On Friday night we surprised Greg with tickets to an Arcade Fire / The National show. Saturday we hit up the opening of Grant Achatz's The Aviary (see my Flickr album from that night here) and drank some of the most magically complicated cocktails to ever grace my lips. Sunday was Easter, which involved an egg hunt for Vera, brunch with Ashley & Mark, a stop at George and Sara's party and then a home-cooked Easter supper.

(See all the Easter photos here.)

You would think we would have stopped there, but no. Lien is a food writer and one of my most favorite people to eat with, so on Monday we did lunch at Hot Doug's, followed by some light shopping in Wicker Park, and then Lien and I went to Girl and the Goat. Needless to say, each night involved a deep, dreamless food coma.

Today we topped it all off with a yoga class and then a trip to the airport and I wasn't at all sad to say goodbye to Lien, because I'll see her in a month when I'm LIVING in LA again.

More to come when I've recovered a bit more fully from this weekend.

I’m here working a story about Chef Jason Rogers who is the man behind St. Julien’s Jill’s restaurant and who also happens to be an avid mountain biker. During the summer he offers a mountain biking and bbq package in which he takes guests out for a bike ride and then back to the hotel where he makes them a fabulous bbq dinner based on their preferences.

As you can imagine, Sunday afternoon found me and Greg on mountain bikes on nearby Betasso Preserve trying out our first time skills on the single track Canyon Loop Trail. Needless to say, within ten minutes I was sprawled in a ditch, my bike on its side, a big scrape beading up with blood on my left leg. Laughing from my position in the ditch, I called for Greg to take a photo (coming soon). Mountain biking turned out to be wildly challenging but overall it was definitely a fun experience.

After making it around the 3 mile loop without anymore mishaps and with a couple of deer sightings, we flew down the paved road back to Boulder, the mountain vistas dipping and rising before us as we rounded each curve and then crossed over to ride alongside Boulder Creek. It was just beautiful and it was the perfect way to get me out of my head and all that is going on these days, if even for a couple of days.

The rest of our trip has been spent at the mercy of Chef Rogers who has made us one incredible meal after another. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so well in a two day time span. Highlights include heirloom tomatoes with spearmint, arugula, pine nuts and served alongside a burrata cheese calzone. Also unbelievable, from last night’s zero-carbon vegetarian dinner, were homemade ravioli with aged goat cheese from Oregon paired with a Barbera D’Alba Mauro Molino. Trout ceviche, duck confit, Adobo-rubbed steak and leg of lamb have also delightfully crossed my palate in the last 48 hours.

I’ve experienced several moments on this trip where I knew that if my parents could see me, they just couldn’t be happier. Me, sitting across from the most wonderful man whom I will marry in 10 days, eating some of the most wonderful food in an incredibly beautiful setting and about to return home to a fantastic life in Chicago with a meaningful job and lovely home and a future that is continuously unspooling itself in the best ways possible.

I’m very appreciative of my life right now.

Okay…off to catch a flight home. More soon, including photos of me on a mountain bike!