City Views & Deep Dish

The other week I flew to Chicago for work.  I’ve been there before (for work) but never actually got to go INTO the city since my clients are about 45 minutes north of Chicago.  I just never had the time or opportunity.  This time I did and I was glad to visit such a great city finally!  I was there four days and got to go into the city two nights and met up with my friend Kate (www.fittingintothewindycity.com) and hubby Hoagie.  While it turned out to be a successful business trip with some fun thrown in, I was really missing Abby and Peter back home.  This was the longest I had been away from Abby.  We all survived though… 

The first day, I was finished with my client about an hour earlier than scheduled so I went back to the hotel wondering what to do that evening.  Run in the hotel gym?  Nah.  Drive around Deerfield looking for something good to eat?  Nope – it was a very corporate area and nothing looked fun from what I could tell.  Relax and catch up on my book?  No, no, no.  Things had been hectic the week leading up to this trip, so my initial intentions were to chill at the hotel, eat, read, and watch tv but it was SO nice outside and I wanted to take advantage of the perfect weather and extra time I had.  Plus, the hotel was sold out so I was given a room with a conference table in my living room and it was kinda odd:

So I drove into the city but had to deal with the crazy traffic on 94 the entire way.  I had no agenda though so no worries – I enjoyed my music in my little Ford Focus rental and anticipated the first view of the city.

Finally that view came after an hour and a half of traffic.  I had one map and had no idea where I was supposed to go or what I was going to do.  Somehow, I managed to navigate myself into the city and find a parking garage underground (I was trying to aim for some parks close to the lakefront).  Whaddyaknow, when I came up to the street from the garage, I was magically in front of Millenium/Grant Park where the funny video screen fountains are and the infamous bean.  If I had planned it, it wouldn’t have happened this way.  I strolled around and took in some of the sights.  The weather was perfect and people were all out and about. 

   

I texted Kate to tell her I was downtown even though I knew she had class that night.  Turns out she was able to get out early so we met up for some dinner at this place:

We made our order simple for the waitress:  2 Victoria beers and 2 baked mac and cheese meals.  Delish!  Then we walked around some more, I snapped some more pics:

The next day I had a full day of client visiting and I was hoping that I’d finish early again.  Nope.  It was a full day, successful but tiring and my throat was dry from too much talking.  As soon as I was outta there I headed straight for the city.  Prime time rush hour traffic but I made it to Kate and Hoagie’s place to hang out in the city for the evening.  It was around 7 so I never got to see the lake during the daylight which always looks so nice.  When Hoagie got home from work, first thing we did was walk to the John Hancock building and go have a drink at the Signature Room which is on the 99th floor I believe.  Your ears pop as you go up/down the elevator.  The views of the city were beautiful!  We enjoyed some drinks and took in the views:

We then headed over to Giordano’s for my first real taste of deep dish Chicago pizza.  I was so hungry while we waited, I felt like I would easily eat 2-3 slices.  However, once that pizza came, it was so thick and cheesy, I only had 1 slice.

We walked around some more, heading back towards their building.  On Michigan Ave. we came across the Apple store and saw this (as Steve Jobs had just passed away the day before):

Thanks Kate and Hoagie for showing a bit of Chicago to me!  Kate, Hoagie, and a bunch of their friends then ran and completed the Chicago Marathon that weekend.  AND they fundraised over $17,000 towards MMRF (multiple myeloma research foundation) – so inspiring!