Finally, a vacation!

After our missed cruise to the Mediterranean, I decided we needed a vacation. So, a couple months ago, I noticed that Jim had a 4 day weekend in September. My oldest brother, Mike, has lived in Chicago for 8 years and we haven't been there to visit him yet. It seemed like the logical place to go for a long weekend.

On Thursday, September 11, we headed for Chicago from the Pasco airport. Neither leg of the trip was delayed, which was a small miracle considering our last trip, and we made it to Chicago with no problems at all. We spent Thursday night mapping out what we might do in downtown Chicago the next day.

The next morning, my sister-in-law, Debi, dropped us off at the metra station to ride the train to downtown Chicago. It dropped us off in the middle of downtown to start out our day. I'm so glad we took the train and didn't have to find a place to park. We then took a taxi to the Charles Ifergan salon where I had an appointment to have my hair colored and cut along with an eyebrow wax. I was so nervous about going to a fancy salon, that I didn't take any pictures of the salon itself. But, this is the final result--the best cut and color I have had in a long time.

While I was at the salon, Jim walked along Michigan Ave, The Magnificent Mile, looking for a cool birthday present for me. The Magnificent Mile has lots of fancy stores that we just don't have here in the Tri-Cities--Louis Vitton, Gucci, Cole Haan and many more. It also has a huge Macy's, Nordstrom and Bloomingdales along with the American Girl Store and a cool Disney Store. It is just a really cool place to shop. So, when I was done with my appointment, Jim had a gallery of pictures of shoes and purses for me to look at. He's such a sweet husband. His feet were already tired and then we spent the next 3-4 hours going from store to store to decide which bag to buy. It was fun and I found a cool bag and a pair of shoes.

We went into one of the malls downtown and they had a really great food court that had a large variety of foods. Jim was able to get a Chicago dog, which was one of his main goals. Our original plan was to go up to the top of the Hancock Observatory, but it was really cloudy that day and you couldn't see very much. We decided not to waste the money if we weren't going to get the view. I did, however, get a cool picture of it.

We went to Navy Pier to walk around and see Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, you really couldn't see out into the lake because it was pretty foggy. We decided to ride the ferris wheel since Jim had never been on a ferris wheel before. I couldn't believe it! Here is the view from the top of the Navy Pier ferris wheel. It's too bad it was so cloudy.



He looks a little nervous, doesn't he? :-) Very handsome, however!

The view from the ferris wheel.

After Navy Pier, we were ready to eat again. Jim found out a great place to go get authentic Chicago Style pizza. We went to Lou Malnato's. It was fantastic pizza! The sauce was homemade and the crust was fantastic. We really enjoyed our meal.

From there, we headed in the direction of the Ford Oriental Theatre for our show--Wicked. It wasn't very far, so we walked and were able to walk over one of the many bridges that cross the Chicago river which runs through the middle of downtown. It was so pretty. A nice couple agreed to take a picture of us on the bridge. In fact, we went to The Dark Knight for my birthday the other night, and realized it was filmed in Chicago when we saw an aerial view of the bridges that cross the Chicago River.






Our day in Chicago ended with Wicked. What a fantastic show! Jim really liked it as well. The cast was amazing and it was a very clever story with great music. I'm so glad we took the opportunity to go. Now, I'd like to take Kenedy and Hallie. I think they would really enjoy it. There was a cute little girl probably 8 or 9 years old sitting right behind us with her mother. She was so adorable. Even before the show started she kept saying, "This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen!" And, after the first act, she said, "This is the best show ever. I am just having the best time of my life." She had a very grown up way of talking!



The next day, we woke up to lots and lots and lots of rain. My sister-in-law, Debi had to work until noon, Valerie had gymnastics until noon and Jarrett had football practice that morning. So, when everyone got home, we headed out to find some lunch. We went to Maggiano's for lunch. It was a very fancy place and the meal was fantastic. I have never had better Italian food. We then headed for a cool mall in one of the suburbs of Chicago and walked around for quite awhile. We then went back to my brother's house and us girls watched The Lake House, while the boys watched some football. It was a fun day.

Sunday, we went to church in the morning and Debi planned a nice meal to celebrate my brother and my birthdays. His birthday was on the 17th and mine was the 19th. Mike grilled steaks in the rain and we had baked potatoes and salad to go with it. Debi had gotten us a birthday cake and we were able to blow out candles together, which I'm sure hasn't happened for a very long time. Very fun.



The next day, we headed to the airport to start out journey home. Our flight was delayed a little over an hour, which was the time of our layover in Salt Lake, so we were a little nervous that we wouldn't make our connection. However, we got to the Salt Lake airport with about 30 minutes until our flight was supposed to leave and the flight attendant was nice enough the ask the other passengers to let those of us who were rushing to connect get off the plane first. We got off the plane and ran to our gate and luckily, they hadn't started boarding the plane yet. We were so grateful that we made it on time and we could get home. No airport disasters on this trip. Amazing! We had a really great weekend. It was great to finally visit my brother after 8 years and to get away from every day life for just a little while. I would love to go back sometime. Chicago is a beautiful, clean city and I would love to spend more time there.