Chicago Details

This is going to be an extremely detailed post because I just have to remember every little thing we did and place we went. I collected a lot of memorabilia in hopes that I can make a scrapbook of R's 30th birthday so all the ticket stubs, and pictures have a place, rather than getting lost in a box somewhere. So I'm warning you this is going to be long :)

Thursday, June 5th 2008- My mom arrived around 4:30 and I scrambled around to get the last of our things packed and snacks around for the car ride. He got home around 5:40pm and the minute he walked in the door I handed him the card. He was confused and opened it and then became more confused. He asked if this was a joke and how we were going to pay for it and I just kept telling him that I'll explain everything in the car but at that minute he needed to get changed and we needed to get going. I loaded everything into the car, we kissed Little man good bye, and departed around 6pm. We got gas right away and then got on the road for our 3 1/2 hour drive to Indi.ana. The one nice thing about driving to Indi.ana was that the time changed so we "gained" an hour. We got to my cousin's house at 8:30pm, got the house tour, and then went to dinner. We were pretty tired when we got home and were going to have to get up really early the next morning so we visited with my future cousin in law and then went to bed.

Friday, June 6th 2008- R's 30th Birthday!- We got up at 5:30am and got ready to leave by 6:20am. Our train left at 6:43am and then we had an hour and 40 minute ride to Chica.go. We were in the city by 8:30am so we had the whole day to spend. Our first stop was the delicious Corn.er Bak.ery for breakfast. We ate and then headed up to my counsin's office where we were going to leave our suitcase for the day. She ended up having a task to deal with so R and I went to go get his haircut and then went back to get her. We shopped the Mirac.le Mi.le all morning going into all my favorite stores and ended up having lunch at Elepha.nt and Cas.tle. This was the only time it rained all day! How lucky did we get that it only rained while we were eating lunch? It was SUPER windy all day so I was constantly holding my skirt down, haha.

After lunch we headed back down the other side of the Mira.cle Mi.le and then found a free museum to go and visit. It was all about the first amendment and it was very cool because it was very interactive and had some very interesting exhibits. From there we went back to my cousin's office and retrieved our suitcase so we could go check in at our hotel. We decided that once we checked in we would relax, nap, and shower off since it was soooooo hot. After our nap and shower we got ready to go to dinner. I purposely didn't pack a blow dryer because we've stayed at the Hya.tt Regenc.y before and they had them in the room, however, this room didn't have one, so we had to wait for one to be brought up. We walked down the Mira.cle Mi.le again to Cheese.cake Fact.ory and had a very yummy dinner. For an appetizer we had sweet corn tamale cakes, I had a salad for dinner so I wouldn't get too filled up and R had Steak Diane, and then we each had a slice of cheesecake for dessert. I had chocolate coconut creme and he had pistachio. We needed a serious walk after that, which we got because we walked all the way to Na.vy Pi.er.

At Na.vy Pi.er we played minature golf underneath the big ferris wheel (I beat R!), walked around the shops, and ended at the beer garden for live entertainment and drinks (I had water). The band was pretty good and it was such a beautiful night weather wise! We stayed until about 10:30 and then headed back to the hotel. Our first day we clocked around 7-8 miles of walking. We were exhausted when we got back and had a wonderful nights sleep.

Saturday, June 7th, 2008- We woke up, showered and headed out for some breakfast. We explored Stat.e Street and ended up at a Sta.rbucks for a yummy breakfast. We ended up venturing over to the S.ears To.wer and we had 30 minutes until it opened so we hit up an ATM and then went back. They actually started letting people in about 15 minutes early so we were the first ones to go up. Neither of us had ever been there before and it was an awesome view of the city. The elevator ride up 103 floors packed in like sardines was a little nerve racking but it was a lot of fun. When we came down there were so many people waiting it was unbelievable so we were glad we got there when we did. If there would have been a line we would have never gone because we had to check out of our hotel by 12pm.

We walked back to the hotel, checked out, put our suitcase in luggage check, and headed to ESP.N ZO.NE for lunch. It was a pretty cool place and the food was great! I really wanted deep dish pizza at our favorite restaurant but I let R pick the restaurant since it was his birthday weekend. After lunch we headed to the Ch.icago Ar.t Instit.ute where we got in FREE because we had Ban.k of Am.erica cards (special promotion at museums the first weekend of every month). We walked around and looked at art for a couple hours and then headed back to retrieve our suit case. From there we headed to the train station and had a little snack and then got on the 4pm train for our 1 hour and 40 minute ride back to our car.

It rained pretty hard at one point while we were on the train but then by the time we got back to the car there was no rain in sight. We then had a 3 1/2 hour drive home, which kind of sucked but we stopped at Pi.zza Hu.t for dinner along the way and ended up getting home around 11:30pm. Wow what a fun filled two days. R definitely had the best birthday ever and I think we will always remember our special 30th birthday trip to Chica.go. For as much as it was his birthday trip I also got to reap the benefits.