Last weekend, two of my friends from St. Louis, Aparna & Shantanu finally drove to Chicago. They were joined by two more friends, Parry & Avanti. Avanti was visiting Chicago for the first time, but Parry had been here before.
They reached here on Friday night - and then we were chatting until the early hours of Saturday! Managed to drag ourselves out of the house by noon, and made our way to a place in Wisconsin called Lake Geneva. This is a picturesque lake, but it was a too hot a day to really enjoy the lake front. En route - we stopped by to pick water and juice and ended up buying enough stuff for an army! Since we'd skipped breakfast, the provisions were put to good use. :)
Lake Geneva has a lot of speedboats and water scooters, but sadly, most of them were booked for the day. After checking some out - we walked into a nearby restaurant for lunch. This was a non chain place, where the ambience was relaxing and the service extremely hospitable. Sitting there - watching the lake, and the boats go by was an experience in itself.
After this leisurely lunch, we looked out for some boats to rent, but didn't find anything suitable. Since Parry had to meet a friend in Chicago downtown for dinner, and Avanti had still not visited the typical tourist places like Navy Pier we decided to head back.
After we got home, Shantanu, Aparna, Neel & myself decided to stay at home and relax after being out in the hot sun the entire day. So we cooked some chicken gravy - ekdam Indian style (It turned out decent - guess I can cook chicken ;)), some delicious Bengali style daal - (recipe thanks to Shantanu) and rice. Parry missed this dinner. :( That was ironical, since he was the one who had requested that we eat home-cooked chicken atleast once when he visited and here we were eating some awesome chicken curry without him! After a relaxed dinner we decided to walk down by the lake. The gentle summer breeze was refreshing.
Parry & Avanti got back by 1 am - after a short stint of wandering the streets of Chicago (when trying to get onto the correct freeway) - with a bit of online help (thanks to google maps) they were soon on track.
The next day - we decided to go shopping to a mall in Aurora. Aparna, Avanti & myself left for the mall while the guys decided to get there later - after giving us about 3 hrs of a head start. :)
Shopped for clothes, and then I spotted Rocky mountain chocolate factory - famous for it's chocolate dipped strawberries ... Since Parry had missed the Taste of Chicago festival, when I told him about the chocolate place, he was thrilled. After munching on these delicious treats (yes - I really need to learn to make these at home), it was time for Neel and myself to return to Chicago, while the rest went to St. Louis. A memorable fun weekend - spent with friends, with some good food and shopping too ...! :)
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