Chicago

A few weeks ago we took a weekend trip to Chicago. We left right after work on Friday and met our friends Jason and Caroline Orien. We arrived at our hotel which we purchased on Hotwire only to find out that our two double bed requested room was taken. They started throwing out a bunch of offers including some upgrades to the parlor suite and expensive room service vouchers. Not quite sure what to do, we pushed a little harder and they found a double room for us. Oops, the upgrade may have been worth it even if we were sleeping on a pull out bed. Not sure.

We got ice cream sundaes that night and walked around the Magnificent Mile.

Can you tell I am post call?

The next day we went to the lake to watch some of the air and water show put on by the Navy. We couldn’t see anything happening in the water but they had some cool jets flying around.

We waited in a huge line for Garrett’s popcorn

Unfortunately, our friends had to head back. Abe and I caught a show called Cirque Shanghai at Navy Pier. Basically it was Chinese acrobats balancing on all sorts of things…bikes, people, chairs, tables, etc.

The next day while walking, we stopped by the Cadillac Theater on a whim and asked about tickets. We were disappointed to hear the prices until the box office worker suggested student tickets for $25. We ended up with the most expensive seats for student prices-- 7 rows up in the middle. Cool, who knew? Being students for years on end can have its advantages (then again, we could afford full price maybe if we were both working). We saw “Shrek the Musical.” Definitely not something I normally would have gone for but it was actually really cute, funny, and very well done. I would recommend it, at least at student prices!

Every visit to Chicago we visit Giordano’s for pizza. We were given a recommendation for Lou Malnatis so thought we better decide for ourselves which was better. It happened to be right by our hotel so we figured it was destiny to give it a taste.

Abe loved this appetizer, basically spinach stuffed bread. Although the food was good, it wasn’t Giordano’s to me. I think we’ll keep the tradition as is. Also, the restaurant was a little small. We sat about a foot away from the next table. I felt like we were on a double date or something. It was funny that the couple next to us was obviously not having a successful date. The girl def. didn’t approve of the guy’s distaste for vegetables we learned.

We also saw the Sear's Tower for the first time up close *at least for me

and the “silver bean”