The Joliet Rocket

All aboard! My boyfriend loves trains, and this past weekend he had the opportunity to be one of the EMT’s aboard the 765 Steam Engine Locomotive - The Joliet Rocket, and was nice enough to invite me on the adventure. The Joliet Rocket would offer a four-hour roundtrip excursion that would depart from Joliet, Illinois and arrive at LaSalle Street Station in Chicago. Passengers were encouraged to wear their best 1940’s or 50’s attire, and there was even reenactors aboard the train. This was my first time ever on a steam engine, which was a ton of fun to experience. Aboard the train I got to know a lot of the engine car hosts as well as the passengers, which was really neat since people came from all over to ride this locomotive. Trains are something that A absolutely loves, so it was really nice to experience this ride with him. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the adventure….

Restaurant Review: MyGrain Brewing

 

My boyfriend and I have been on plenty of mini adventures, however this weekend was our first real getaway. On Friday we left Michigan and headed to Joliet, Illinois to ride a steam engine train on Saturday – but more about that Thursday. We arrived into town around dinnertime, and decided to Yelp a few places. We ended up deciding on dinner outside at MyGrain Brewing so we could watch the trains go past while we ate. The menu was full of a lot of great food, so we decided to split The Golden Spike and Trio of Tacos. The Golden Spike featured tenderloin medallions, strawberry fig caramelized onion, arugula, Adair cheese, piquillo aioli on a pretzel roll with fries – and let me tell you this was hands down the best sandwich I have had in a really long time! The Trio of Tacos featured one of each Carnitas (pork carnitas marinated in achiote, garnished with a pineapple-jicama relish), Tilapia (seasons with tajin and garnished with cabbage relish) and Chicken (marinated with chipotle salsa and shaved onion, garnished with avocado salsa and queso fresco. The Tilapia taco was the only one I didn’t care for, it was extremely fishy and I am just not a big fan of overly fishy food. Other than that everything was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend hitting up MyGrain if you’re ever in Joliet.

Restaurant Review: North 42 Restaurant & Bar

Firecracker Shrimp: Lightly breaded shrimp, blackened seasoning, and spicy house made sriracha sweet chili sauce served over a power kale blend.

 
When you step outside you’ll notice that the green trees are beginning to turn shades of burnt reds and oranges, but there is no cool crisp in the air. As a matter of fact it was in the high 80’s Sunday, so my boyfriend decided we should take the boat out to Lake St. Clair. While the temperature was up, the ride out on the water was rough, really rough. The good news out of it is that my boyfriend is really skilled on the water and did the best he could to make it the smoothest possible ride. Before we headed off the water we decided to take the boat to dinner at North 42 Restaurant and Bar which is part of MacRay Harbor. We’ve been here multiple times together now, and the food never disappoints. One thing I really enjoy about my boyfriend is the fact that he will share food with me; this allows us to try more things out which I really love. During this visit we split the Firecracker Shrimp on the appetizer portion of the menu, and the Pale Ale Fish & Chips since they were so good last time. With summer turning to fall I am really going to miss date nights on the water.

Pale Ale Fish & Chips: Icelandic cod bathed in Bell’s Two Hearted, battered and deep friend, French fries, house coleslaw, remoulade