Ragas Report

Tulips are out in full force. Here are some shots from earlier...

traciragas — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:13:26 -0500

Tulips are out in full force. Here are some shots from earlier this evening.

Cinco De Mayo in Chicago (with horses, of course!)

mattragas — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:32:00 -0500

Cinco De Mayo in Chicago (with horses, of course!)

We took advantage of today’s beautiful weather and visited...

traciragas — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:39:42 -0500

We took advantage of today’s beautiful weather and visited Lincoln Park Zoo and Lincoln Park Conservatory. We’ve been to the Garfield Park Conservatory many times, but this was our first time venturing up to Lincoln Park for their gardens. The flowers were beautiful and we couldn’t stop snapping photos! Here are some of our favorites.

Happy Birthday, Clark!

traciragas — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:45:00 -0500

Today is Clark’s 11th birthday. April 1 might not be Clark’s “official” birthday, but one that we decided to honor after much reflection many years ago. We might be partial, but Clark is truly the best dog in the entire world. We are so lucky he’s ours!

Happy Birthday, Clark!

Chilly day in the Windy City!

mattragas — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:41:23 -0600

Posted from: IL, USAVery cold here today…but not a cloud in the sky.

Christkindlmarket

mattragas — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 14:02:18 -0600

Must be the holidays. Glühwein and Christmas ornament shopping at the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza.

Always a big November weekend!

mattragas — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 18:28:00 -0600

We just returned home from a nice weekend celebrating my birthday and our anniversary. Many moons ago for our first anniversary we stayed at the Herlong Mansion in historic Micanopy, Florida. Five years later, we tried another bed and breakfast and stayed at Tyron Farm Guest House in Michigan City, Indiana (which is just a short drive from Chicago). We had a relaxing stay and Claudia, the inn-keeper gave us a great recommendation to explore Michigan City’s lakefront. We checked out the chickens and the goats on the property and reconnected with our non-city side for a couple days.

We had a delicious dinner at the Cooper Rock Steakhouse at the Four Winds Casino just on the other side of Indiana in New Buffalo, Michigan. We had lunch at our favorite Michigan City restaurant, Shoreline Brewery and enjoyed their local brews. We stopped at the Blue Chip Casino and tried our hands at slots for the first time. Not sure if was luck of the Irish or an anniversary/birthday present for us - but we managed to win $152 (we won $167 total, but did spend $15, so the net gain was still pretty awesome). Being the water people we are, we checked out the lake and the beach. It was in the 70s all weekend, so it made our stay all the more perfect.

It was a wonderful birthday and anniversary weekend. Happy Anniversary to my handsome and lovely husband!

Chicago Marathon passing by our apartment

mattragas — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:19:08 -0500

It’s that time of year again. The runners in the Chicago Marathon are heading for the home stretch down Michigan Avenue. We have a lot of awesome things in Chicago, but seeing people within the final few miles of a huge milestone like this is pretty high up on the list. We are in the perfect spot and I can hear cow bells and cheers as I type. Here are a few shots!

Mariachi Band at Buen Provecho

mattragas — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:37:13 -0500

Download Video:

What would a Sunday afternoon in Pilsen be during Buen Provecho without a mariachi band?

Buen Provecho! Pilsen

mattragas — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 19:52:07 -0500

We just got home from spending the day at Buen Provecho! Pilsen. This was a walking tour of over thirty different restaurants in Pilsen. I think everyone who reads our blog already know that we love Pilsen and go often - but we did stop at a bunch of new restaurants today. We tried everything from Mexican hot chocolate to pan de tres leches to tamales, carnitas, ceviche, tacos and horchata. We manged to check out thirteen places (and here they are in no particular order):

Coyotes Restaurant
Panaderia el Acambaro
El Mariachi
Lupita’s Mexican-American Food
Riviera Nayarit
El Mozquite Grill
El Tacottote
La Casa del Pueblo
La Esperanza Restaurant
May Street Cafe
Sabas Vega Carnitas
La Taberna Tapas
Cafe Jumping Bean

This was truly awesome and a lot of fun - also, it was a ton of food, so we won’t need to eat for at least a week!

Our summer vacation

mattragas — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 22:31:00 -0500

We spent our summer vacation in Montreal and Québec City. We spent the first half of the week in Québec City. Our first full day there, we found an amazing farmers’ market (Marché du Vieux-Port) rather serendipitously. We built a delicious lunch from our wares at the market. We’ve never seen produce quite like the produce here (although, later we saw another amazing market in Montreal). We explored Vieux-Québec and even got our caricature done by a very nice artist. We visited the Château Frontenac and the Norte-Dame Basilic-Cathedral. And we tried poutine (which we heard was a must do).

Our favorite part of our visit in Québec City was our drive to Montmorency Falls and Île d’Orléans. Surprisingly, we learned Monmorency is taller than Niagara. We traveled by cable car to the top of the waterfall and walked across the suspension bridge for a really neat view. Île d’Orléans is just over the bridge from the falls and was one of the first parts of the province to be colonized by the French. The one road in and out took us past beautiful churches, farm land, and amazing views of the St. Lawrence River. Virtually all the produce we enjoyed at the farmer’s market came from this island.

For the second half of our trip we explored Montreal. Montreal felt a lot more like what we’ve gotten used to here in Chicago – great public transportation! We checked out Marché Jean Talon and were again impressed with the selection of produce. We had another fun (and inexpensive) lunch.

We visited the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, McGill University, old Montreal, and wandered around some neighborhoods. We tried Portuguese food (probably the best meal of our trip) for our first time (at the recommendation of our waiter from Uruguay at the Italian restaurant we had gone to the night before). Montreal is a very multicultural city (most of the people we met, spoke at least three languages). That waiter actually spoke five.

We also tried smoked meat – for which Montreal is famous. A not so big secret about us, we love Jewish delis. So we had to check out Schwartz’s. We are both big fans of the pastrami we get here at Manny’s or at Jake’s, our favorite spot in Milwaukee – so we had high hopes for Schwartz’s. Smoked meat is a little different than pastrami, but it was very tasty and Schwartz’s was a really neat place (the lines here are amazing). This might sound strange, but the pickles…were the best pickles we’ve had anywhere, ever!

And that’s about it! Our trip to Canada was fun, but as Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home!”.

Austin Green Team Garden Tour

mattragas — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:58:00 -0500

Posted from: IL, USA

The weekend before last, we went on the Austin Green Team Garden Tour. Matt met the amazing people behind the Austin Green Team during a volunteer day with DePaul last year. When he came back from his volunteering, he told me how beautiful the gardens were, so I was excited to have a chance to see them myself. I wasn’t disappointed!

Think it might be hot where you are?

mattragas — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 14:22:00 -0500

Think it might be hot where you are?

Clark wanted to say hello

mattragas — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 20:29:00 -0500

P.S. We call the first picture - Clark’s Elvis lip.

Hey Weatherman - I thought we lived in Chicago!Posted from: IN,...

mattragas — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:56:02 -0500

Hey Weatherman - I thought we lived in Chicago!

Posted from: IN, USA

Protesters marching past our building

mattragas — Sat, 19 May 2012 17:47:15 -0500

Peaceful warm-up protest to NATO meetings just went past our building trying to get to McCormick (it looks like they were since re-routed north). At least three helicopters overhead and strong CPD police presence. The biggest story so far has been the arrests in Bridgeport of a small group allegedly planning to firebomb high-profile targets.

Take me out to the ballgame!

mattragas — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:42:07 -0500

A few weekends ago, we headed out to the White Sox opening weekend. We also brought our friends Mackenzie and Yeuseung. We cheered the Sox on to a Win over the Detroit Tigers.

Hey, this guy looks familiarI am honored to be part of the...

mattragas — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:56:41 -0500

Hey, this guy looks familiar

I am honored to be part of the DePaul Distinctions campaign.

Walking Clark on the first day of spring Our neighbor, Judith,...

mattragas — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:49:00 -0500

Walking Clark on the first day of spring

Our neighbor, Judith, snapped this picture of us as we took Clark for his evening walk. Can you tell how excited Clark is about having his picture taken?!

Tampa visit

mattragas — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:48:51 -0500

A few weekends ago, we made a quick trip down to Florida to see some friends and get some sun. During the trip, we stopped into Tampa to catch up with my friend and former mentee, Carlos, now a senior in business at USF. Speaking of the Bulls, let’s see if they can pull off a win today and get to the Sweet Sixteen (same goes for the Gators!)