So instead of kill 4 hours at home with Z, we joined Josh and A for the 1 hour drive north, dropped A off at one of those warehouses full of jumpy houses and headed over to Patty's Diner in nearby Skokie for a delicious brunch of eggs, bacon, sausage and biscuits in gravy and blueberry pancakes in the old-school, no frills storefront (complete with half-dead plants in the window and an oversized Kermit in the high chair by the door). Z put away a lot of food, so you know it was a special place. I ate a lot too, but I blame my 2 hour early morning roller derby workout.
Since we were in the area, we also bought a half-dozen fresh bagels from New York Bagel & Bialy, the bagel bakery that supplies our synagogue and the Onion Roll, the only place in Oak Park that sells a decent bagel.
A fell asleep on the way home, so I dropped off Josh and Z at the local movie theatre to see Tangled (which I'd already seen with her--and loved). I drove my sleeping 3-year old into the somewhat heated underground library garage so she could finish her nap, and I was very glad I'd brought along a magazine to help me kill time since there's no cell phone service down there.
But that's not the only special breakfast of this weekend! We left the girls with a sitter this morning and had a brunch date at Lula's Cafe. Josh ordered their justifiably famous breakfast burrito and I had the smoked salmon scramble. And bonus! We used our $10 off a la Card coupon days before it expired. My unsolicited and uncompensated recommendation: If you haven't heard of a la Card, and you need a thoughtful gift for a Chicagoan, consider buying it. For $30, you get a deck of 52 $10 off coupons to local, non-chain restaurants including some of our favorites like Nightwood, Longman & Eagle and Spacca Napoli.
