Trent and I just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by taking a trip to Chicago. Kinley stayed with the Gram & Papa Jack (and Aunt Linde too!). It was great time for her to spend family and great time for us to get away too!
Trent spent 3 years there while he was in seminary at Trinity, so he knew all the great places to show me around (it was my first time there). Plus I got to meet some sweet friends from while he was there. Here's some more about our trip via pictures =)
Day 1:
We arrived right around lunchtime, had lunch with a friend from Trent's Chicago days (and our KIND and gracious host for the weekend -- THANKS Jim & Maria!!). Then we went up to Trinity and walked around campus!
After looking around campus we drove around and Trent showed me Michael Jordan's front gate!
That night we went on an old-school traditional date -- dinner and a movie! I can't remember the last time we did this now that we've got our little kbear around!
Day 2: Into the city!!
We took the train into the city and had one of the most beautiful fall days -- clear crisp and not too cold for this Texas girl =) After lunch at Macy's (they have the most amazing food court and dishes from famous local chef's!), we headed to Millineum park to see the famous "Bean" and walk around the Art Institute.
Here's the bean....there literally are NO seems in this thing - it makes for such a great view of the city!
This is our reflection in the bean!
Apparantly this was being built while Trent was living up there. He said it went WAY over budget and took tons longer than they had originally expected. Locals thought it was a big waste, but now it's turned into a HUGE attraction. It's sooo big!
This was from underneath/inside the bean...I'm the white jacket right in the middle. Can you find me?!
I know...enough pictures of the bean already...I just can't get over how cool these shots turned out!
Last shot...you can see a good portion of the city in the reflection
More views from Millennium Park...
Lake Michigan - it seriously looks like an ocean!
Next we walked over to The Art Institute and saw lots of famous paintings and some really neat sculptures...I love how peaceful and relaxing museums can be! Recognize this one?!
This is me being coerced by Trent into imitating the lion behind me. Why is it that I can be 29 years old and still get embarrassed by what someone may think?? Maybe it didn't help that as I'm taking this picture a lady walked by and said "Don't worry, nobody is watching".....hmmm.....ironic?!
We spent the rest of the day walking around town and doing a little shopping. Chicago is SUCH a beautiful city!!
That night we went to Trent's favorite pizza place - Giordano's (pronounced Jeer-u-don-O's)
We definitely enjoyed our deep-dish Chicago-style pizza =). Here's the order from bottom to top: Crust, toppings (we had sausage and bell peppers), LOTS of cheese, then the tomato sauce!
No pictures of our final stop, but it must be mentioned...after dinner we strolled by the Ghirardelli shop and I got liquid chocolate...not Hot Chocolate...literally liquid Ghirardelli chocolate.
It. was. heavanly!! (and sooooooooo rich!)
Needless to say, we had a VERY full day =)
Day 3:
We slept in on our third day and then went for a walk in a beautiful forest preserve...I forgot to bring my camera, but just picture the most beautiful trees covered in a broad array of fall colors and you get the idea! Then we met up with one of the guys Trent mentored while he lived in Chicago, Zach, and his wife Kaelee. We had a blast spending the day with them! That night, they took us to the greatest hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant in south Chicago. If you ever go to Chicago, you have to find this place!!! It's called Gio's. Another guy that Trent mentored came and met us for dinner as well!
Here was our dinner group
And a picture of my amazing dessert...cappuccino and cannoli's!!! YUMM! This picture makes my mouth water
Day 4:
On our last day in Chicago, we made every second count! First we found a great church in Northwest Chicago called Park Community Church. Then we basically walked the length and breadth of the city! First we grabbed brunch at a place called Yolk (YUMMY!) and then walked south to Sear's Tower (actually called Willis Tower now). Here's a pic of the tower:
We went up to the 103rd (yes....103rd) floor to the Sky deck to get this amazing view!
And found this crazy ridiculous glass floor deck...here's the view from the outside
And the crazy view from the inside....yes I squealed like a little girl!
After that, we headed west to the Navy Pier to go on a river architecture tour.
The views were amazing from the water! Here are a few
So pretty!!!
Our last stop on our trip was to visit the family Trent lived with for the last half of his time in Chicago. I'm sooo greatful for their kindness to him and it was wonderful to finally meet them!
All-in-all, we had a fabulous trip!
