The Ragas Report

Tales of adventure from the exciting lives of Matt and Traci Ragas
About Me

Matt, Traci, and Clark Ragas live in Chicago.

Matt is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, though he called the Sunshine State home for over a decade before moving to Chicago. Traci hails from St. Petersburg, Florida and has never lived anywhere but Florida.

Clark originally hails from - well, we aren't totally sure. We're just blessed to have him in our family. He's a "rescue dog" as we say. :)

Here is where you can learn all about our new life in the big city.

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Our first Sox game

Ever the contrarians, instead of fighting the crowds this weekend at the Air & Water Show, we checked out first White Sox ball game on Saturday evening (the Sox lost 3-2, but were up 2-1 when we left at the bottom of the 8th. Teach us for trying to beat the crowd). When you live only two El stops away from U.S. Cellular Field, I think it's hard to not become Sox fans. Of course, we still plan to experience a Cubs game at Wrigley.

We did get a taste of the Air & Water Show, with the Blue Angels buzzing the city skyline along the lake both today and yesterday. They flew close enough to our building to be able to make out the navy blue and yellow coloring. I'm starting to think the Blue Angels are following us (they also buzzed our condo when we lived in south Tampa). 

Just when we thought we had seen enough this weekend, we bumped into a TV commercial being filmed this evening just two blocks over from us. We were told it was a national commercial for Chevy.

Chicago is certainly alive in the summertime. We're trying to get our fill, before the weather turns.

         

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New Buffalo, Michigan

We headed out to New Buffalo, Michigan this weekend for a quick trip to the other side of the amazing and huge lake, known as Lake Michigan. 

The pictures don't do the lake justice. There are waves (on a lake!?!), seagulls (if felt like we were back on the Gulf coast), and loads of people sunning, making sandcastles, riding jet-skis and playing in the water - it is truly a beach, in every sense of the word. New Buffalo is part of Harbor Country (a region of eight lakeside towns) and is less than an hour and a half from us. 

We had fun and a little bit of Michigan Time. (Menus and signs all refer to this thing called Michigan Time - at first we had a feeling it had to do with the fact that New Buffalo is in the eastern time zone, but then we thought it might have to do with their way of having a little more of a laid back attitude, either way we liked it!). 

           

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Beautiful pictures from our walk to Lake Michigan

We took a nice walk this evening to the lakefront.  Matt and I being water people (can't get us too far from some body of water, before we get cranky) were blown away by the beautiful views of Lake Michigan and the city.  

Here are some pictures, but they don't do the view justice! 

         

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Bánh mì and the Chicago French Market

What can I say. Sometimes it takes us a little longer to try something (perfect example - text messaging) but when we do we watch out. We've heard of  bánh mì before (Matt has, at least), but we hadn't yet tried it. Today our lives changed. We went to the Chicago French Market in the Ogilvie Metra Station. After our trip to Geneva last year, Matt and I fell in love with food markets in Geneva, when we visited the Halle de Rive for several of our meals. When we found out we had something similar just a few stops away on the Green line, we knew we had to go. 

 We walked around the different vendors: a butcher, a baker, even a soapmaker (you thought I was going to say candlestick maker, ha!).  Pastries galore, gelato, homemade pickles, beautiful olives. Basically a dream for people who like food. 

Matt spotted it first - Saigon Sisters. We placed our order (Matt got the Porky and I got the meatball). They were amazing!  I wish I could explain better, but light, refreshing, just delicious. These weren't the big hoagies I've had before with lots of tomato sauce and cheese, these were on good solid bread with a little sriracha sauce, cilantro, ginger, scallions. Matt's was perfectly cut meats and a hoisin glaze. Amazing! 

So don't be surprised if you see our next post - on our quest of more bánh mì!  I can't wait. 

     

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Anthony Bourdain at Harold Washington Library

A few weeks ago, Traci and I checked out the mammoth Harold Washington Library for the first time. As part of our poking around, we wandered into the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, and made a mental note to check out an author reading there sometime.

Yesterday we had our chance. We attended a reading by Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations and Kitchen Confidential fame. Bourdain's new book is called Medium Raw. The auditorium was already packed about an hour before the event started.

Bourdain was raw and entertaining as expected. One serious comment he made about his success did stick with me: "Two rules: I show up on time each day and I do the best that I can." He admitted this was pretty simple, but most people don't do it. 

     

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Ribfest and Lit Fest

We went for a double dose of festival action this weekend, spending part of the day on Saturday at Ribfest in North Center (after lots of hard work sampling ribs, our favorites were Corner 41 Bar & Grill and Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro), and a little while this afternoon at the Lit Fest in Printer's Row.

We knew what to expect at the book fair, but the rib fest was a nice surprise (if this is any indication, this city knows how to grill!).

p.s. We just saw on the Irish Bistro's Facebook page that they were named "best ribs" for this year. I guess we weren't the only ones!

           

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Tour on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan (plus Billy Goat Tavern)

Matt and I did some touristy stuff today and took a boat ride on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. Beautiful sights. We live in a gorgeous city. 

 
P.S.  We also had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern ("Cheezborger, Cheezborger, Cheezborger, No Pepsi...Coke"). In the 1940's, the Billy Goat Tavern owner was asked to leave a Cubs game, because his pet goat bothered other fans.  He said, "Them Cubs, they ain't going to win no more." People took that to mean the Cubs would never win another World Series at Wrigley Field. Sure enough, they haven't. The Billy Goat Tavern also inspired a Saturday Night Live sketch with John Belushi. A place with burgers, chips and Coke is my kinda place. (Plus the burgers were delicious!). 

             

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Checking out Pilsen

Pilsen, an area on the west side of Chicago, is one of the largest Mexican neighborhoods in the city. Earlier this week, we explored this neighborhood for the first time, enjoying carnitas at Sabas Vega, followed by dessert at Nuevo Leon, a Mexican bakery.

What a lunch! We had to roll ourselves back to the car.

   

Filed under  //  Pilsen  
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Chinatown and window washers

Who woulda thought those two could go together - but they can. Sort of. 

We went back to Chinatown this past weekend (how could we not, since it is one stop away from us on the Red Line).  We didn't do Dim Sum this time, but we did try a restaurant recommendation. (It was delicious, filling, and very inexpensive - only $11 for both of us to have two huge meals and hot tea - Yum). 

As far as the window washers - they came by yesterday and cleaned the outside of our high rise building.  Now we have perfect views out to Lake Michigan.  Though I have to say it is strange to see the poor men hanging from a little rope outside your window.  Scary! 

All in all - everything's going well with the Ragas' in the Windy City!  

           

Filed under  //  Chinatown  
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We made it!

We've officially made it.  We've been here a little over a week now.  We've gotten our bearings, found the grocery, Target and a place to walk Clark. And we've just about finished unpacking!  What more can you ask for?

         

Filed under  //  Big Move   Chicago  
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