Grand Reunion Tour - Stop 2

Next up on the list of friends to whom a visit was massively overdue: Carv and Irmina, who've since added a third to the family. As he's turning three, their baby Julian hardly even qualifies as a baby anymore! I reached out to Carv mid-June to ask about dates, imagining we'd settle on something in spring of 2026. But he suggested Julian's third birthday party mid-August and we figured, why not? Flights were reasonably priced, so in a matter of minutes the trip was booked over a round of beers with my parents, who reminded us that these sorts of friendships are worth the effort.

Every time I fly one, I tell myself I'm too old for any more red-eyes, and then every time it comes to the moment of booking the next trip, the lower airfares always draw me back in. We boarded a midnight flight out of San Francisco Friday evening to squeeze every drop out of the weekend without using any vacation days at work. The good news is that, when you only have to pay for one night of hotel, you can afford to go all in (and can't really access particularly good rates elsewhere), so we went fancy at the Palmer House.

Despite seeing the images online when making the booking, my first reaction when we rode the elevator up into our hotel was that we might just be in the wrong place. Somehow this place had the best rates in downtown Chicago for a single Saturday night stay in mid-summer on short-ish notice.

After an early check-in (worth every penny) and a much-needed nap, we hit the town. First stop: Intelligentsia for a caffeine boost. Lately I've discovered a real love for coffee tonics, despite not being a regular coffee drinker. Fueled up, we hit the town.

Not too shabby for two late-thirties people who just flew in on a red-eye. (The sunglasses hide the dead inside.)

Nico's first trip to Chicago, and my first since Carv's wedding back in 2013! Times have changed but some things, like the bean, remain the same.

We wandered around some major tourist attractions and lunched at Industry Ales, which made me so happy that I'm not ashamed to say we hit them up again for dinner. Between the meals, we enjoyed pierogies with beet sauce, sweet potato gnocchi, seared trout with blackberry beurre blanc, and strawberry-pistachio-burrata salad. Add to that the excellent (Belgian-biased) tap selection. 10/10 would recommend.

While some things remain the same, it's mind-boggling just how quickly others change: late Saturday afternoon, we headed out to Julian's birthday party in the suburbs. Not only did we get to reconnect with Irmina and Carv, and meet Juju, but Carv also surprised me with another 5th Wester and *his* kiddo! His wife, yet another 5th Wester, couldn't make it out that evening, so we made plans for a round two of 5th West reunion for the following evening. 

Sunday was for brunch, sleeping in, and enjoying the riverfront.

The visit out was primarily to reconnect, so we didn't bother much careful scheduling beyond it. The weather was hot and sunny, and we enjoyed our Sunday sleeping in, doing brunch, and strolling along the strikingly teal Chicago River. We admired the skies, which are so much bigger than in New York, the architecture, and the riverfront which definitely brought us back to the Seine. We discovered, to our delight, a cherry fizz espresso spritz courtesy of Caffè Umbria - I'd have never thought to pair cherry soda and coffee, but it works.

Good times with even better people, celebrating two decades (!!) of friendship. 

Before we knew it, it was time to trek out to Old Irving brewery and restaurant, half-way between downtown and the airport, where we met up with Irmina, Carv, and Julian as well as Gabe, Casey, and their kiddos Maria and Daniel. How all of us became appropriately aged to be parents is still beyond me, but the reunion was fabulous. I couldn't get enough of their kids, evenly spaced around Julian, and how the three of them are going to have the privilege to grow up enjoying a multi-generational friendship that spawned in our old dorm hall decades ago. Maybe the next time we meet up, Nico and I will have our own little one(s) to seat at the table too.