Chicago

Matt and I went to Chicago last week - I had a marketing conference so we had the hotel paid for already so it was a good excuse to combine business and personal travel. Plus our friends James and Monica live a few hours from the city and came to hang out with Matt during the day. We stayed one more day after the conference to all be tourists together. This was our first trip away without our kids - and I have to say I was very, very nervous about it. So nervous that I insisted we have our wills done before we leave. And we did, just a day before we left.

I am happy to report that I was able to stop worrying about the kids and have a great time. Part of that was knowing they were in good hands with the Hillers. We ate, and walked, and ate again - classic Chicago deep dish pizza at Gino's East, hot dogs at Portillos (NOT pronounced like a Spanish word, found out the girl from CA), chocolate from Frannie Mae (what luck to be just up the street from their flagship store) and some fabulous food at The India House. We also practically lived at The Corner Bakery, our stop for breakfast and snacks.



A quick trip to the Field House, the natural history museum, to see Sue, the largest assembled T-Rex.


Millennium Park, a very cool spot in the middle of the Loop with a Frank Gehry designed amphitheater, The Cloud, inspired by liquid mercury, and the Lurie Gardens.






The Architecture Foundation boat tour - the sky cleared up just for a few hours for us (we had rain and fog for much of the day), and we were able to see the amazing buildings. It really is a beautiful city - we had a great time all around.