Saturday, May 12, 2012

Mini Vacation to Chicago...

This past week I had the opportunity to "tag along" with Matt to a work conference in Chicago.  We took an early, early flight Monday so we had most of the day Monday, all day Tuesday, and I took a late flight home on Wednesday which gave us pretty much all day Wednesday.  He stayed for an all day meeting Thursday and then came home on Friday.

He has a FABULOUS boss that says go to enough meetings to justify your trip and then make sure you have fun.  Therefore, he went to meetings Tuesday and Thursday and got to play with me and his co-workers Monday and Wednesday. 

When we arrived Monday, we had some lunch then went on the architectural river tour.  We are so glad we went...but...it was COLD and raining...definitely something you want to do on a sunny, pretty day.  Monday night we met up with Matt's cousins at a local pizza place for our first taste of the famous deep dish pizza...yum!


Dinner with cousins...Matt, Paul (1st cousin), Nora (Paul's wife), Casey (Emily's boyfriend), Mandi, and Emily (1st cousin)...so fun visiting with them...Matt for sure has fun cousins!



Tuesday Matt was in class so I woke up and went for a run along Lake Michigan...wonderful way to start the day!  I then did a little window shopping, had lunch with the Ashley (Matt's co-workers wife), and walked to the Navy Pier.  By night, several more co-workers had arrived so we headed to the Purple Pig for dinner.


After dinner, we headed to the Wrigley Field area to just look around...well, the game was tempting so we found some reasonable priced tickets and got to watch a few innings of the Cubs game. Here I am with Joe (Matt's boss), Ramona (co-worker), and John (Ramona's husband).


The famous score board...yes, a person still changes everything on the board...it was kind of funny watching hands poke through to change the score, etc.


And the ivy covered fence...



On Wednesday, I got a full understanding of why Chicago is called the "windy city"...it was super windy, and cold!  Here we are at the Navy Pier / Lake Michigan...I was so surprised the water was so blue...I guess I just thought it would be brown like our rivers.


Joe, Ramona, and Matt...I guess you could say they were "team building"...


These mirrors provided some good entertainment and much laughter...



Let's just say...Matt has one good boss...this man is so fun!  And...you would NEVER know he is right in the middle of cancer treatments...what a trooper!


And of course, Matt wasn't going to let Joe get one up on him...he found the hamburger!


The building in the middle is the Trump Tower...it was one of my favorites...


We stayed at the Inn of Chicago...an old hotel that kind of reminded me of the Peabody in Memphis.  However, we could not have had a more perfect location...it was right in the middle of everything.


In the Hershey Store...we could have eaten everything!



And the last adventure before I left...we went to the 96th floor of the John Hancock building to check out the view...here is the Navy Pier/Lake Michigan...


Buildings, buildings, and more buildings...if I had to summarize Chicago, I would say...many tall buildings, any store you can imagine, and good pizza!



This is the John Hancock building...I was standing on the sidewalk looking up...yes, we were on the top floor checking out the view of the city...


Yes, I was acting a little like my mom checking out the flowers...but...I'm telling you there were gorgeous flowers EVERYWHERE...for sure a very clean and well taken care of city!


The crew at their last function of the week...Joe (boss), Nick, Ramona, Vicky, and Matt...

No comments: