Anniversary Trip to Chicago

Shawn and I took a trip to Chicago last week to celebrate our anniversary.  It was a quick trip (Tuesday - Friday), but it was plenty of time to see and do everything we wanted to.  I've been to Chicago before, but Shawn had never been so I was excited for him to see it, as I really liked the city last time I went.

We dropped the kids off at school on Tuesday morning and then headed out to the airport late morning.  We arrived in Chicago mid afternoon and made our way over to the hotel.  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which was right on the river, and I don't think we could have had a better location.  We were close to almost everything. 

The view from our room

I had been watching the weather all week and was so bummed to see that it was going to be super cold while we were there.  In fact it snowed the day before we got there and there was still snow on the ground when we arrived!  Brr!  It was very chilly walking around that first day! 

Shawn would later regret not wearing a full coat. . .it was COLD!

After checking in, we parked ourself at one of the hotel bars and got some good recommendations from the bartender as far as what to do and see while we were there.  After a few drinks we ventured out for some Chicago deep dish pizza at Giordano's.  It was pretty yummy, but so filling. Shawn and I ordered a small pizza and we didn't even eat half of it.  Note to self, next time we eat deep dish pizza, don't eat anything else all day!  After dinner we called it an early night.  We were both tired from getting up early and traveling.

We took a lot of selfies this trip.  :)

Wednesday morning we slept in a bit and then headed out to a breakfast place I found online, Wildberry Pancakes and Cafe.  It was really close to our hotel and was one of my favorite meals while we were there.  The pancakes were sooo good! 

After breakfast we did a lot of walking around!  We headed over to Milennium Park and saw the Bean and also walked the lower half of Michigan Avenue. 

The bartender at the hotel mentioned the river tours, so we decided to take one.  It lasted about an hour and a half and it was really interesting (but very cold. . haha).  We learned all about the history of the buildings that were on the river.  This tour was one of my favorite things we did.   It was nice getting to see a lot in a short amount of time.

Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower)

So I really wanted to go up into Willis Tower and stand in one of those protruding windows.  Shawn wanted NOTHING to do with that idea.  After a ton of convincing, I finally got him to agree to go the next day and then guess what, I totally forgot about it until it was too late.  :(  I was so sad (and I'm sure Shawn was so happy!)

After the tour we decided it was time for lunch, so we headed to Billy Goat Tavern and Grill.  Shawn showed me a SNL skit that's based on this place.  It was nothing fancy, but a neat place to visit nonetheless.

When we finished lunch, we went and walked the Magnificent mile.  We popped in a couple stores, but for the most part, it's all stores we have here, so we didn't buy anything.  After what felt like miles and miles of walking we decided it was time to sit and relax . . and have a few drinks.  :)  We found this neat restaurant, Siena Tavern and stayed there for a couple hours resting our legs and enjoying some cocktails.   We didn't have dinner reservations until 8:30 Wednesday night, so after a few drinks we headed back to the hotel to rest a bit and wait for my parents to call us (they stayed with the kiddos and we did facetime each night).

So a funny story about our walk back to the hotel.  There were 2 guys pretty much parked outside our hotel offering to shine your shoes.  We had done our best to avoid them the previous day and that morning, but that didn't happen this time.  We actually walked up some steps, not to avoid them, but just to take a different route, and they practically chased us down.  One guy asked Shawn if he wanted a shoe shine and pretty much before he could answer, he had polish on his shoe and was shining it.  He told Shawn it was $8.  Well, if you're going to shine one, might as well shine the other.   As he's shining Shawn's other shoe, the other guy comes running over to me and asks to shine my boots.  As he is down on his knee about to squirt the shoe polish on it, I lifted my foot up and sternly said no thank you.  As Shawn goes to give the guy his $16 he decides to raise the price on him and tell him it's more.  Ugh, we were so annoyed and just gave the guy $20 just to get rid of him.  Shawn was so mad about the whole thing, but I just told him it could have been much worse if I didn't stop the guy from shining my boots.  Those probably would have cost a fortune!  We just kept telling ourselves we gave $20 to charity. . haha.    I watched out our hotel window, these 2 guys continuously chase down people and shine their shoes.  They must have made some good money that day!  When we left for dinner, we had to remind them that just an hour and a half earlier we gave them $20.  For $20, we feel like they should have at least remembered us!  Haha.

Dinner was at RPM Italian.  For those that don't know, it's Bill and Giuliana Rancic's restaurant. I love their show, so this was a must do on my list.  Shawn has never seen the show so he was a bit skeptical how the restaurant would be, but we both loved it!  It had a really neat atmosphere and the food was delicious.  I think we agreed that this was our best meal of the trip!  Of course I had to try the meatballs and Mama DePandi's Bucatini (soo good).  :)  Shawn even got me to try the octopus!

We called it a night after our late dinner and walked back to the hotel, but on the way back we saw the Chicago theater sign and I knew I needed a picture.  So we made a quick detour before heading back to the hotel for the night.

We had the best weather of the trip on Thursday, sunny and high about 60.  Thursday morning we slept in again and just had a quick breakfast at Corner Bakery, which by the way are all over Chicago!  We headed over to the Navy pier and walked down to see Lake Michigan.  Lake Michigan was a pretty lake, but it was really cold and windy down by the lake.   I think Navy Pier would be real fun in the summer (and maybe late Spring), but when we went, there really wasn't much to do except walk around a few shops, so it was a bit disappointing.

After walking around Navy Pier, we walked back to our hotel so I could put a lighter coat on and we grabbed a cab down to Wrigley Field.  It was the only thing not in walking distance to our hotel.  We had tickets to take the tour of Wrigley Field at 2:00, so while we waited, we grabbed some lunch at Goose Island in Wrigleyville.  They had really good hamburgers!  The tour of Wrigley was another favorite of mine during the trip.  I think it's neat that Shawn and I can now say we've toured the 2 oldest ballparks (Wrigley and Fenway).  Even though I'm not a huge baseball fan, it's neat to hear the history behind the ballpark and get to see an up close look at everything.  We got to see everything from the locker room to the press boxes to the field and dugouts.

They were celebrating their 100th year while we were there.



The view from the press boxes.

See those seats on the rooftops.  Nearby bars bought the rooftop rights to those houses and now you can buy tickets to sit up there.  They have to pay a royalty to the Cubs for each ticket sold.  There's still 1 house that hasn't sold their rooftop rights.  They have been offered $5M!

A closer view of those rooftop seats.  Some house just have bleacher seats and others have seats that look just like the ones in the ballpark.  I thought the story behind those seats was really interesting.



The Cubs Locker Room - It was really tiny in comparison to other ballparks!

See that scoreboard. . .it's a manual scoreboard which means there are a few guys that stand in that metal, non air conditioned box each game, with just a funnel connected to a hose to go to the bathroom.  No thanks you!

We got to go down on the field, but couldn't run the bases.  :(

The Cubs dugout.  They get cushions, their opponents just get wood.

When the tour was over we grabbed a cab back to the hotel and had a few drinks in the hotel bar (yes, we pretty much just ate and drank our way through Chicago).   We didn't have any plans for dinner that night, but ended up asking the concierge for a recommendation.  We ended up making reservations for 8:30 at Gage.  Shawn and I both liked the food at the restaurant, but were a bit disappointed in the service. 

Friday morning we woke up early and headed to the airport.  We arrived back in Dallas around noon and decided to grab some lunch and take some naps before picking the kids up from school.  :)  When I did go get them, Evan was so excited to see me.  I picked him up and he held on tight!  Haha.  I think he had lots of fun with Mimi and Papa, but was excited Mommy and Daddy were home!  Em was also excited to see us!

Both kids came home to Easter baskets from Mimi and Papa.  It was a fun way for them to start off Easter weekend.  And the baskets from Mimi and Papa may or may not have put the Easter Bunny's baskets to shame.  Haha.