Chicago Road Trip

 This past weekend, both Blake and I had Monday off for President's Day. We'd talked about going on a short road trip, but decided to just stay home and chill. I was also off work on Friday and Blake came home early. We talked for a little while and decided we wanted to go somewhere.... but where! We talked about Mount Rushmore, The Grand Canyon, and Memphis. The weather didn't seem to be good for traveling to those places though. Randomly we said, "How about Chicago?". Neither of us had ever been there before- it would be perfect! So 30 minutes later we had our things packed and we were on the Turnpike.

We drove a little over 7 hours on Friday afternoon/ evening bringing us just outside of St. Louis. We stopped for the night at a Double Tree Hotel and drove the remaining 4 hours or so on Saturday morning. We found this place from our favorite show, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. It's called Charlie Parker's and we stopped in for breakfast. (In Springfield Illinois) We loved it!

We got to Chicago and checked into the historic Hilton Chicago. (Blake is standing in front of it down below) We had a beautiful room, on a very high floor, with a full view of the Lake Michigan. We took in the wonder of it and then decided we go walk around and go to the aquarium.

There is the aquarium.... it's huge! Well... we got there and noticed the line was way long. We thought we'd go back in the morning. Here is where I share the wonderful story of the gal being right! I thought we needed to get there before opening time the next day.... Blake didn't think so... so I went along with what he thought. We arrived 30 min after opening the next morning... and the line was even longer! It was a 2.5 hour wait! We didn't have time to visit the aquarium... but I did get the satisfaction of being right. Which makes up for it a little bit. (:

So on Saterday night, when we decided not to go the aquarium we walked down to the Sear's Tower... known today as the Willis Tower. The tallest tower in the country. We had to wait for an hour and a half to ride the elevator, but it was a great view! We stood on the famous ledge.... 3 layers of glass. We actually got a professional shot but I haven't scanned it to my computer yet. So please bare with this really awful picture some random person took shot below.

 By the time we got down and bought us a cup and coffee mug it was dark out. So we walked around down town for a while and found a great pizza restaurant. We waited an eternity for a very small table that was surrounded by people waiting for a table. It was the best pizza we've EVER had. It makes all other pizza seem disgusting... to me anyways. We shivered back to the room and ordered dessert from room service... because you know... we hadn't eaten enough.

The next morning the aquarium didn't work out so we decided to go see Wrigley Field and get an earlier start out to St. Louis. We were surprised that there was like no extra space around the field. We drove through a lot of downtown on the way out of town and it was a really fun drive. Chicago is a very beautiful city full of character and things to do. We definitely would like to go back someday.

We arrived in St. Louis on Sunday evening and checked in to the Hilton at the Ball Park. Because we are Hilton rewards members we got a $5 upgrade to a room on a very high floor with a very good view of the ball park... plus we had "club status" so we got to eat free snacks and breakfast in the club lounge. We walked around and took some pictures... it was cold though... so we didn't walk around too much. We ate dinner and watched the Thunder game. We won! So it was a fun game to watch!

We got home about 5:00 on Monday evening, only to leave at 6:00 for the Thunder game that we had to tickets too... so the fun wasn't over! We had an great time at the game!

We had a wonderful weekend and even though we feel it now, we are so glad we took the trip. What could have been a weekend of scrapbooking and video games turned into a weekend of great adventure. Lots of time to talk and play 20 Questions, see God's creation, and see some things we've never see before!

Take road trips my friends--- there is nothing like them!