Chicago!!!!!!!Jun 21, 2012
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| Chicago! We LOVED Chicago! We got in yesterday in the early afternoon after a drive filled with nothing but farmland from Ohio to Indiana. When we arrived, I was still in "driving clothes" aka yoga pants, shirt and zip up...and it was SO hot. When we went to check in, our room wasn't ready, so we parked our car and got some lunch to kill time. After lunch we checked in and got ready to hit the city, and after a cold shower and a serious change of clothing, we were out and about! We had no idea where we were going, so we just started walking. Much to Andrew's delight--Chicago was so clean! He had seen on a map in our hotel that there was Millennium Park about 7 blocks from us, so that was our intended destination. As we got closer to the park, we saw a bunch of people crowded around right in front of Millennium. Shortly after, we smelled and saw smoke pouring down the street--it smelled awful. As we turned the corner, we saw there was a pretty serious car fire in the engine of a parking enforcement vehicle (karma?). We watched for a minute, snapped a few pictures but the most bizarre part in our mind was how many people were walking right up to it and snapping pictures with their phones, cameras, iPads, etc.. Have you never seen an action film? CARS BLOW UP. Not only that, city buses were pulling up RIGHT BESIDE it and letting people off and picking people up. Um...excuse me bus driver, could you pull up just a few feet away from the vehicle inferno? That would be great, thanks. So, after that fiasco, we continued into the park. It was so nice! We saw the famous Cloud sculpture but there were so many people, we decided to wait until the morning to go visit it. As we walked through the park, we came to the music Amphitheater, I have no idea what it was called, but there were people rehearsing for a concert later on in the night. On we walked through the park, which was not very busy and very enjoyable to see...and then we walked along a bridge that was designed by Frank Gehry, not only an architect but also an incredible designer for Tiffany & Co.--obviously a point of interest for me! We crossed through the park and across the street to the waterfront which was mostly private boat slips and the Chicago yacht club. We grabbed a fresh fruit smoothie, which was delicious and hailed a cab to Navy Pier, which was recommended by literally EVERYONE we knew. And we know why! When we got there we decided to go on an Architecture river boat cruise. The best part? BOOZE CRUISE! But seriously, it was beautiful! We got to see all of the buildings and learn the history of Chicago. The best part(s) about the oat ride was that we got to sit on the bow of the boat, with no one else AND Andrew didn't have to operate it :). Which means, he just got to sit back, have a few beers and enjoy the ride :). After the boat ride, we decided to explore navy pier a bit and it was beautiful! There were rides, vendors, stores, more boat cruises than we could count and a ton of awesome restaurants to choose from. Naturally, we picked Bubba Gump Shrimp. Forrest Gump is one of our favorite movies, quoted by one or both of us on somewhat of a daily basis. There was a 30 minute wait for both inside nd out, so we decided to go on the wait list and just cruise around the pier some more. Oddly enough as we were walking around, Nana and Jackson called me and the first thing Jackson said was, "mommy, did you get me a present?". Needless to say, Andrew and I spent our 30 minute wait finding a present for that little monster man :). Once we sat down for our meal, it was excellent! N we both got to keep our souvenir glasses, there was almost an endless amount of shrimp to eat and was just overall an awesome dinner. The wind was BLOWING! They don't call it the windy city for nothing--it was easily 30 mph! We went into the gift shop at Bubba Gump Shrimp and I could have bought the whole store, so cool! After dinner, we strolled down to the end of the pier to a beer garden, sat down and enjoyed the sunset. It was a great place to unwind and people watch. We called it quits about 9pm, and headed back to the hotel. We're like old people, give us a few beers and a nice meal--we're in bed by 9 :). I uploaded our pictures from the past few days and called it a night. This morning we woke up, packed our things and had breakfast with my high school academic advisor. I had seen her for years, and it felt so great to be able to catch up and fill each other in on what has been going on in our lives. And of course, we gossiped a bit :). It's good to know that even if you haven't seen someone for years, you can just pick up right where you left off. And Andrew was able to deal with our Gunnery talk--he's such a trooper. After we said goodbye, we quickly went to Millennium Park one more time to go see the infamous Chicago 'Cloud' sculpture, which I will refer to as the "Bean". Why? Because it looks EXACTLY like a giant version of Elsa Peretti's "Bean" collection. I mean, honestly, a cloud is puffy and white...this looks like a kidney bean mirror--it's a bean. Anywho, we went to the Bean and there were a lot less people today! Let me tell you something else, I have quite the little photographer on my hand. BM2 Bellone did a great job taking pics of us in the Bean and of the sculpture itself! After we completed the mission, we went said allez au revoir to Chicago and we are currently en route to Nebraska. We are making a pit stop in Leclaire, IA to go to American Archeology!! This is the store that is owned by Mike and Frank who are on the show, American Pickers!!! Hopefully we get to meet either of them or the shop manager Danielle, who always finds the characters they meet and buy from! So excited to make this stop and check out the shop! Many pics to come and will most likely post tonight since we are not doing really anything in Lincoln except grabbing some dinner and sleeping! xoxo |
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