Even at 4am, summer in NC is stiflingly humid (though less so compared to 9am) - no need for a cardigan, I guess. Flying from Raleigh to Charlotte is perhaps the biggest waste of air time there is - why do people need to be in first class?
After unloading in the nicest hotel I've stayed in whilst traveling without my dad's business conference funds (flashbacks of hostel problems in the wild), we rushed toward food. Pretzel goldfish for brekkers just doesn't cut it when you spend the entire morning in transit.
We made it to Rick Bayless's Xoco, conveniently right across the street. As a side note, Aloft was right in the center of Irish pubs and various restaurants, and everything (with the exception of McCormick Place Convention Center) was within walking distance.
Lunch was a very satisfying bowl of pork belly vermicelli soup with zucchini, avocado, and arugula. Noodles, pork belly, and avocado in a warm spicy broth - hot summers or not, this is perfect. This was followed by a honey lavender flan with only the faintest floral aftertaste. It caught my eye as soon as we walked by the outdoor seating - some lady was working her way through the puddle of honey.
After meeting the other summer scholars based in Cornell, we went romping around the city, acting a bit like tourists.
Over the river, where the water taxis chugged along...
...and through the Theater District, where I quickly snapped this whilst crossing the street...
...to the Chicago Cultural Museum we go...
... where we stumbled upon the Happy Show. It was probably one of the cutest exhibits I've seen. The walls were all painted yellow and there were statistics and graphics and artsy videos about happiness and happy people.
And free yellow gumballs that lasted about two minutes.
I'm not going to say it was life changing, but we came out feeling a little lighter (and happier) and headed towards Millennium Park and the Bean. People watcher's paradise (that may sound creepy, but I really didn't mean it that way).
Kids running around with little supervision, couples taking selfies in the distorted reflective surface, a purple Quincenera, colorful statue exhibits like soldiers along the park path, maxi skirts I wanted to steal off strangers, and the afternoon sun frying my unprotected eyeballs.
Every vacation involves a splurge dinner (sometimes, as in this case, an accidental splurge dinner). This was India House. I decided to shell out two extra dollars for the lamb palak over the paneer palak - definitely needed more palak and less lamb. I don't know if the free baskets of ripped up naan and tomato dip was worth being charged $5 for rice, but at least leftovers lasted another two days. By "days," I mean two bouts of late night eating.
Leaving the restaurant was when I realized I had to make peace with the fact that I would, indeed, be overeating for the next four days, and no amount of walking and sweating in the heat would reverse the effects.
And I was okay with that.
No comments:
Post a Comment