Our trip was 15 hours so we decided we had better break it up with an over night stay. Since neither of us had been to Chicago we thought we would take advantage of this opportunity and go there for the night. Jareth and Laney did fantastic the whole day. Thank the Lord for portable dvd players and Disney. We stayed at a Hilton right outside of Chicago since we couldn't find a room for under $300 per night that wasn't in a, well, formidable part of town. After dropping of our luggage and freshening up a bit we headed to downtown Chicago for some deep dish pizza. After a little online research we decided on Gino's East. The place was huge with a loud, fun atmosphere. Jareth had quite a fit when we got there. Never tell a two year old he or she can have chocolate milk at a restaraunt until you know FOR SURE that the restaraunt serves chocolate milk. Not even a gooey chocolate chip cookie could simmer that meltdown. He finally stopped crying when we started ignoring him. Anyway, we decided to get two pizzas, a thin crust bbq chicken and a 1/2 Chicago Fire, half Supreme deep dish. The thin crust was to die for. The bbq was sweet and the chicken smokey. It had one of my personal favorite toppings on it as well, cilantro. It was SOOO GOOD! The deep dish was good but it wasn't exactly what we thought it would be. The cheese was on the bottom and then the toppings and the marinara. Everything kept sliding off the pizza slices. We thought it would be more like a pie. The ingredients were really good. Everything tasted very fresh. But I think we just may be more New York Style pizza people than Chicago Deep Dish pizza people. It was a fun experience though.
The next morning we got up early and got on our way. We were in a hurry to get to our new home so we didn't plan to make any really exciting stops. Somewhere along the way we decided that since we were going through Wisconsin that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to try some cheese. Finding it was not a difficult task. I'm pretty sure there was a cheese store at every exit. We stopped at Ehlenbach's Cheese Chalet in Deforest, WI. Jon stayed in the car with the kids while I went in for the goodies. There were so many cheeses in there I didn't know where to start. I asked the girl behind the counter which cheeses were the most popular and after asking me where my accent was from she pointed out a list of local and visitor favorites. The top visitor favorite was 7 year old cheddar and the top local favorite was, wait for it....... chocolate fudge cheese. You know I had to try that out so I asked for a sample of each plus a jalapeno havarti that sounded like something Jon would like. The cheddar was really good and very sharpe. It just crumbled in my hand. The jalapeno havarti was delicious. It was very creamy with just the right amount of jalepeno in it. Then there was the chocolate fudge cheese. O.M.G! It tasted just like chocolate fudge, walnuts and all. Talk about amazing. I got a half lb of each. Plus a bottle of strawberry wine. : )
Our trip was really great. We saw about a gazillion windmills in Iowa followed by a bajillion acres of farmland. And before we new it we were in Owatonna, Minnesota. We love our little house and the town is growing on us very quickly. Soon, I will post all about the things we are doing to fill our time and share some photos of our new home. Now, it's time for some chocolate cheese!!!
