Day 3
I woke up early in the morning and I was going to take my dad to Chicago to the place where my father worked and took me out when I was little. I thought, Chicago has to have a Juice Bar somewhere. So I researched a little and found a juice bar in Northern Chicago. I finally got some "greens" in me. Very expensive I thought when I bought my father, uncle and my juice and 2 exclirs close to $35. I was like MAN, that's pretty darn expensive. Regardless, I was happy to have finally gotten the juice to help me get rid of all the "fat" I ingested the last 2 days. After that we walked in Downtown Chicago and took my father to the Sears (now Willis) Tower. We walked through the beautiful windy city and my uncle just told all his stories and next thing you know lunch time is here. Where to go? What to do? I was driving on Lake Shore Drive and my uncle told me that if we continued on this road we could reach a little place called
Tickies Belizean Cuisine.
I said to myself, I haven't eaten true Belizean food in a while. Why not? I had my juice today and my exclirs to take. So I decided to take my Tio (uncle), and dad there. Tickies was a small little joint right on the border between Chicago and Evanston. We went in and I felt like I was in Belize all over again. The smells of food was amazing. We looked at the menu and I saw one of my favorite appetizers. Garnachas, this is a tostada with beans, red sauce, cheese and pickled cabbage to be the topping. I got 3 of them and my dad and uncle digged in and they both said it reminded them of "home." That made me smile for sure. So we then ordered our lunches, dad had oxtail with rice and beans w/ potato salad. My Tio (Uncle) ordered beef with rice and beans w/ potato salad. I decided to order cow foot soup. This is a very good soup but is very filling so I couldn't finish it all. Take a look at the pics.
I tasted them all and it was absolutely heavenly. I didn't eat the rice but the soup was fantastic. Yes Cow foot soup is good. :) Belizeans live till 100 all the time because they utilized everything from their animals. Thankfully, I learned that when I lived there in 1994. After a wonderful lunch, we drove home. Relaxed for the rest of the evening because Day 4 is going to be new day.
Day 4,
My cousin told me about a Hispanic place right by my hotel that it was a vegetable place. It's called Lewis Fresh Market. When you look at the prices, you say "Is it that Cheap?" Yes it is. $3.50 for a 16 oz juice. It was an amazing , they were simple recipes but amazing tastes. I found my new Juice home and it was going to be very affordable too! I even got my dad into drinking juice everyday. The way it made me feel, and seeing my dad enjoy it better than OJ from a carton or from concentrate. We embarked a new tradition for us during our week of vacation. Check out the pics.
Here is a juice by Lewis Fresh Market. This is carrot, kale, apple, ginger juice
My dad and I enjoying our juice from a juicing bar in Libertyville!
Daddy drinking his ABC juice. Apples. Beets and Carrot juice. His favorite out of all of them. :)
Day 5,
This day was a great one due to I went to my uncle's house and spent the day with him downloading my family pictures from the past. My uncle has hundreds (possibly thousands) of pictures of family, friends, travels, everything you can think of. My uncle is a worldly man, and can he tell stories! That will have to be in another blog for you to all see. I spent 6 hours with him and for 6 hours straight my uncle talked with my dad. It was an experience, Can I say that I was tired, a little but I don't get to see my uncle everyday and my father doesn't either. So it was extreme but I do not regret it. Our elders always get left behind, and as many times as I talk to my uncle or my dad. They always say, "I'm bored here at home with nothing to do." Sometimes we take for granted on what we have in our elders now-a-days. They have stories, history of our grandparents and great grandparents. Things that when we were children we never wanted to listen to. Now that I'm 40-something, I want to know what my father did when he was young. Where my uncle went and traveled to when he did. It's amazing to listen to so many stories and here them laugh and reminisce through their past. It was a great day for my dad.
After that we went to Lewis Fresh Market, because while it's a great juicing place. It has EXCELLENT Mexican Food and CHEAP. I mean SUPER CHEAP! $1 Chicken Tamales, $2 Tacos, $3.50 Tortas etc. I decided to get a Torta with "Al Pastor". You may ask what's a Torta? It's a Mexican Bun that is about 8 inches wide and 4 inches tall. That is huge for me so I told daddy that we would split it. He said okay. So you ask what's "Al Pastor"? It's a marinated pork that is DELICIOUS when made correctly. Waukegan, IL is "Little Mexico" and you can get the most authentic Mexican food almost anywhere they have a stand at. You hardly ever get Mexican that is bad. So you ask why am I eating a pork sandwich? Because I'm home and sometimes you just gotta have something from home. Even if it's not healthy! For our drinks my dad had a Tamarindo Juice and I had my GREEN JUICE! So it easily balances me out with the favorites of home but also with the healthiness of drinking my greens. :)
Day 6,
This day was a pretty slow day for us, we went visiting family and such. We had our early greens in the morning and drove to different relatives homes. I was suppose to drive to the city but my father was not doing well staying with family while I went out with friends and family. So I decided to stay and my Godson, decided to do a BBQ, we had some carnitas with tortillas and hot dogs, with Turkey Burgers. I made some salad and portobello mushroom burgers for the family to try and they learned how one can still eat and enjoy great healthy food. :) Dad was content and happy to see me stay with him. I guess that's what counts now, that I spend as much time with him. He's 88 and although he looks good. You never know when he will be leaving us to meet our Heavenly Father. I felt good that night. :) Stay tuned for Day 7-9 and the final weigh in!