2nd Annual Valentine's Day craminasmuchasyoucan Date Day!

This was us a year ago...

We left Anabelle at my Mom & Dad's and went to a see a play, dinner, and a Blackhawks game.

This year we continued with our date day ritual and left Anabelle at my Mom & Dad's for a day packed full of fun in the city. Here we are in the morning dropping off Belle.

Ignore my weird arm, not sure what I was going for with this pose??

Anabelle was NOT in the mood to be held for a picture.

We said goodbye and headed into the city. It was a beautiful day, the temperature had warmed up to 42 degrees, a 40 degree increase from 3 days ago! So we were enjoying walking around and I decided to snap some pictures of this sculpture in front of the James Thompson Center across the street from the theater. It is called Monument with Standing Beast by Jean Dubuffet and has been there since 1984.

Then it was time to head over to the theater to see Les Miserables, which is celebrating its 25th year in production! I first saw Les Mis on Broadway when I was 12 years old. It was with a school field trip and my Mom, a chaperon, went with us. Our class had awesome seats, 4th row center, and I often recount how we were so close Jean Valjean spit on us! (which in case you didn't know is a good thing) It was my 1st trip to the theater and I was instantly in love. My mom took me to see Les Mis for the 2nd time years later in Chicago. And now here I am 20 years later seeing it for the 3rd time. I love the music and the story, and although it has some flaws, it will always be the play that kick-started my love of the theater. I had a great time, and would recommend this show to anyone. We had great seats, 4th row, right side. John and I both agreed it would have been better to be back a few rows and center. From our angle and you could see some things that took away from the overall experience. For example, a thrown punch that was visibly not even close. So save your money and sit just a little further back. Maybe John will leave his review of the show in the comments.

After the play we walked a few blocks to Cafe Iberco, our favorite tapas restaurant. When we lived in the Gold Coast we were just a few blocks from this place and I went there often with the girls. They have really great food, and it has been hard to find a replacement for it in the burbs. We ate a ton and had some yummy sangria. After dinner John had the idea to walk over to Ghirardelli's and get some ice cream. We spent many summer nights walking there from our apartment, and it is one of my favorite ice cream places. I thought that a little walk might free up some space in my very full stomach, and I could share one of their ice cream masterpieces with John. As we walked down the street I reminisced and talked about how much I missed the neighborhood. Just as those words came out of my mouth, out of the el walks 2 undercover cops dragging a man in handcuffs up the stairs. Things that make you go "hmmm".

Anyway... we made it to Ghirardelli's and as I looked into the window I thought, man I am really stuffed from dinner and I don't think I can possibly eat any ice cream. Shocking I know! So I turned down desert and we hopped into a cab to take us to the bar where we were meeting some friends from high school. We had a great time chatting and catching up with Mike and his lovely girlfriend Lindsey. Time flew by and we said farewell heading to our last destination for the evening. Another bar where some college friends were celebrating a birthday.

At the end of a fun and full day!

Me & Darcy

We chatted for a while and had fun visiting and then suddenly we were exhausted and it was time to head home. Thank you John for a great date, I can't wait to do it again. I don't know what we'll do next year to one-up ourselves and cram more in, maybe I'll have to actually eat desert?