For those of you who don't know, Munster is about 30 miles SE of Chicago, about an hour with traffic, which we were in, due to Lalapalooza, which we missed. Highlights of Munster include, a trip to the local Starbucks, which happens to be located inside the local Target... or drive a couple blocks down main street and enjoy a romantic date night at the local Red Lobster... for some reason I feel the need to put local in front of everything, like the local Hampton Inn that we stayed at. The accommodations were good, in fact, so good that I think the entire wedding party, guests and all booked reservations there. Now that I think about it, the good old Hampton Inn, just may have been the only place in town, hmmm.
So, you must be thinking, what does a person, who thinks they are going to Chicago, do for an entire weekend in Munster, Indiana... well let me tell you. The first night, stranded at the Hampton Inn, without a car, (it was taken to the rehearsal dinner, that we were not invited to.) we decided to cross the parking lot to a local restaurant, The Charleyhorse. From the outside, it looked like a Chili's but behind the tinted windows was a smokey restaurant/sports bar, complete with slutty waitresses in short skirts and knee highs. So, me and my husband, who is such a good sport, decided it would be best to get completely and utterly trashed... and the Charleyhorse had a drink menu to do so. He ordered the Friday Bomber, I went with the Tropical Ecstasy. Not our brightest moment. 30 minutes later, I was in the bathroom, pardon the grossness, but puking my guts out. Needless to say, we packed up my dinner and retired to the Hampton Inn, which happened to have a mini fridge to keep my leftovers chilled.
The next day, we slept in, late. Then, per my husbands numerous requests we ventured down main street to the local White Castle. Having never seen Harold & Kumar's movie about White Castle, I didn't see the importance of this trip. After having made it, I still don't see the importance. Located at the local gas station, White Castle was quite the disappointment. The "burgers" or more appropriately "sliders" had to be made with Spam. There is no way that meat could be classified as grade A-nything. The thought of it makes me a little bit nauseous...
Later that day, we crossed over to Illinois, Lansing, not Chicago, for the beautiful wedding ceremony of Sean & Trisha, here's a pic of the happy couple:
After the ceremony, we met back at the Hampton Inn to wait for the reception to begin. My sugar-coating mother, who missed out on the White Castle adventure was starving so I offered up my leftovers from The Charleyhorse... turns out it might not have been the Tropical Ecstasy that left me hurling the night before, we found out later that evening that she too would succumb to the porcelain God. Thank you Charleyhorse for leaving such a memorable impression on me and my mom's poor tummies. Here's a pic of me & Justin at the reception, before the Charleyhorse struck:
All said and done, we did have a great weekend with tons of memories to take home. We did get the chance to tour Chicago and Michigan Avenue. We even had a lovely lunch at the Flagship Ralph Lauren restaurant, ha ha, Ralph. This was pre-Munster, thank goodness... Here's a couple shots from our Chi-Town adventure:
Michigan Ave.
Hubby, Mom & Me at Ralph
