Tropical Storm Irene

The second day that we came to St. John, Irene, then just a tropical storm, paid us a visit.  It lasted about 7-8 hours.. ~50 mph winds and a ton of rain. I only took a few pictures while it was still light out.

Window to paradise

While I'm combing through the remaining 751 pictures and getting other posts ready, enjoy one of my favorites.  It was one of the last pictures I took while we were still on St. John waiting for the ferry. Such a great perspective.

In paradise...

On vacation this week on the beautiful island of St. John's, USVI.  Got off to a rocky start with Tropical Storm Irene marching in on our second day on the island but luckily we got off with just a few leaks.  Here's a little taste of paradise. Now back to vacationing!   

All aboard... Chicago's Union Station

Took the Amtrak train up to Milwaukee for the first time for work... A quick trip but fairly easy to do.  It's been more than 1.5 years that I've lived in Chicago and this was the very first time that I was at Union Station.  Probably the first American train station that I've been to that actually reminded me of those in Europe :)

Ruby slippers

Dorothy made a stop in Chicago

Dog Days

Doggies do farmer's markets!

Take me out to the ball game!

Great company.  Awesome seats. Perfect Weather.  What a combo.  And the Cubs won!!!

Master Chef Viewing Party

Last night I went with a friend to a Master Chef viewing party with Suzy Singh, who's a contestant on the show, hosted at Benchmark.

Meeting Suzy and chatting with her for a little bit was definitely a highlight.  She was really nice and approachable.  She walked around chatting with people who were having the dishes she created.  Which brings me to the second highlight.... The tacos!  I'll start with saying that I hadn't had anything like this before and, not to generalize it or over-simplify it, but they were Indian Tacos.

And they were delicious.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

In Exhibit B on the left is the Butter Chicken Tacos topped with red onions, lime, and cilantro and on the right we have the Paneer (Indian Cheese) Taco topped with sautéed spinach (and red onions and cilantro).  Both were served with Suzy’s apricot chutney and spicy mango pickle sauces.

Exhibit C - The After Math... We inhaled those tacos...

Suzy and Christie

After the meet and greet (and eat), we watched the latest episode of Master Chef during which Suzy rocked and moved to the Top 5!!!