hockey, family, friends and food

This past weekend Drew had a hockey tournament in Chicago. The team, the coaches and some of the parents loaded a coach bus early Friday morning.

Pete and I decided to drive and meet them in Chicago because we were going to extend our trip by a day and head to Indiana to visit Jake.

The tournament booked our team in a hotel and we found out that it was in the exact same town that some of my relatives live in. In fact we have stayed at this very hotel. We met my cousin Cindy and her husband John for a fabulous dinner at J. Alexander's before Drew's 10pm hockey game.

It was so great catching up with these two!

Drew's team played a total of 4 games over the weekend against some good competition. 

One thing that none of the parents could get over was that they served alcohol right in the rink-- we have never seen that before.

Saturday night we had dinner at a cute little authentic Mexican restaurant called De Campana in Bensenville.

Over the weekend we also stopped at Gene and Jude's for our favorite Chicago style hot dog!

Policemen on lunch break. :)

And a stop at Johnnie's in Elmwood Park for an Italian beef sandwich.

3 Chicago policemen in line in front of us- we were beginning to see a trend in the dive places we visited. :)

These beefs are so good and have been rated {here} as the best in Chicago. And I totally agree! :)

Sunday, after Drew's last game we headed to see Jake. Notre Dame is just under 2 hour from Chicago, so this was an easy little trip. Jake wasn't home for Easter and it was his birthday just a couple of days before, so we thought we would take him out for dinner to do some belated birthday celebrating. We met him and two of his friends at Corndance Tavern.

The birthday boy.

It was a fun night with a lot of talking and laughter and presents and good food. :)

A trip to ND wouldn't be complete without a stop in the bookstore.

This view never gets old.

I had to get a picture of this cute car. :)

On Monday, Jake had a two hour window between classes and we picked him up at his dorm, packed up some of his things to bring back home for the summer, and took him to lunch. He had a real busy day but it was so nice to see him again before we headed back home.

It was such a fun weekend filled with hockey, family and friends and so much good food!

The fun ended when we arrived home late Monday night...to a flooded (finished) basement.

More to come on that soon.