Our Trip to Chicago

Last Thursday evening Grant and I flew up to Chicago to spend the weekend with Jeff. We had such a fun time. We didn't know that it was the weekend of the marathon so it was a bit crazy downtown but it didn't stop us from seeing all the sights and eating some yummy food.

On Friday morning we woke up early and bought passes to ride the subway all around town. We thought Grant would really enjoy it, but he wasn't too sure about using it as his primary method of transportation. Our first stop was in Chinatown. We walked through several of the stores and I even managed to find a cute Coach (knock-off) wallet for $12.

For lunch we traveled into the greek area of the city and ate at the Parthenon. I absolutely love greek food but I will admit I was a little disappointed in my hummus and fattoush salad. That evening we went back to the hotel early so Grant could swim. Would you believe that swimming in the hotel pool was probably the highlight of his trip??? After swimming we ordered pizza from a famous local restraunt called Giordano's. They have the best stuffed crust pizza ever. One piece is definetly all anyone needs.

On Saturday morning we headed to the nearest H&M store to do some shopping. I was trying to avoid the Michigan Ave store because it was so busy downtown and I wanted to have time to look around without hundreds of people around so we went to a mall in Vernon, IL (which was just a little ways from our hotel) and I managed to find several cute sweaters and a few pairs of pants. It was worth the trip!!! We did have to buy an additional bag for us to get all of our purchases home in. After our shopping trip we headed back down town and ate at Portillo's which had great Chicago style hotdogs.

After lunch we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe.

Grant spotted the Rain Forest Cafe and begged to go in. This didn't seem like a huge treat because we've been to the one in KC countless times but he really wanted to go so we put on our smiley faces and took him. We ended up sharing a chocolate volcano dessert, which is just what we needed. We kept reminding ourselves we were on vacation!!

After all of our eating we decided we needed to do some walking so we spent the remainder of the afternoon at the Field's Museum. We got to see "Sue" the dinosaur.

We were all so tired and full that evening so we went to see a movie. We saw "The Dark Knight". Grant loved it, and believe it or not, so did Jeff and I. We are probably the last few people left who hadn't seen it.

On Sunday we drove to what we thought was going to be a safari park. It was definetly misrepresented in the travel magazine we picked up. We followed our navigation system and ended up at a mall called Gurnee Mills and the safari park was inside the mall. It ended up being ok because we did some more shopping, had lunch (at the Rain Forest Cafe again, without the dessert this time) and Grant got his picture taken with a huge albino python. Sorry mom, I know you don't like this picture!

Grant and I made it back to Wichita a little after 9:00 on Sunday and we were exhausted. It has taken me all week to feel like I'm caught up on sleep, laundry, work, etc. . . Chicago was fun, but being here at home isn't so bad either. I truly enjoy our slower paced life here in Wichita.