until supper. The restaurant was kind of small but cute. Janice and I opted for the 3 course option as it was only a few dollars more than an entrée. I had: Salade Lyonnaise, Le Steak Grillé Maître d'Hôtel, and Marquis au Chocolat. OR salad, steak and chocolate mousse. It sounds much better in French. Tastes better in French, too. It was delicious. The steak was covered with a butter with some sort of herbs in it and came with good French fries, and the chocolate mousse… I’m going back for that one. Janice had the French onion soup which was also very tasty. Wines are half off today so we got a Bordeaux as well. It was a great time, we were actually there for 2.5 hrs. It may have been a little on the spendy side but it was well worth it. They even bragged about it being Zagat rated… well my rating is pretty high too.

Unfortunately, now I have to get up and go to staff development days tomorrow and Wednesday… But it would be so much more fun to just live and play!