Anniversary Trip...Part 4

Ok. I'm ready to move on. We loved, loved, loved this trip...but there are just so many pictures and I'm ready to talk about something else now! Mercifully, this is the last post about Chicago with more pictures that you could ever care to see!

One of my very favorite parts of the trip was seeing the Broadway production of Mary Poppins. Incredible!!

Right before the show started...

The Bean

What an amazing sculpture! This was in Millennium Park and was one of the highlights of our sight-seeing adventure.Standing in front of Lake Michigan

Museum of Science and Industry

The Wright Brothers exhibit...this was a highlight for Brent!

The Field Museum

Here's a picture of Sue. This is the world's largest and most complete T. Rex.

Shedd Aquarium was really neat. We met Nemo!!

Aquarium full of jellyfish.

We also went to Adler Planetarium.

This is a moon rock that is a billion years old. Or a million. It's really old.

Thanks for looking (if you made it this far!) We had a great time. Now I'll be back to blogging about two of my favorite things...

Anniversary Trip...Part 3

We tried not to be the obvious tourists, with our noses up in the air gawking at all the buildings! It was hard not to! Here's a teeny, tiny fraction of the pictures we got of the amazing architecture in Chicago.

Really neat parking garage!
A beautiful church on Michigan Ave.

The following pictures were taken from the top of the John Hancock Observatory.

It is a 100 story skyscraper with an incredible view of the city and beyond!

Anniversary Trip...Part 2

Hmmm...

I'm not even sure where to start. Much like our four day trip crammed into two days, there's a little bit of chaos that goes with organizing these pictures. We did most of our sight seeing and touring on Saturday and Sunday. Friday was spent watching the rain from our hotel room, and Monday we took a day trip to Iowa to attend my Grandpa's funeral. Then we left on Tuesday. Sooo....here's the beginning of an insane amount of pictures. Enjoy!

I think I'll start with the random pictures and then come up with some sort of order to finish things up later on. Don't worry if that doesn't make any sense to you. It doesn't to me, either.

We couldn't NOT take a picture of the Chicago sign!

We stayed at The Palmer House, and it was beautiful. The restaurant there had the best breakfast buffet I have ever had in my entire life.

GORGEOUS doesn't even describe all the landscaping in Millennium Park. I asked Brent if he could whip up something like this for the backyard.

Why yes, it was a little windy!

The subway...definitely a new experience!

Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park

There was a really neat Lego store at the mall. They had so many life sized objects made entirely out of Legos!

I'll try to be a little more organized with the next group of pictures! And in case you care, today happens to be our actual anniversary! Those first ten years went by incredibly fast. I can't wait for the next!

Anniversary Trip...Part 1

We returned home on Tuesday from our big 10 Year Anniversary trip to Chicago! We'd been planning the whole thing for months, trying to be sure we were prepared and didn't waste a single second. We had a list going of all the things we wanted to do, see, and visit.

After we returned home, I started thinking that maybe I should write a book. I could title it, "All the Things That Could Go Wrong on Your Anniversary Trip." I think it's pretty catchy.

The beginning chapters could be as follows:

Chapter 1: Get a splitting headache the moment your plane lands, and have it last until bedtime.
*check*

Chapter 2: Be sure it rains the entire first day of your trip, knocking your whole itinerary off track.
*check*

Chapter 3: Get the sad news that your grandpa passed away the day before you leave, and instead of planning for happy memories...plan to add a funeral to the agenda.
*check*

Chapter 4: Sit in a hotel room 1,000 miles from home and find out that your child has a near 104 degree temperature and is crying and asking for her mommy.
*check*

I think I've got a pretty good start. I'll get working on it and let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I do have to be sure and say that in spite of all the dark clouds that seemed to be hovering all week, we had a great time. I started thinking that this trip was really just a metaphor for what marriage is all about. It isn't happy, carefree, and joyous at all times. There ARE dark clouds that pop up now and then. What matters is how you, as a couple, handle the difficult times. Any married couple can probably give their own top ten list of times that strengthened them as a couple...and I would bet all the events on their list aren't always pleasant.

So, in spite of it all, we did have a wonderful time. Although we were completely exhausted from squeezing four days of activities into just two...but we have some wonderful memories and experiences that we'll never forget!

I will post a few pictures now, and then will have to space them out into the next few posts. We filled up two memory cards if that tells you anything!

I say we start with the most important part of the trip.

The food.

Here are pictures of all of the restaurants that were recommended to us. Other than these restaurants, we ate when we could (once at the hotel, which was actually delicious, another time at the museum in between tours, and again at the top of the John Hancock Center!)

First night there...we ran through the rain and ridiculous wind. My cute sandals were soaked. But it was yummy!

This was our "fancy" night right before the Broadway show. Seafood and steaks. Delicious!

So, I forgot to take a picture, but I found this online! This was good, too. Bandera is advertised as "American food" and they have a live jazz band playing at night.

This restaurant was recommended by a couple of different people.

And this is why.

"Well, hello pizza. I don't believe we've met."

Papa Johns, you are dead to me.