Chicago trip

Jason and I had a blast in Chicago. I wasn’t sure I wanted to even go at first. It was a lot of work packing up the girls, and I didn’t know if it was too much to pass them off on someone else for the weekend. I’m glad we went though. It was nice to hang out by ourselves again. At times, I almost forgot we had two babies at home…at least until we saw other little babies being pushed up and down Michigan Ave in their strollers. Then I kind of wished I could see the girls.

The trip up there started off kind of funny. I was giving Jason a hard time, telling him that it wasn’t fair that he didn’t want to fly. He flies all the time for work, so he wanted to drive. He has this hatred for airports, yet I think they are fun. Well around Springfield, we got pulled over by a state trooper. Nice. All I could say was “well we shoulda flown, huh?” Luckily the guy was nice and only gave him a warning. Jason has NEVER gotten just a warning before. I’ve probably been pulled over 50 times with him since we met. I asked him how it felt to finally get out of a ticket. I told him he was old now…no longer the punk kid with the earring, driving the red sports cars. He was now the near 30-year-old married man, driving the Kia Sportage with the two car seats bases in the back.

Anyway, we made it up to Chicago and our hotel was great. We stayed at The Allerton on Magnificent Mile. Right in the middle of everything! The hotel gave us a free upgrade to a suite and free $50 room service breakfasts since it was our 5 year anniversary. Mental note: every future vacation is an “anniversary”.

It was nice just having the time to do whatever we wanted. With all the things there were to do, I told Jason that the one thing I HAD to get done while we were there was paint my nails. LOL. No time for that at home.

We went to Texas de Brazil (steakhouse), Wrigley field to see the Cards play the cubs, shopping up and down Michigan Avenue, Gino’s East for pizza, Navy Pier at night, the beach, Downtown Dogs (hotdogs), Garrett’s Popcorn, Shed Aquarium, walked to the parks, Quartinos for dinner… just a lot of everything. We could still go back 20 more times and not even do all that we wanted to. Oh and we also made sure to run in the American Girl store. Holy crap are we in trouble! We kept seeing thousands of little girls on the streets carrying those dolls. I remember reading the books but not being interested in the dolls. Those suckers are like $100 a pop. There were many stressed out dads in that store. I walked by one saying “oh my god, I don’t know! Just get it!”

Everything was a lot of fun. Jason and I kept saying we should have thought about moving there right out of college—for a couple years. Of course, I’d only want to if we could have lived in an apartment right downtown. His work building was right next to Michigan Ave. Of course I say that now, but city life packed with tourists may have gotten really old too! That lifestyle sure is fun, yet I also enjoy having a house with a big yard. Maybe some day we’ll just have to buy a summer condo there! Ha!