Mexication

Wendy and I took our first "vacation" vacation in a good while when we went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for six nights last week. Home base for us was an all-inclusive resort (Riu Palace Pacifico) in Riviera Nayarit, which is twenty minutes from PV. The goals for the trip were simple: spend ample time in the sun by the pool or on the beach, eat our weight in food, and day-drink every day, all of which were accomplished. As a bonus, we also learned how to surf, watched whales go crazy in the wild, and read a few good books along the way.

The view from our 7th floor room. We didn't actually catch the sunsets from here, as we were pointed just far enough north of west, but still an awesome view. And far enough away from the pool to not be annoyed by the group of 70 year old women catcalling their waiter.

Awesome sunsets.

One of the highlights of the week was a daytrip to Sayulita, a small surf town around the northern point of Banderas Bay on the Pacific Coast, where we hoped to surf for the first time. With the help of our instructor, Alan (pronounced ah-LAWN), Wendy and I were riding waves like pros. We also found time for a few Coronas and some fresh ceviche at a beach front bar.

Us with our surf instructor, Alan

Surfing giant waves

On the beach in Sayulita

Our other big excursion for the week was whale watching in Banderas Bay. I was a little skeptical about this one when we signed up, but this ended up being one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. The tour started off a little slow, but by the end we had about fifteen humpback whale-sightings, and even saw one come fully out of the water, Pacific Life style. I also caught this video of one waving at us. Pretty amazing.

I told the Captain I would double her tip if she cued up the Free Willy song on our way back into port. She was either insulted or had no idea what I was talking about.

On the sailboat, looking for whales

Meanwhile, back at the resort we were catching plenty of rays and chain-drinking pina coladas. The food at the resort was good enough, but definitely not blog-worthy. Our food highlight was the senorita at the omelet station who we talked into making us breakfast tacos every day. Yum.

This resort was pretty hilarious. It seemed as if everyone there was a fifty-something from the Midwest or Canada (let's just say there was no shortage of jorts or mandals). There was an "entertainment" crew that was apparently there to ensure we were having a good time, but succeeded only in emulating a really bad mexican variety show. Don't get me wrong, this resort was absolutely gorgeous and spotlessly clean. The service was impeccable. It was located on probably the best part of the beach. And we actually did meet some "kids" our age. The ease of an all-inclusive resort is why we chose it, and we were not disappointed. But I think we discovered this may not be our scene for vacations in the near future. Smiley face.

From our balcony

In the courtyard

At our favorite bar

Pure (and I mean PURE) Michigan

The whole crew, aka Team Everything Matters

There exists a land on the other side of the Lake from Chicago that is as pure as the driven, lake-effect snow; the only state with an opposeable thumb; the home of Madonna and Bob Seger and Tom Brady and Jessie Spanno and Tom Selleck; the place where the Cluley family name as we know it had its humble beginnings; the place where Tim Allen narrates all activities of daily living. That place is Michigan.

We recently had the pleasure of visiting the The Great Lakes State with our gracious host, Jason Biehl, and a dozen friends, most of whom are Northwesterners. For the past 2 years, Jason has been trying to arrange a trip to his family's cottage in Northern Michigan. Because of the distance from Chicago (about 370 miles) and the fact that we all have terrible schedules, it took several attempts to make this thing happen, but it finally came together Super Bowl Weekend. The timing was perfect as I was finishing up two weeks of nights in the ICU and was itching for a little R&R.

Jason's family's place is a little slice of lumberjack heaven. Tucked back into the hilly, snowy woods off of Little Traverse Bay, it's as cozy as you can get. It was complete with an awesome fire place (with plenty of firewood), bearskin blankets, a ping pong table, a didgeridoo, and enough sleeping room for a dozen city slickers. There were also several flat screen tvs for good measure.

Seriously does it get any better?

Our host and his didgeridoo

View from the kitchen. Also, several scenes from Kiss the Girls were shot here.

Rather than give you the minute by minute breakdown of how often I was throwing logs on the fire, what type of blanket I chose to curl up with on the couch, how many pieces of bacon I ate at breakfast, or my general Ins and Outs for the weekend, I'll just give you the highlights in no particular order:



- The Hot Tub! (aka the Ha-tub). To a boy from Texas, there's not much better than walking half naked out into freezing temps and getting into a steamy hottub. Then add nine other people, booze, and murky water and you have yourself a party.

The Ha-tub at 25% capacity

- An intense game of Cranium with no shortage of trash-talking (Wendy and I were on separate teams), an abundance of fist pumping, Scott burping in Katy's face, and all hell breaking loose every time we had a Club Cranium. After all that, I don't even think we finished the game.

Cranium team "trash talk"

- A great new drinking game (introduced by Brad) called Baseball - best described as half beer pong, half...baseball - complete with strikeouts, home runs, and stolen bases. This was a battle of the sexes with the dudes triumphing after nine heartstopping innings.

The Boys

The Girls

- Yvonne's 30th birthday! We had our very own Giants fan with us on the trip. She's also a fan of the Ravens, 49ers, and Bears. I think she may have Patriots and Packers connections as well. At any rate, her team won the Super Bowl! And the ladies made her a lovely cake that would make Eli proud.

The Birthday Girl

- An entertaining Super Bowl made even more interesting by the numerous prop bets we were making. The Patriots inability to make a big play, while entertaining, took a back seat to the coin toss, Kelly Clarkson's singing endurance, and Madonna's panty hose. We also threw in some squares to make it even more interesting. Speaking of making things interesting, we may have offended a certain townie pizza delivery girl. Bless her heart.

- Jello syringes. That's right I said SYRINGES. Thanks to Nurse Nelson we were well equipped with semisolid, alcoholic beverages shooting out of 60cc syringes. Creative rituals ensued.

"I'll see your red, and raise you two yellows."

Just a great picture

- An impromptu tribute to Whitney Houston (pre-mortem) at a random gas station on the way home, highlighted by I Will Always Love You blaring with the windows down and Bruno serenading an unsuspecting septagenarian.

Could not have asked for a better weekend for my first ever trip to Pure Michigan.

A thing of beauty

Bulls vs. Bucks 1/22/12

After the Bulls went on their great run last season, it was decided that we needed to make it to at least one game this season. With a break in the old schedule and a wife that hones in on sports tickets like a heat-seeking missile, we were ready to go for Bucks/Bulls on a Friday night! Accompanying us would be Bruno and our friend, Brynne Roberts.

During the Bulls playoff run last year, we became big fans of D-Rose, Deng, Joakim, Coach Thibs, etc. But the Bulls personality we loved the most was actually the color announcer for the local Comcast Sports broadcast, Stacey King. King played with the Bulls from '89-'94 and is one of the great "homer" announcers in sports. He's made popular quotes such as, "Gimme some o' that HOT SAUCE!" and "Did you get your invitation to the block party?!" Here is a soundboard of his greatest hits.

In preparation for the big game, Wendy and I made a run to our favorite t-shirt shop in the city, Strange Cargo. They had some awesome tees that we had not yet seen, most of them a tribute to Derrick Rose, who has become a god around here. Wendy decided on the 80s style "Chicago" tee. I went with the Derrick Rose tee (inspired by Stacey King) "Too Big, Too Strong, Too Fast, Too Good." For Bruno, we picked up the "I'm Here for the Deng Bang" shirt; quite clever and fitting for the Brunsky.

You may remember that this wouldn't be my first Bulls Game. I've been twice before, one of those times going with Wendy's friend and co-worker Sam. We were in the MillerCoors Box for that game and ran into B.J. Armstrong, a point guard and integral part of the Bulls Dynasty of the 90s.

Me and BJ

We started off at the MillerCoors pub, trying out a few different brews and visiting with some of the MC people. There's really not a better way to start an evening than drinking free beer at a beautiful bar overlooking downtown Chicago.

From there, we cabbed it down to the United Center, aka The Mad House on Madison Avenue. Highlights from the game included: lots of stadium food, an abundance of cheesy timeout spectacles, making it on to the jumbotron, making friends with the group of 10-year old kids sitting behind us, and of course a solid Bulls win.

Afterwards, we made our way around to the MJ statue, which is somewhat of a shrine on the East side of the United Center, to snap some pics.

From there we walked over to Billy Goat Tavern for a late night burger and beer before heading home.

What a great Chicago night!

NoMI : Brunch of Champions

NoMI - 800 North Michigan

If you know me (no pun intended), you know that a.) I get very excited about great food b.) I get extremely excited about large amounts of great food and c.) I'm all about hyperbole. That said, the Sunday brunch buffet at NoMI was one of the BEST dining experiences I've EVER had!

NoMI is one of those places in Chicago that I've heard of on several occasions, but had never really looked into until a few weeks ago. Wendy and I (Wendy > I) recently participated in a "cleanse" that limited us to only super healthy eating options, only one solid meal per day, no booze, no dairy, minimal carbs, etc. (more details at cleanprogram.com). We wanted to do something special to celebrate the end of what was projected to be a 21 day cleanse (I lasted 8). We looked into a few different spots, but NoMI kept coming up on yelp and other websites as an amazing place that we had not yet tried. Furthermore, we wanted to have an awesome Sunday brunch, and we found out that this is where NoMI really excels!

NoMI is located on North Michigan (hence the name) Avenue on the 7th floor of of the Park Hyatt, a posh hotel just west of Chicago's historic Water Tower. A former Michelin Star-winner, NoMI combines upscale Japanese sushi with fine French cuisine. The layout is incredibly spacious (and bathed in natural light), as they don't attempt to cram in a bunch of tables. The kitchen is open to the restaurant and vice a versa so the chefs can be seen happily performing their craft and constantly putting out amazing food for us to eat. We were lucky enough to be seated (in our cozy leather seats) by the window with a beautiful view of the Chicago Water Tower and Upper Michigan.

View from our table - Water Tower and North Michigan Ave

Now let's talk food. With our Sunday Brunch fee of $60/person(don't worry, it was worth it), all the food bars (buffet) are included as well as a choice of any of the ten brunch entrees on the menu (you could technically order all ten if you wanted to be an a-hole). The food bars are separated into a sushi/seafood bar, a hot bar, cheese/charcuterie bar, salad bar, and dessert bar. Let's break them down one by one...

Seafood Bar

Probably my favorite, and I definitely ate 60 bucks worth at this bar alone. The bar started off with our beautiful plates and chop sticks (the nice ones) followed by an awesome spread of fresh maki rolls (salmon/tuna) and sashimi (salmon/tuna/yellow tail). I'm not a sushi snob, per se, but I could immediately taste that the fish they were working with was as fresh as I've ever had. Then there was the beautifully displayed jumbo shrimp (and I mean jumbo), snow crab claws, and stone crab claws. The shrimp could barely be eaten in one bite (definitely not a bad thing). The crab was meaty and delicious, no condiments required. Raw oysters and asian-style clams rounded it out. I could have eaten a hundred of these oysters, just sucking them off the shell. The briny water and the delicate oyster meat took me to another place. I've never been to Maine, but probably there. Like I said, I could have spent all my time with the seafood and been very happy. But there's more...

Hot bar


This was where the more traditional brunch foods were to be found as well as some things there were a little more new to us. Fluffy scrambled eggs (mixed with cheese and peppers), crispy bacon, turkey sausage were the staples on the breakfast-y end of the bar. On the lunch-y end, we found a bread "pudding" with mushrooms and caramelized onions, potatoes au grautin, phylo wrap with mushrooms and goat cheese, crispy brussel sprouts with dried cherries, sweet potatoes. All delicious.

Cheese/Charcuterie & Salad Bars


Let's be honest, I'm not gonna be spending a ton of time at these spots when it's all-you-can-eat, but there were some noteworthy items here. The cheese bar was an impressive display of various cheeses (more than I could even come close to identifying) along with some spreads to create a sweet contrast to the cheese including peach preserves and crystalized honey. The salad bar had, well, salad, but also had some awesome open faced roast beef sandwiches (with arugula and dill cole slaw on a toasted baguette).

Cheesin' it up

As we were experiencing this rush of amazing food, our "main courses" arrived. We ended up ordering three. 1.) Arrabiata baked egg. This was a poached egg set upon a piece of garlic toast smothered in marinara and fresh grated parmesan with a duo of veal meat balls adorning the plate, a cool union of egg and red sauce that I've never experienced before. 2.) Eggs Blackstone. This was a benedict- style dish with thick cut bacon, arugula and stone-ground mustard hollandaise. Probably our least favorite entree, but still very good. 3.) NoMI Reuben. Not your typical reuben. Pear saurkraut was the secret ingredient in this amazing sandwich.

Eggs Blackstone

Dessert Bar

Just when we began to wonder if there was anyway NoMI could top what we had already experienced, we stumbled upon the dessert bar. Blown away. This may have been the most impressive looking food bar at NoMI. It was no slouch in the taste/texture department either. Various items that could be found here were chocolate caramel parfait with salted toffee, orange vanilla bean parfait, housemade candied chocolates, stollen (bread cake) with raspberry filling, chocolate bon bons, fudge, multi-layered chocolate cake, iced cookies, and much much more. What a great way to end a wonderful brunch.

Our experience at NoMI was second to none as far as brunches go. The amazing (and plentiful) food was easily equaled by the ambience and the view. Can we afford to go there every Sunday? Of course not. But this is a true example of getting what you pay for. Awesomeness.

Wendy and Romo