Chicago!

We arrived in Chicago on a very cold, windy, snowy day. Perfect Chicago weather, right?! We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago, thanks to Brad's company paying for the room. Here's a picture of our hotel room.


My cousin Desaray met us in Chicago. She came all the way from Salt Lake to spend the weekend with me and keep me company while Brad was in meetings. When she got there,we walked around the city while Brad was in conferences. Desaray felt right at home when we ran into this:



That evening when Brad finished with classes, we went to Giordano's. It's a great pizza restaurant in the heart of Chicago that is famous for it's stuffed pizzas. There was a great sign on the wall that I'm sure Brad would like to have hanging in our kitchen! If you can't see what the bottom of the sign says, it says it's the Eleventh Commandment!






The next day while Brad was on a break from conference, Desaray and I took him to see "the bean". Des and I had been there the day before, but we wanted to show Brad the Cloud Gate sculpture. The skyline is reflected in the sculpture, which was one of the purposes of it.


This is Des and I with the skyline in the background.










Desaray and I spent one day going shopping in Chicago. Who knew Chicago had such great shopping. Okay, so I didn't actually buy anything, but there sure are a lot of places I could have purchased something, if I had the money to. We took "the El" to a suburb of Chicago and went to a place called the Blues Jean Bar. It was a unique store where they have "bartenders" who take your jean order and then make you turn around for them so they can see every bit of you in the jeans. It was kind of different. Des tried the jeans on so she had to turn around for them, I was just there for moral support!


At this point, my days get kind of fuzzy and I'm not sure what we did when. We went to the Sear's Tower and got an amazing view of the city. Then we went to Navy Pier. There's a great view of Lake Michigan from the end of the pier. I'm not sure why they call it Navy Pier, so don't ask!. We walked so much while in Chicago that I think I started to get shin splints! Every day when we'd get back to the hotel I'd just collapse and give my legs a rest.




On our walk back from Navy Pier, we passed this building that had different rocks sticking out from it. Another couple walking by was looking intently at the building, and that's when I noticed the different rocks are from different places around the world. So, here's a picture of me with my two "hometown" rocks!


On our last day, we ate at a placed called Brian's Juice Bar. It was so good for breakfast and very filling.
Then, Brad and I headed off to Midway Airport and Desaray headed to O'Hare. Unfortunately, the same train doesn't go to both places, so we had to say goodbye across the train tracks.

What a fun weekend, but very cold. Next time I visit Chicago, I hope to go in the summer when I can feel the breeze and appreciate it instead of loathe it!