Chicago 2019

June 19-23, 2019

The view, Navy Pier, from our hotel the first night.  We stayed at the Ritz Carlton the first night, because that is where Eric stayed for work.  It was nice, but for being so expensive I thought the bed was uncomfortable!  The next night we stayed at Springhill Suites and it was more comfortable.  Haha!

Right outside the Ritz Carlton, was Kinzie St, which also had Kinzie Hotel.  Kenzie and Matt really should have come! Haha!

Pics from our Architectural Boat Tour:

Eric had a work conference in Chicago and thought that it would be fun if I joined him for the weekend when he was done.  He also invited his best friends from Michigan, Noah and Joel, and their wives to come as well.  So I took an evening flight out on Wednesday, which got delayed by over an hour.  So I got in to Chicago pretty late, and had to take an Uber to the hotel.  The weather ended up being a little crazy while we were there, apparently it forgot that it was summer!  It was absolutely freezing when I flew in...I was wearing a coat and still cold.  It was rainy as well.  The next day Eric had to finish up his conference in the morning, but was done by lunch time.  So we headed out to explore and sight see!  Eric has been to Chicago before, but it was my first time, other than being in the airport for a connection.  We walked a ton!  We went to Millennial Park, where the famous Bean is; walked down Michigan Ave, where all the stores are; and ended our day going on the Architectural Boat Tour.  It is actually very interesting to learn about the history of the skyline in Chicago.  The day was cold, I wore my coat the whole day, but the rain held off and we even saw the sun come out!  We were beat by the end of the day from all of the walking!

On Friday we met up with Noah, Kayla, Joel, and Brittany.  We stayed at an airbnb for the rest of our time there with them.  We went to the Cubs game that afternoon.  I was a little disappointed that we didn't actually sit in the stadium, but it was fun.  There are seats up top of roofs at right field, but they aren't actually in the stadium.  They all wanted to sit there because for one price you get all the food and drinks that you wanted.  Despite not really being able to see the game, because we had the back of a big screen in the way, we still had a lot of fun.  And the weather warmed up for us!  After the game we went over to one of their friend's house from Michigan.  Then they took us for a walk down by the lake and we ate dinner at a restaurant by the water.  It was freezing at night again...I thought those people on the wave runners behind us were crazy!!

On Saturday went went sight seeing, shopping, and ate all the food!  It ended up being a beautiful day! We tried some cookie dough, that they scoop out and sell like ice cream.  It was delicious! Chicago has bikes that you can rent around the city, so we decided to ride to Navy Pier and check it out.  Saturday was probably not the best day to try to ride a bike down by the water.  It was very crowded, but we managed to get around the people and still have fun.  It has been a while since I have ridden a bike, so I was little wobbly at first, but like they say, you never forget how to ride!  After checking out Navy Pier, and the great views, we found a place for Pizza.  We were pretty set on getting deep dish (of course!), but then realized that half of us didn't like it.  So we found an artisan pizza place with great reviews, and it ended up being really good! Then after that we found a cupcake place, so we had to try that out.  I don't remember what it was called, but they weren't too amazing.  We decided that we wanted doughnuts after that, so we went on a search for some, but there weren't any that were worth buying.  So we ended up going to Five Guys.  Yes, a burger place after pizza!  Haha!  But really, we only went there because it's Noah's favorite place, and doesn't have one near him.  So he got a bunless burger and we got shakes.  :)  We headed back to our place after and stayed up way too late playing cards, talking, and laughing! 

Restaurant in the airport...had to get a pic for Camden!

Sunday we went to brunch at Siena Tavern with everyone before they headed back home.  It was really good food.  We had quite a while after they left before we needed to go to the airport.  We were thinking of going to Hamilton, but the price was just a little too steep.  So we went and saw Avengers: Endgame instead.  Sunday ended up being rainy in the afternoon, so it was good we were indoors!  Our flight home was a nightmare.  The airport was crazy busy, and because of crazy weather, some flights to Texas were already canceled.  Luckily, ours didn't get canceled, but we were pretty delayed. We didn't get in until 3am.  We walked past people who were going in to catch a flight!  Despite that, we had such a fun trip.  It was so fun to have a kid free weekend, especially knowing that they were being spoiled at home by Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins!  It was just what we needed and I'm happy it worked out the way it did!