Highlights from Chicago!

We're back! Sorry for the delay in posting - we got in yesterday afternoon and after unpacking, starting laundry and going to the grocery store - I never made it to post pictures. Anyways, we had a fabulous time in Chicago! We arrived Thursday afternoon, checked into our hotel, bundled up and headed out down Michigan Avenue. If you have been to Chicago you will know how exciting this is. Every shop you can ever imagine (and the ones that you could never afford) are located on the Magnificent Mile. However, we didn't venture into the stores that afternoon but instead we headed out to find some Chicago style deep dish pizza. After that we headed towards Millennium park and spent the rest of the day roaming around there.

We came back to the hotel and got ready for our first evening out. We had a recommendation for Bin 36, a wine bar/restaurant, and it was great. The atmosphere was awesome and the food exceeded our expectations. Afterwards, we made our way to a piano bar to enjoy a few beers and live music.
Friday morning we slept in, sipped on a Starbucks, read the paper and headed out for the day. This was the day of WALKING. Ryan and I had mapped out a few neighborhoods that we wanted to see and according to Ryan, everything was in walking distance. Well we set out, ate lunch at a local pub, then began the walking. We headed towards Lincoln Park and found ourselves at the Zoo. We both decided that we hadn't been to the Zoo since elementary and now was a perfect time to check out the animals.

After we wandered around about an hour and half we decided to keep walking. Ryan mentioned that we weren't too far from Wrigley Field and that we should just keep going. So of course, it seemed like a great idea. Well that was before I knew how far it was! We finally made it (over an hour later) but it was well worth the trip. However, I did not agree to the walk back and we found the nearest train to take us to the hotel.

Later that evening we ate dinner at Hugo's Frog Bar, enjoyed frog legs, drank good wine, and had a wonderful meal. We decided to venture out to another local piano bar and had a good time.
Saturday we woke up to cold weather with the promise of snow. We decided to stay close by the hotel and experience all the fabulous shops. Of course, I found several things I wanted to buy, but my loving husband reminded me that our suitcases were already full and that I could always buy them later at home. I could of really used a girl with me :)
We spent our last evening at a wonderful Italian restaurant and actually checked in early. Our legs were sore, my feet had blisters, it was cold and we were ready to head back to the hotel. All in all, we had a wonderful, relaxing vacation and we're already planning where we can jet off to next.
Meanwhile, our puppy Benny had quite an adventure at the Mills' house. Bennett managed to chew up their patio cushions, get sick, spend a night at the vet and cost us a couple hundred bucks! Oh well, at least he's OK and we had such great babysitters :)

We have another busy week ahead of us as one of our favorite couples, Anna and Reid, come to visit us from Tulsa this weekend and then we're off to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Cabo!