Brrrrr...

It was a very snowy day here in Chicago. We ventured out at around noon to meet Eric at the Pancake House (and on a side note -- while we were standing outside waiting for the valet to bring our car around, John Leguizamo walked out of the hotel and stood behind us... I was like, "psst... Rick... check it out... John Leguizamo..." but Rick didn't seem all that interested. When we were in the car, I asked him if he noticed John Leguizamo, and he said, "I thought you were pointing out a guy who looked like John Leguizamo..." and I said, "no, I was pointing out John Leguizamo..."). And then after the Pancake House and a short (but chilly) walk to the Starbucks across the street (which, according to one of the Starbucks baristas, is on "the second windiest corner in Chicago"), we met our realtor to check out a couple more condos. Our realtor is definitely a Chicagoan (Chicagoan? Chicagoite? Chicagan? Ah... it IS Chicagoan... I looked it up... :)). She doesn't let a little thing like a heavy snowfall get in the way of running out to view properties, or illegally parallel parking in the dirty slush, or running through snowbanks in boots with four-inch stilleto heels. None of it seems to faze her in the least... we really like her a lot...

We ate dinner at Mike Ditka's restaurant, which is right down the street from our hotel. It's a very short walk that seemed slightly longer because the wind was blowing huge clumps of snowflakes right into my eyes. By the time we arrived at the restaurant, my contact lenses felt squeaky clean and I was wide awake. I mean, I can think of better ways to wake up (coffee comes to mind...), but snowflakes-in-the-eyes is surprisingly effective...

We all really liked the restaurant, but I think Eric liked it best, as this picture demonstrates:

And here's a picture of some of the snow falling near Eric's place today:

We've actually decided to stay one extra day in Chicago, since we don't HAVE to be back in Austin at any particular time this week. And especially because our hotel is just a couple blocks away from Ghirardelli and we have yet to walk over for a visit... so we'll have to remedy THAT some time tomorrow... :)