Chicago - 9th Anniversary Trip

For our nine year anniversary Tim planned a get away to Chicago for us.  Everyone asked us, "Why Chicago" since it was early March... but neither of us had been there, and for me, as an architect, that was particularly embarrassing.  It was colder then we would have hoped for, but we had a great trip!  We arrived in Chicago on our anniversary and got to our hotel about dinner time, after a delay and cancellation of our first flight, and delay of our second flight!  After those setbacks the rest of the trip went smoothly.  We walked over to the Hancock Tower and went up to the Signature Lounge on the 96th Floor.  The views were fantastic!  We split a creme brulee there and then headed out to find dinner.

Tim used TripAdvisor to pick all of our restaurants during our trip and every meal we had was fantastic!  For our anniversary dinner we found Quartino's, an Italian Restaurant that served what they called small plates.  We split a bottle of wine, calamari, shrimp risotto, tortellini with prosciutto, and two desserts, for about $80!  We were stuffed and happy!

The next morning we jumped on our hop on hop off bus and started around the city.  When we got to Millennium Park we got off and had a great breakfast at Wildberry before checking out the park.  We absolutely loved the Bean!  It was very cool!  Frank Gherry's Pavilion is also there and houses free concerts all summer long.

We got back on our hop on hop off tour and got out at the Art Institute of Chicago to see a few things.

From there we caught the last tour bus of the day, and lucked into a driver who took us to see a view that is not part of the normal tour (though we lucked into seeing it three different times).  This first time out was the clearest day though, and it was a stunning view.

We hoped on the L and made out way to Wrigley Field just to take a look at the stadium.  We stopped at Cubby's Bar to warm up, have a drink, and call the boys.

That evening we met Kaitlin and Kelli for dinner at Lou Malnati's for some deep dish pizza, and it was so good!  Afterwards we saw Kelli's apartment, grabbed a drink at the bar under her apartment, and went to see Kaitlin's boyfriend, Luke, perform with his Improv group.  It was so much fun!

The next day we had really nice weather.  We actually got to sit on the deck of the sight seeing bus for a few stops on our way to the Sears (Willis) Tower, which is a much better way to see Chicago, so you can actually see the tops of the buildings!

We went up to the Sky Deck which was definitely worth the entrance fee.  Up on the 103rd floor, 1,353 ft above the ground, it offered an amazing view of the city, and thanks to the glass boxes, a breathtaking look down!  I can't lie, it was a little nerve wracking to step out into the box!

From there we planned to walk until we found food, and then jump back on the sight seeing bus to get over to the Field Museum.  This is the only poor planning we had the whole trip!  There was NOTHING to eat in that area, and we walked for blocks and blocks and blocks without finding anything.  We finally gave up and Uber-ed back to the main part of the city where we had a delicious lunch, and then Uber-ed to the museum to get back on schedule!

We did get a good look at some Mies van der Rohe buildings while walking aimlessly!

The Field Museum houses Sue, who is the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. Rex ever discovered.  She was impressive!

There was also a temporary exhibit about the 1893 World's Fair, which was held in Chicago, and is the reason that the Field Museum, and many other permanent features of Chicago, exist.  It was pretty interesting to learn about the curators who toured the World killing wild animals for the sole purpose of stuffing them and displaying them in the museum, where they are still housed.  As well as the way aboriginal people were brought to the fair and put on display.  Science and it's methods have certainly come a long way!  Finally we walked through the Evolving Planet exhibit and wrapped up our visit.

For dinner we wandered to the Magnificent Mile and stumbled on Bandera which had a live jazz band and delicious food!  I had a butternut squash enchilada that is in my top ten favorite meals ever eaten, and Tim had the best French Dip he's ever had!

Saturday was the coldest day of our visit by far!  Luckily, we had a bus tour that day!  We went to The Rookery which is in the middle of Chicago, and it's lobby was renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It was stunning.

Next the tour headed out to Hyde Park to see the Robie House, which is hailed as Wright's best example of Prairie Style Architecture.  It was very neat to see, but is currently being renovated back to it's former glory, and unfortunately it's current state is pretty sad!

I loved how the University building across the street paid homage to the Robie House

We drove through Hyde Park on the way to the next stop, and many celebrity homes were pointed out to us, the main one being the Obama's residence.  The final stop for our tour was the Illinois Institute of Technology to see some examples of Mies van der Rohe's architecture, famous for steel structures with glass curtain walls and no ornamentation.

On the way back to the city we got another look at the skyline over Lake Michigan it looked very different under the overcast skies!

We were starving by the time we got back!  We went up the Magnificient Mile and found Giordano's for a very late lunch.  It was amazing.  It was also extremely heavy; we never ended up eating dinner!  We did a little gift shopping on our way back to the hotel and called it an early night!

I kept seeing this view while crossing the street going to or from our hotel.  I was just amazed by the density of construction!

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and went to meet Kaitlin and Luke for breakfast.  From there we headed back to the airport, and home to our boys!  When we got home, Tyler asked us, as he did every phone call while we were away, "Where you been guys? Where you been?  I've been at your house!"  We gave the boys a model of the Hancock Tower and Sears Tower, and told them we went all the way to the top of each of them.  Tyler pointed and asked, "You went here?  You went to this one?  I go with you guys!"  It was great to get home!