The Windy City - Chicago

Well, it is time to dust off the old blog and do some updates. Earlier this summer, Eric and I went to Chicago for a long weekend. Eric had been there for work the previous week and I decided to tag along and meet him there for the weekend. I have been to Chicago a couple of times before when my Aunt Patricia lived there, but I had not been since I was in high school, so I was excited to go back and experience the city as an adult. I did not take pictures of everything we did, but here is a recap.

We stayed on the river at the Wyndam Grand Chicago Riverfront. It was a great location within walking distance to everything we wanted to do. The room was very nice and clean. I would definitely recommend staying here. After flying into Chicago Midway, I took an Uber car and met up with Eric at the hotel. We were hungry so Eric insisted we go to his favorite Italian sandwich place, Portillo's. Eric comes to Chicago for work a lot and he always goes here. I had a sandwich and it was very good. We decided to walk down to Navy Pier after lunch.

The view of downtown Chicago from Navy Pier.

 

The pictures above this are just of our walk back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. Our plan was to go to get deep dish pizza, but when we got the restaurant the wait was really long. We put our name on the list and decided to go find a place to get a drink while we waited. We ended up at Rosebud's on Rush.  We went to the bar and ended up talking to the bartender's and they convinced us to eat there. It was really really good Italian food restaurant. After dinner, we ended up at a local Irish pub, Pippin's Tavern.

The next morning we woke up and did some site seeing. It was a bit rainy, so we bought umbrellas and braved the weather. We walked to Millennium Park and saw the "Bean".

 "Take my picture!"

 A picture of him taking a picture of me taking a picture of us.

 Eric of course had to use his photography skills to take some pictures of flowers.

 Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park - also known as the Married With Children Fountain 

 The Shedd Aquarium

We spent the afternoon mostly in the Shedd Aquarium. It was crowded but nice to get out of the muggy, humid, rainy weather.

 

 I really enjoyed the buluga whales. They were fun.

After the aquarium, we went up the Willis Tower to the SkyDeck - which is basically a glass ledge 1353 feet up in the air. I was a little nervous but it was not too bad. We saw some great views of Chicago and the surrounding area.

That night we met up with Eric's college buddy Patty and his wife Lindsay. They live in Chicago and recently purchased a condo, so we met up with them at their house and then went out to dinner. We got to see a different part of Chicago and catch up with good friends. 

The next afternoon, they met us to go on an architecture boat tour of Chicago. They have been many times before but were nice enough to join us for another one! We took the Wendella Boats tour and had a great time. It was a little hot, but once we got out on Lake Michigan it was great. 

 Trump Tower

 Out on the lake 

We had a great time on the boat tour and spent the rest of the afternoon with Patty and Lindsay at a bar watching the rest of the US Open (I think that was the golf tournament that was on). That evening Eric and I went to Smith and Wollensky to celebrate our three year wedding anniversary. We had a great steak dinner overlooking the Chicago River.

And that concludes our trip! The next afternoon we went back to Dallas. I look forward to my next trip to Chicago!