Chicago

For Memorial weekend, Deg and I decided to make the 4 1/4 hour trot up to Chicago to enjoy the windy city. The decision was so well planned in advance that we were trying to book hotels along the way, but that didn't stop us from having an absolute blast. I shall now tell our tale with a picture overload.

Day 1

The bridge at a rest stop on the border of Indiana and Illinois.  I just thought this was a cool view, so... yeah, I took a picture. What of it?

I just really like this face. I really enjoy being bff's with the owner of this face.

We had dinner at O'Brien's, which is apparently a mainstay of Old Town Chicago. Or, at least, their lamp is. Their food was amazing. I had this beef tenderloin in some kind of mushroom gravy sauce from heaven with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. I just started drooling thinking about it. I almost left Deg to run away with the chef. Seriously, though, a great meal.

Deg and I kind of like architecture, and Old Town architecture is not only beautiful , but it's covered in ivy, which I think is really cool.

The view from the parking garage next to Up Comedy Club. We went to see the Second City Network perform. They're a huge feeder for things like SNL and their stuff on YouTube is pretty hilarious. The show we went and saw was funny, but not as funny as we'd expected. Still, a good time and something to check off the Chicago list.

That night, we stayed out by the Midway airport in some Sleep Inn or whatever wasn't full and was relatively cheap out there. 

Day 2

We spent the day down at Navy Pier. This is the view of the city from the pier.

Deg posing in front of one of the conference buildings on the pier.

We went on what's called a "tall ship" on a cruise around the bay in Lake Michigan. It was basically a freshwater pirate ship and was therefore awesome.

The view from the ship.

This is the hotel we stayed at that's right on the pier. It was the Swissotel and boy, was it swanky. Valet parking was required, there were 3 bar/lounges in the lobby, bell boys were waiting to take your luggage, and so on. We got a room on the 20th floor on the corner, so we had an incredible view of both Navy Pier and the city - it was amazing and probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

A brief look at what a way-too-expensive-and-swanky hotel room looks like.

View from the hotel, side 1

View from the hotel during the day, side 2

View from the hotel @ night, side 1

View from the hotel @ night, side 2

We then went to dinner at a fusion Mongolian grill and walked around the city for awhile before heading back to the hotel. I tried to take pictures, but the cell phone camera and nighttime photography were not getting along.

Day 3

We woke up to some incredibly foggy conditions, which were beautiful to look at, but burned off really quickly.

We were in Chicago, so we had to get a traditional Chicago deep-dish pizza while in the city.

This is the big, beautiful fountain in the local park. It was big and fancy and probably  has some crazy history  behind it that I have no clue about. It was pretty, though!

The famous bean. It's really cool, but pretty sure I still have no idea why it's there. We did see someone get proposed to in front of it, so that was cool.

Oh hey, proof that we actually were in Chicago! Our reflection in the Bean. Oh yeah, I dyed my hair just before we went, so there's that, too.

There is this really cool fountain that has facial projections on it. The faces are on a ton  of tiny screens, so they are animated and blink and move and, eventually, they "spit" at you.

See? It spits!

 And then we drove home. We had an absolute blast. Chicago is a beautiful city and I'd definitely go again. If you ever have the chance to go, do it. Parking will cost you an arm and a leg, but that's kind of what I expect out of vacations when we know we're gonna drive around.

Where have you been recently? How was it? Have you been to Chicago? Where did you go and what did you enjoy?