Chicago

I've been procrastinating this post for awhile because I really hate adding pictures to my posts. Is there an easier way to do it than through Blogger? Please share.

Anyway, for Ryan's and my birthday, Ryan's parents generously gave us their frequent flyer miles to take a trip to Chicago. A dear friend of mine, Meghan, moved their last January and put us up for the four days that we were there. Ryan's parents also watched Tommy for us, so we had a kidless "hurrah" before baby #2 gets here in February.

I am recording this for memory's sake, so if you get bored feel free to move along!

The first morning there Meghan took us to the milk & honey cafe which was right up the street from their house. This place had the coolest "city" vibe, I kept looking around for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan to meet up or something. The food though, oh my gosh, the food was amazing. I would have eaten there every meal if I could have.

Next, Meghan took us on a tour of the Shedd Aquarium. The architecture was amazing and judging from the excited squeals next to me, I'm going to guess this was one of Ryan's favorite places. I finally got to touch a starfish with my bare hand! It's something I've always wanted to do, and just fyi, they are surprisingly slimy. Another thing I've always wanted to touch is a sea cucumber. I kinda just want to squeeze one...

That night we had the best pizza of my life. It is this tiny little restaurant called the Oven Grinder. Rumor is that the Oven Grinder played a major role sneaking in alcohol during the prohibition period. It made me feel a little rebellious eating there! Also, on the street in front of the Oven Grinder is where the St. Valentines Day Massacre occured. Intense! Like I was saying though, these pizzas were amazing. They were actually pizza pies, but the best pizza I have ever had.

That would be Fernando's hand on my head...

We spent a lot of time strolling the streets downtown, heading to all the fancy shops and touristy locations. It was fun to finally see "The Bean", I don't even know what its real name is...and check out the cityscape from the park.

We also got to see the Water Tower, one of the few surviving buildings from the famed Chicago Fire. It makes me a little sad that so many historic buildings are gone from that period, but so it is my friends.

Another place we stopped at for a little snack is Wow Bao. The name is worth every penny for whatever you buy there. But really, you get this little pastry puff filled with yummy meat of your choice.

We were lucky to be there when they were having some sort of swap meet/boutique booth kinda thing. I don't even know what to call it. This is where I got all my souveineirs, excluding the maternity jeans from H&M. Tons of sellers were there, most of whom had Etsy shops, that were selling the coolest things. If I had it my way, Gilbert would have a lot more shops selling homemade products that are one-of-a-kind cool. I guess we have Etsy instead...

Another day we went to the Chicago Zoo. This zoo is outdoors and free! Free is my friend, but you gotta be skeptical about free. Imagine my surprise when this zoo was huge, beautiful, and had the friendliest animals around. A perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

View from the zoo

Nearby is the Conservatory, which I pronounced "Consuvatree" in a British accent due to childhood influence from the board game Clue. This was also free and spectacular. There were so many beautiful plants I had never seen before that I knew would die the second I tried to plant it in Arizona soil. The best part was the moss exhibit that housed dinosaurs. It was awesome.

Of course we went to the Navy Pier, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone heading to Chicago. While it is cool that the World Fair was held here (why did we stop having World Fairs, anyhow?), all the shops were very touristy. I would have rather wandered down streets in the heart of Chicago and stumbled on amazing food and fantastic shops. It was still a nice visit though. We took a picture of the famous ferris wheel, and then I made Ryan go on this ride with me which he thought was totally lame but I thought was totally scary once it got going. Bad decision.

One of our last stops was at a pizza place (I'm drawing a blank on the name) where grafitti was encouraged. Another touristy stop that was fun and allowed me to leave my mark on Chicago forever.

I am going to leave you with this beautiful sculpture that is on the same street as Meghan's. It's just chillin in someone's front yard, probably for people like me to take pictures of it. I dubbed it the "poop" fountain :)