It's a "Pride Market Tasting" Kind of Weekend

There's tons of great events happening this weekend, but, more importantly, it's Pride weekend! The closest thing we have to Carnival, the entire Boystown neighborhood is THE place to be this Saturday and Sunday. Check out the calendar for a complete list of Pride happenings - my favorite is the annual Pride Shabbat beach service - but you NEED to make it out to the Chicago Pride Parade on Sunday. Absolutely the best parade you will see all year.

(I will say that the parade seems to get tamer every year. The city now puts up baracades and made it illegal to throw things into the crowd. When I moved to the neighborhood, people thought nothing of running topless along the parade route. Those were the days...)

The Taste of Chicago kicks off on Saturday. Be sure to read my Taste of Chicago Survival Guide before you go! I'm really excited for some of the new restaurants this year.

You know I don't usually recommend going out to the suburbs, but I do have to say that the annual Long Grove Strawberry Festival is adorable. Long Grove in itself is cute as a button, but when you toss in fresh strawberries hand-dipped in homemade chocolate, it's heaven. The festival starts today and runs all weekend.

The Randolph Street Market Festival will host its second installment this Saturday and Sunday.
A quick tip: don't be like me and completely miss the inside. Not sure how that happened, but I think I skipped half of the market that way. Here are a few photo highlights I took last month:

Happy Friday!!