Ryan and I had such a great time in Chicago last week! We were so grateful to have a long weekend getaway. We feel it's really important to have at least one small vacation a year without the girls so we can just relax and recharge. This was a great one! We took lots of pictures too, but it's late right now, so I am not going to post those now, but I'll get to that soon. I know this is a really long post, but I wanted to give you all the details of our trip because we had so much fun...you can escape with us for a few minutes!
We picked the girls up from school last Wednesday, got them home and settled into nap time, and then my mom drove us to the airport. Thankfully, we had an easy and uneventful flight. We were giddy at the thought of each of us bringing only a carry-on bag...no big bags stuffed to the brim with STUFF for the girls...just two little bags that fit nicely into the overhead compartment. We walked right off the plane, made our way to the El and headed into town. David picked us at a designated stop and drove us the rest of the way to their apartment. Now, Ryan and I have travelled a pretty good bit and stayed in some great hotels, but their apartment rivals any other place we have gone. They were fortunate to buy two top-level units (61st floor) next door to each other, so they did some renovations and made it one very large unit. Jan has decorated the entire place beautifully so you feel like you're in a top notch hotel. Throw in the wrap-around views, and you don't want to leave! One side of windows faces east and overlooks Navy Pier and Lake Michigan while a second side faces south towards the city with views including Soldier Field, the Chicago River and the Sears Tower (actually its now the Willis Tower). Amazing I tell you. When we walked in, Jan, Nick and Brock were there to greet us, so we spend some time catching up and marveling at the view. Jan treated us to her out-of-this-world spaghetti too (and then brownies to top it off...seriously, how much better does life get?); what a great way to start the long weekend!
We slept in a little on Thursday, and then decided we would spend some time acting like tourists while David was at work and Jan and the guys had a few other things to do. We headed over to Navy Pier because I absolutely love the fried shrimp and strawberry lemonade at Bubba Gump's restaurant. I usually only get this meal once a year when we go to Florida because there is one in nearby Daytona Beach. How fortunate to get this meal a second time in just over a month?! It was simply delicious. After lunch, we went to the IMAX theatre and watched the newest Harry Potter movie. The first 15 minutes of the movie is in 3D so that was super cool, and then the rest of the movie is on a 6-story tall movie screen...wow. After the movie, we walked around the Children's Museum gift shop and found lots of things that made us decide we couldn't wait to bring the girls up. As nice as it was to be away from the girls for a few days, we couldn't help but miss them and think about them often!
Chicago is a great town for walking around, so we left Navy Pier and decided to head into the city. However, we had to stop back at the apartment first because we underestimated just how cool the wind made the temperature. David and Jan let us borrow a couple of fleeces to keep warm and we rarely took them off for the rest of the weekend! We made our way down famous Michigan Avenue having fun window-shopping. I made Ryan go into the American Girls store with me. I had the first three dolls that they came out with (actually, I still have them downstairs), and I can't wait until the girls are old enough to start playing with them (probably around age 7 or so). The store brought back so many memories for me, but also made me so excited about how much fun it is to have daughters! I can't wait for them to visit this store someday and pick out their own dolls! After leaving that store, we stopped at Ghiridelli for a berry sundae (yummy!) and then at the Disney store and found a couple of cute Mickey Mouse Clubhouse things that were majorly reduced. We walked back down Michigan and headed over to Millennium Park to see The Bean, the great amphitheater and BP Bridge. We went through the park and then headed up to Buckingham Fountain which is absolutely beautiful. It was early evening at this point, so we walked by the lake back to the apartment; what a beautiful walk. After we got back, we all got ready and went to Piccolo Sogno for dinner where we were treated to a delicious dinner. Ryan especially loved his prosciutto appetizer while my ravioli in a brown-butter sauce was fantastic. Of course, spending time with David, Jan, Nick and Brock was such a treat; they kept me laughing the whole meal. What a great end to a great day!
David and Jan took Friday off which was a special treat. Of course, just because they took the day off doesn't mean they slowed down! While Ryan and I slept in again (I treasure sleep whenever I can get it!), they went out to play tennis. David had bought tickets for the 1:00 Cubs game at Wrigley for the four of us. Ryan and I were so excited! We love getting the chance to do things like see a game in one of the coolest stadiums in baseball history. We decided to head out at 11:00, so we could slowly take it all in; Jan had a meeting at 11:00, so they joined us a little later but before the game started. Jan later told us that she grew up pretty close to Wrigley which we thought was pretty cool. We couldn't believe how crowded the train was 2 hours before the game even started, but we easily found our way. We were a little shocked at how small the field is and how close you are to the field and the players. We're very used to Turner Field which is humongous and keeps you far away from the players. Our seats were absolutely awesome. We were about 8 rows up and about half-way between first base and right field; the visiting teams' bullpen was right in front of us. The Mets were in town this weekend, so it was very easy to become a Cubs fan for the game (except when Jeff Francoeur was up - I wish he were still a Brave). As the usher showed us our seats, he reminded us to stay awake because balls come quickly and hard to our seats. He was right. A couple came our way during batting practice, and two foul balls landed just two rows behind us and a couple of seats away. Wow!!! I'll say that I typically don't buy t-shirts of places I visit, but I couldn't resist this time. I found a great navy blue t-shirt from the "bricks and ivy" that I couldn't resist. We also bought a little Cubs baseball key chain that we'll use as our souvenir Christmas ornament. Of course, you can't go to a Cubs game and not have a Chicago hot dog, right? After my grandmother's hot dogs (you simply cannot beat the ones she makes while our family is in Florida), these were the best dogs I have ever eaten. I had two of them in a sesame seed bun with ketchup, mustard and grilled onions...oh my, they were delicious. To top it all off, the Cubs pulled ahead in the bottom of the 8th to win 5-2. Such a fun game!
Ryan and I hung around a little after the game and of course took pictures of the famous sign outside Wrigley while David and Jan headed on back. When we decided to leave, we easily got on the train and headed back to the apartment. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with David, Jan and Nick while they made another delicious dinner for us. Their building has a great outdoor patio for owners' use that sits above the parking garage on the 16th floor. There are several big grills available, and a garden filled with tomatoes and tons of different herbs that anyone can take; Jan is part of the group that takes care of the garden, and she filled me on some plans for upgrades that are coming...I can't imagine, but it's going to be even better in a few years. We had a wonderful time talking with one another while David grilled a huge tenderloin and vegetables; Jan had potatoes roasting upstairs too. It was another amazing dinner, and I went back for seconds of everything...I couldn't help it because it was so delicious! I figured all the extra walking I was doing was making it okay to do so. After dinner we all watched a pretty funny movie called "Thank You for Smoking" which I think we all enjoyed. Then, off to sleep after another wonderful day.
Saturday morning, Ryan and I went on a boat tour down the Chicago River to learn about the architecture of the city. I have always been interested in art history, but have never had the chance to learn much about architecture; this was right up my alley. I learned so much from our docent who was a knowledgeable and friendly little old man. He did a great job of explaining the different styles of architecture, pointing out examples of these styles and telling about the architects who made each one of the styles famous. He pointed out Chicago became something of a blank slate after the great fire; pretty much the whole city had to be rebuilt, so this led to lots of opportunities for many different architects. One of my favorite moments of the tour came as we passed the Blommer Chocolate Factory; I had no idea that there was a chocolate factory there! You could smell it in the air as we were near it. He said if you were eating anything other than Hershey's chocolate, you were probably eating Blommer's. They make M&M's and Dove chocolates (two of my personal favorites I might add). This was a really interesting way to see the city and learn a lot about its history and personality.
After this tour, we headed to Giordano's to get Ryan some famous deep-dish pizza. He thoroughly enjoyed his individual deep-dish pepperoni and sausage pie while my thin crust Hawaiian was very good. You have to get pizza while in Chicago, and Giordano's was a great choice. After lunch we headed to Nordstrom's Rack which is where Nordstrom's deeply discounts it's going out of season or out of style clothing. I found two dresses, one fleece jacket and three pairs of shoes (two needed for work and one adorable casual pair). Let me correct that last sentence...I found lots of things that I would have loved to buy (great quality at great prices), but I had to remember our two carry-on bags (which was also carrying back gifts for the girls); I didn't want to pay to ship things back. Always fun to get new clothes! After shopping, we met up with Nick in Millennium Park and walked down to the Field Museum. Nick is a lot of fun to hang out with, so we were glad he was able to meet up. Ryan and I wanted to see "Sue," the T-Rex completed with the most true and intact fossils which is at the museum; I still think dinosaurs are so cool to study. We thought the museum was free, so we were a little surprised when we got there and discovered it was $31 a person to see that exhibit. We only had a couple of hours and since Sue was standing where you could see her in the main hall, we decided not to pay for entrance. Instead, we headed back outside and walked across the street to see the new Soldier Field. Interesting stadium. I can see why it's described as a "UFO that sat on the old Soldier Field." By this point, we were all tired of walking, so we took a taxi back to the apartment. We all rested for a little bit (ahhh, a Saturday afternoon nap), and then got ready for the evening.
The five of us met Brock at Madge's Still, an Irish pub in old town. David had been telling me how they have some of the best ribs, tator tots and sweet potato fries, so that's what I had for dinner. He was right; it was delicious. I especially loved their sweet BBQ sauce for the ribs. After dinner, we walked over to Second City comedy club. This is a famous club that launched the careers of a lot of well-known comedians (many move from Second City to SNL)...Steve Carell, John Candy, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Joan Rivers and Peter Boyle to name just a few. There were six actors who put on a mostly-scripted show but there was some improvisation too. One improvised scene including pulling an older gentleman into a scene to solve a crime which was hilarious; another semi-improvised scene blamed the recession on one teacher who was cutting back on her diamond-purchasing. Another favorite scene involved two actors trying to explain how California upheld Proposition 8, but Iowa ("Iowa, America") allows gay marriage. I can't remember laughing this hard in a long time! Talk about a fun night out!
After returning to the apartment, the guys watched the Tivo'ed Falcons game while I had the chance to read a little. This was a wonderful way to wind down our trip. Sunday morning, Jan and Nick headed out before we got up because they were flying down to their Florida home for a few days; I didn't even get to tell Jan thank you until she called a little later to say they had safely landed. Ryan, David and I relaxed at home until we decided to head to D4 for a yummy Irish breakfast (fyi, delicious hot chocolate...Chicago is definitely a city that needs this good hot chocolate). After breakfast, we picked up our two carry-on bags (yep, I managed to squeeze everything in!), and David drove us to the airport because our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:30. I will very quickly say that because of bad weather in Atlanta, our flight was delayed for a few hours, and then we had a rough (aka, scary with turbulence) flight getting back, but I'm not going to dwell on that because that was the only thing that wasn't fantastic the whole weekend.
We got home about 7:30, and Mia had already gone to bed because she wasn't feeling very well, but Lily was very excited to see us. We had a happy two year old and a clean house to come home to; what a wonderful feeling and a perfect way to wrap up such a great weekend. We truly appreciate David and Jan hosting us for these several days; we will never forget this vacation!
Before the train ride.
Petting a little goat while he ate.
We both wanted to pet the sleeping pigs.
Lily and Parker as kangaroos.
Lily as a panda bear. We have taken this picture every time we have taken her to the zoo. It's amazing to see how she has grown and changed!
Lily and Ryan watching the pandas. Ford was the corporate sponsor of the panda exhibit, but they have said they cannot continue that support this year. Zoo Atlanta is trying to raise $500K by the end of the year to keep the pandas here; if they can't, the pandas will return to China. Here's hoping they stay because it's really cool to see them.
Mia liked watching the pandas too.
For some reason, Lily wanted her picture on this rock outside the panda habitat. Go figure.
Macey and Mia rode next to each other for a little while. Aren't they cute?
With my girls.
Holding Lily up to see the elephants.
Both girls at the top of the slide. They did a good job taking turns going down the slide.
