Chicago...For Fun

At the end of the conference Andy flew in so we could spend a weekend in Chicago together. I have to admit I have never experienced Chicago. I have been to a Cubs game before, but I never went to Chicago to see everything the city has to offer. I took this past week as an opportunity to see how amazing Chicago is. I was so excited to see Andy at the end of the week even though I was exhausted from the weeks activities...and from celebrating my award the night before.

On Friday afternoon Andy and I checked out Shedd Aquarium. It was OK and I am glad I got to see it, but that's not really my thing. It was a rainy and cloudy day so it was a good idea to do something inside. My favorite was seeing the sharks. The plan was to go to the Sears tower and John Hancock building on this day, but that was kind of pointless since it was so cloudy out. It was crazy, but typical midwest weather, to go from 95 and humid to 70 and cold. Here is the view outside of the aquarium. A very cloudy day.


Then our friends Ross and Traci met up with us for sushi dinner and some drinks at a bar in Bucktown. On Saturday morning we got up and went to Millennium Park for the Blues Festival. This brought out some great people watching.


Of course we had to take a picture in front of the Buckingham fountain. You know this fountain that is at the opening of the great television show Married With Children.


Then it was on to a taxi ride to Navy Pier...which was really cold by the way.



At Navy Pier I actually had my first Chicago dog...ok, sort of. I did get it without onions and peppers. This is a big step for me though. I ALWAYS eat my hot dogs plain with nothing on them. So this was a huge step for me. It wasn't bad, but my stomach was turning for a little bit after I ate it. After the Chicago dog we left the cluster of people at Navy Pier to go back to the hotel for a snooze before we met up with our other friend Jordan for dinner and drinks again. From there we hit up a bar and then called it a night since we had an early flight out. It was nice to get home at noon so we could relax before starting another work week. We picked up the girls at 5pm and they were very good girls at doggy daycare...the lady even told us so without us even having to ask.

All-in-all I had a great week in Chicago from the conference to hanging out with Andy and our close friends on the weekend. I love Chicago and can't wait to go back again for another long weekend.