Chicago!

So I really wish I was more excited about writing this blog. But I'm sick. It started with a sore throat late Sunday night and it keeps getting worse day by day. Right now it is a runny nose(so gross!), coughing, sneezing, headaches, and achenes. I really hate headaches-I'm super lucky because I rarely get headaches, so when I do get one it really hurts. I had been looking forward to writing this blog for so long, and now here I am not feeling to well. I hope you will feel the excitement from when I was in Chicago. I will post pictures of the trip in a separate blog.

My friend Michelle is a traveling nurse. Over the summer she took an assignment in Madison, WI. Her assignment ended in August, and I was sad because I had wanted to meet her in Chicago(Madison to Chicago is a 2 hour drive), but was already doing a lot of traveling over the summer months and was unable to. Then one day in August we were talking and she was telling me about her future traveling nurse plans(they change almost weekly!) when she says that she extended her job in Madison through November. I immediately asked her if we could meet in Chicago for her birthday. She said yes, and a couple of days later I booked my ticket and purchased tickets for Wicked as her birthday gift. I had to tell my parents that I would no longer be going to Albuquerque for that weekend. That was the original plan all year long. To go to Albuq., that weekend for my mom's birthday and for the balloon fiesta. My dad was more hurt than my mom. My mom understood the chance to go somewhere I had never been before, when I can really go to Albuq., anytime I want.

I arrived in Chicago last Wednesday night. Flying into the city lights was gorgeous! In July at my HS reunion I rekindled a friendship from my HS day's with another girl named Michelle. She now lives is a Southern suburb of Chicago. So she picked me up from the airport and I stayed the night at her house. Plus I got to see her role as Mother. She has the cutest little boy and girl. At the reunion she didn't bring her family, so this was the first time I got to see that. It was amazing.

Thursday morning Michelle drove down to meet all of us for breakfast. Then Michelle and I headed into the city to check into our hotel. I did LOTS of research on finding a hotel that I could afford. And was so happy when I found an awesome deal at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago. It was the perfect location right on the Chicago River. Once we checked in we walked to Macy's to pick up our Chicago Go Cards. This Macy's was beautiful. From there we walked to Millennium Park. Super cool. They have this outdoor venue for concerts with amazing art work all around. We saw Cloud Gate, AKA the Silver Bean. This was really cool, and an amazing piece of art to reflect the city. We also saw the Crown Fountain. I have no idea how to explain this. My cousin Nikki was there the week prior and when she explained it to me I pictured sculptures of people, and this is not what this is. It is two towers of glass bricks that change and reflect faces-people who live in Chicago. Then their faces change as if they are spitting water out. It is super cool. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Hard Rock Hotel where I bought myself a T-shirt. I'm somewhat a collector of these T-shirts. I really like the one I got! Then we returned to the hotel to get ready for Michelle's birthday dinner and Wicked! We got all dressed up and walked to The Blue Water Grill. A great seafood place I found online. At dinner I go to meet Steve, a guy Michelle is seeing. I really like him. We had an amazing waitress! She was great. At one point during dinner we were all talking about birthdays, and one of us mentioned Michelle's birthday. As we were having this conversation the waitress walks by and says "I heard that!", it was so cute. Once dinner was over we were looking over the desserts, and they had this sampler dessert with all of their desserts except for 2. One of which was the chocolate dessert that Michelle really wanted. She asked the waitress "So this chocolate one isn't included?" the waitress said "no". So we ordered the sampler dessert. Well then the waitress comes out with the chocolate dessert with "Happy Birthday" written on the plate in chocolate syrup, with a candle, and 3 glasses of champagne! It was a wonderful surprise! Then shortly after our sampler dessert. This dessert was amazing. I'm not one for chocolate. So the sampler was great. It had a peanut butter dessert(my favorite) and a carrot cake dessert(a close second!). After dinner we walked to the theater for the show. Wicked was amazing. I love musicals and the theater, and so does Michelle. It was a great treat. The singing was great, and the story was about friendship. I purchased the soundtrack, a journal, and Christmas ornament. After the show we headed back to the hotel.

Friday we walked out to Navy Pier. We did a Shoreline tour on the water that took us out to Lake Michigan. Now where I'm from a lake is something that you can see all of. This lake, not so much. This is a huge lake. It was a fun boat tour, and I learned lots about the sky line. From there we went up the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier. Did you know that it was a man that lived in Chicago who invented the Ferris Wheel. His name was Ferris(I don't remember his last name), and he wanted to build something for the World's Fair that was in Chicago one year after it was in Paris. For Paris' World Fair they build the Eiffel Tower which was completed in 1889. And Chicago wanted to do one up on Paris, and built the Ferris Wheel. It was a success! After Navy Pier we took a water taxi to Sears Tower. Sears Tower is currently the tallest building in North America at 103 floors. This is sad. The Sears Tower was actually the second tallest, but when the World Trade Center Towers got destroyed on 9/11/01 that made the Sears Towers the tallest. After the view of Sears Tower we walked to Union Station, then took a water tax back to Michigan Avenue. We walked up to the beaches on Lake Michigan. It was beautiful. Then we walked to dinner at 1492 Tapas Bar. This was recommended to me by Nikki. It was great. We shared a salad, chicken and some other things, I can't remember. Then back to our hotel.

Saturday we took a water taxi to the Shedd Aquarium. I was very excited about this. And unfortunately I was a little disappointed. I've been to some pretty cool aquarium's and this one was just alright. After the aquarium we took another water taxi back to Navy Pier and walked to the Hancock Tower. Hancock Tower is the third tallest building in Chicago, and is much closer to the water, and got some great pictures. We stayed up there for the sunset-beautiful! After the Hancock Tower we walked to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria for Chicago deep dish pizza! We had a little wait, but it was some great food, and cheap! Yummy. Check it out!, they will ship their pizza to you if you want to try it!

Sunday we went to the Art Institute of Chicago, it was very cool to see famous pieces of art. I truly enjoyed myself. For lunch we ate at a really cool burger place right along the Chicago River.

That was my trip to Chicago! I didn't work out at all while I was there, which makes me upset, but we did A LOT of walking everyday, that makes up for it-Right?! It was a lot of fun, plus the weather was beautiful! I brought all long sleeves shirts and I definitely could have gotten away with short sleeve! The really cool thing about this trip was I did a lot of reading about Chicago before the trip. So I knew a lot of the sculptures at Millennium Park and the locations of things. So I could truly appreciate everything around me. Pictures to come!