Chicago Trip (8/1/08)

*** for my Illinois family members... I'm so sorry that I didn't get a chance to see you while in Chicago, but we were only there for 24 hours! ***

Ok, that said, I had a BLAST in Chicago. Steve and I headed to the windy city on Friday morning and stayed until Saturday morning. He had to be at a meeting by 1:00 pm CST, so we left extra early (so we thought!). He was late, even though we added and hour to our estimated arrival time, because of a TON of people trying to get into the city for either the Cubs game or the Lollapalooza concert (who knew??).

So, we got to our hotel, Steve went to his meeting, and I set out to meet up with my friend Jayne'. She works on the south end of Michigan Ave and our hotel was on the north end of Michigan Ave. Brave country girl me flagged a taxi and headed to the AON building to have lunch with Jayne'. What blast.... she's right across the street from Millennium park, so we picked a tree and ate our lunch in the shade. (Note: if you follow all of this closely, you'll be able to navigate my long slideshow of pictures later!).

Jayne' went back to work and I headed north on Michigan Ave - camera in hand I couldn't stop taking pictures and watching all the scenery. What a "magnificent" sight of buildings and then parks - right in the middle of everything - even a little playground that I know my kids would have loved. I stopped at the river and was just mesmerized by the beautiful sight of a river running through such majestic buildings.

After that, I walked up through all of the shopping. There is practically every store there, even a Lego store which I couldn't resist peeking in at. I was good.... I didn't buy anything - just drooled a little (hey Kim, I know where you can get a Hello Kitty case for your Hello Kitty guitar!).

I eventually ended back up at our hotel and got ready for dinner. Steve's meeting let out later than planned so we had to taxi quickly to Gino's East pizza place. Unfortunately, this was not the best Chicago pizza (in my opinion). Apparently it's an "in" place in chi-town, but they use a corn based crust (kinda like corn bread) and that just didn't work for me, but can't complain too much, it was covered by Steve's company :)

We headed out from Gino's and met up again with Jayne' at the Cheesecake Factory!! YUMMMMMM! I wish we could have gone there for dinner, but I had to settle for dessert - never have seen so many options for cheesecake before - we tried a very yummy peanut butter chocolate delicacy. What a great time - great to see Jayne', even for a short period of time!! Thanks Jayne'!!

So, then Saturday morning, Steve had to be back with his group at 7:00am CST for breakfast and another meeting. I headed to Starbucks for coffee and breakfast. I then toured the American Girl store on Chicago Ave - still not sure what the craze is all about, but I can now say I've been there and seen that.

I still had lots of time to kill so I took Jayne's advise and boarded one of the boats that tours the Chicago River. WHAT A GREAT time - HIGHLY recommend the little hour tour for anyone in the city. I learned a ton about all the buildings and their history. Such great sites! I tried to capture as much as I could with my camera. I'm still struggling to get the exposure set up correctly, so I'm thankful iPhoto can edit the pics. I tried to upload a slideshow from iPhoto so I could pick the music with the pictures, but everything I've tried so far has given me poor picture quality and no audio (things that make me go hmmmmm). Oh well, I'm tired of playing with the photos... you'll just have to view the slideshow from Picasaweb. It's a long one so grab some popcorn! Enjoy!!