Ah, the weekend!

Hello, my friends. Sorry for the week without posts ... it's been an insane week. In and out of Chicago the same day, packing up my entire office to move to a new location, and Friday I volunteered at a Habitat house. While exhausting, this gave me an absolute appreciation for the cool, quiet calm of my own home and made me feel utterly blessed. This new home is for a single mom who has been in and out of shelters for years. One of my colleagues, instead of helping with the build, is tutoring her in English so that she can find a job and support her young daughter. See? There are good people who happen to spend most of their time behind desks.

So now it's time to recharge my batteries. What do you do to rejuvenate yourself?

The West Side Market

Those who know me (or have been around my blog long enough), know that I'll travel pretty far for a good farmer's market. My husband took me to the West Side Market this weekend for my birthday - the place of our first date. The original market was built in 1840 across the street from the current building, built in 1902.

While we're fairly spoiled with our own market in town, you can't beat the cultural and culinary diversity at the West Side. When you walk in, your senses are pleasantly assaulted by the smell of strong coffee, baking bread, exotic cheeses, and any number of other food smells. You can hear people haggling over a price of meat or a basket of fruit in several languages.

If you visit, come prepared with a tote to carry your treasure; you will inevitably become intoxicated by the atmosphere and buy more food than you can possibly eat in a day or two.

Do you have a market that you like to visit?