1st Annual Cider Summit

Whenever I catch up with my grandparents on the phone, both my nani and grandma always ask, "So what are you doing for fun and to relax?"  Well this past weekend I knew exactly what I was going to do for fun.... the Cider Summit at Navy Pier.  I don't remember how I came across the event info, but I knew I had a few cider lovin' friends that would for sure go with me.  One thing I like about living in the city is there are always different things to do.  It unfortunately was my weekend to work, so I planned ahead, packed my backpack with clothes and walked over the Navy Pier after work to meet up with Molly.  Tyler was a little hung over from the night before, but he made it eventually(there's your blog shout out).

There were 26 booths set up with multiple ciders at each booth ranging from 5.5- 16% alcohol.  With our admission we were given 10 tickets to pick and choose our ciders.  Now Molly, bless her honest heart, would walk up to the booth and ask how many tickets each tasting costed.  I on the other hand would only hand over the tickets if they asked for them.  I probably got twice the money's worth in cider that day.  The place was packed, but we would sip our cider as we waited in line at the next booth.  Some were too sweet, some were amazing and some just tasted like feet, but overall it was a great event.  The event originated in Portland, OR and they have expanded for the first time to Chicago underestimating what a drunk city we were.  We met and talked to one of the organizers and he said they had to go out and buy cups twice.  Since we came later, we got stuck with the Dixie cups and not the cute logo ones with stems.  They will definitely be back next year, bigger and better with a band and more spacious room and a store to buy the product.  It was loads of fun and I'm already looking forward to it.  As you can see in the pictures we didn't want it to end and were some of the last ones to leave the event.

Yep, by the look of those eyes you can tell
I've had a few samples by then...

Tyler was obsessed with this cider poster.  At the end of the
summit they gave it to him for free since it was all dripped on 

After the summit we I was a little toasty and had a good buzz going on.  We headed to Hubbard Inn to meet some more friends for food and drinks.  I passed on the drinks since I had to be at work the next morning at 7 (The nice thing about drinking early is you have time to sober up and be in tip top shape the next day).  The food was amazing and I gorged on a plethora of small plates.  So many in fact I had to unbutton my pants as soon as we got up to leave because I was convinced they were creating a bowel obstruction.  Im thinking this is a sign and since I have signed up for my first 5K in May.  Ill keep you posted when I start training for it...