Chicago!

Chicago!  So I hopped on a plane two weekends ago to meet the peeps in Chi-town to watch Andrea run the Chicago marathon on 10-10-10.

What can I say?  Everyone...EVERYONE....must visit this city.  Amazing, amazing.  Beautiful everything - buildings, food, wine, music.  Friendly, helpful people.  Please -- if you haven't, you must.

We went on a boat tour, we ate great food (Gibson's, Frontera Grill -- Rick Bayless!!), we went to Second City and laughed (hard), we went to a champagne bar and listened to live jazz, we ate some more (deep dish!  serious deep dish), we went to the Art Institute and we toured Millenium Park.  Oh, and we managed to fit in a little shopping (14 pairs of shoes among us -- wow, it seems a tad excessive when I put it in writing).





 Pre-Architectural Tour

 



We're on a boat! (wearing unis!)




Huge blue sky; gorgeous big buildings.



And then I made the girls get up early (yes! we saw the sunrise) to get in prime marathon-watching position.



She was moving so fast we almost missed her (that may or may not be true. it also may or may not be true that we almost missed her due to some ridiculous ultra-religious teens).

But get this...a 3:09!!!!!! (she's a superstar)





So of course it wouldn't be us if we didn't celebrate with some Veuve

(side note: used my club card at safeway and got $17 bucks off.
for reals).



We were looking cute, non? (at dinner: a man made fun of me and then bought us a bottle of Veuve. sometimes it's good to be TG)



Check it.  We ate that.  Can you believe that exists in real life? 

We also let strangers take bad pictures of us at Second City.




We contemplated Art.





We enjoyed a perfect lunch in a perfect courtyard on a perfect sunny fall day.




We thought (deeply) about where we were headed to next in the Art Institute.






Hi Little Ains! Hi Little Haney! Hi Random Art Institute employee!



I love the Bean. I love this pic.



Not only can she run a 3:09, but she can also hold up the Bean with 1 finger.



An and I got up close and personal with the Bean. (Don't worry, the Bean's dignity is still intact.)



And then I hugged the girls good-bye (and said -- see you in three little weeks!) and went off to my own gate at the airport, while they went off to theirs (aside:  the flight to wpg is shorter than the one to cowtown.  could I love you even more, Chicago?  My heart may burst).