Entries Tagged as 'smoothie'

Art Institute, Millennium Park, Retro on Roscoe

August 5th, 2008 · 4 Comments


Art Institute, Chicago


Art Institute, Chicago

After visiting the Sears Tower, Stephanie and I used some free passes I had to check out the Art Institute. I think she liked it, but got her fill fast. Also, a lot of the paintings I wanted to show her were pulled because of the new wing they’re building. We were tired from walking around a lot that day and the day before at Retro on Roscoe, so we decided to take a break.


Wrigley Square, Millennium Park, Chicago


Stephanie, Millennium Park, Chicago

At the Retro on Roscoe the day before we’d gotten two coupons for free smoothies at Starbucks, so we got those, a cookie and a rice krispie treat and rested in Millennium Park. It was a beautiful day and felt really good to sit down. We just sat and chatted for about 45 minutes.


Rachelle & Stephanie, Millennium Park, Chicago

Feeling a bit rested, we headed over to State Street to look at the cheap accessories at H&M. Most of them were pretty ridiculous or not Stephanie’s style, but she did find one pair of earrings she liked that were only like $4.95. Next we headed up to Borders. Apparently there’s this young adult book series called The Twilight Saga that’s all the rage these days. It’s some kind of vampire love story. There are four books out and they’re already making a movie. Anyway, when Steph was visiting with my cousin Kelly she got the first book in the series and was hooked. We were planning on going to the pool later in the week, so I got her the second book to read poolside. Of course, she couldn’t even wait for the train to pull out of the train station before cracking it open! All the talk of Twilight Saga and Jonas Brothers this week has made me feel a bit ancient. FYI, Miley Cyrus is totally not cool.


Steph wearing new earrings, reading a new book.

For dinner we went to Retro on Roscoe. Dallas got polish food (surprise, surprise). Steph and I split a margherita pizza made on a mobile brick oven and another gyro.

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Starbucks Vivanno

July 22nd, 2008 · 9 Comments

Our local Starbucks was really pushing this new smoothie they’re selling, the Vivanno. I was walking by one day and decided to give it a try on a whim. There are two versions, one is Orange Mango Banana and the other is Chocolate Banana. I tried the Orange Mango Banana one. It’s made with a whole banana, which I actually saw them blend and use. I liked that it was fresh and not some frozen banana who knows what. The banana is blended with an Orange Mango Naked Juice that is made just for Starbucks, protein powder, fiber powder, milk and ice. I think they usually use 2% milk, but I requested skim. You can only get the grande size. Some of the nutritional information for the Orange Mango Banana Vivanno is 250 calories, 2 grams of fat, 47 grams of carbs, and 6 grams of fiber. Since I used skim milk, I think that the calories and fat grams were even less. The cost was about $4.50.

Now, what about the taste? I thought it was good. Very banana, less mango and orange. I don’t think that there is anywhere else in our neighborhood that you can get a smoothie, so I might try another one some time. Then again, I rarely ever get smoothies even when they are available, so who knows. I thought $4.50 was a bit much, but I always think that smoothies are expensive so maybe that’s about what smoothies cost?

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