Today Mike and I hung out at the Chicago River where it was quite hot and humid for a California girl like me. But it was fun, and so fascinating to see all the old buildings that were built after the big fire. In fact, our hotel is a historical building, though too far from downtown to have been affected by the fire anyway. It's called The Willows and it was built in the 20s. We chose it for its proximity to the wedding venue and for its price, so we got really lucky that the place has that cute Tower of Terror feel to it. They even play big band music in the lobby, and the elevator closes with a gate, not the usual elevator doors.

So we were walking around Lincoln Park later, which is one of those neighborhoods that is in the process of transforming from a cute indie shopping district to a chain-store-laden mile of unimpressiveness. But I could tell that it used to be cool and might still be a place where we might see one of those new trendy cupcake stores.

Which we did! I was so excited! It's called Molly's Cupcakes. I bought a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. For some reason, it tasted like cornbread with cream cheese frosting. Well, my first cupcake-store cupcake. Nowhere to go but up.