Our Chicago Trip

As I mentioned yesterday, we left Nebraska on Friday (11/6/09). Logan did excellent on the car ride to Iowa - that makes two in a row for the last two times we've gone where I've been able to sit in front for the entire three hours and he has been perfectly cheerful with sitting still. I must mention again that this age is so much easier than five months ago!!!

We dropped the dogs off at Joe's mom's house in and grabbed some KFC for supper (we met his mom and Roxana there, the little girl she babysits). Then Joe and I hung out briefly with some of his high school friends before going back to his mom's house where we played a game with Roxana (she turned five yesterday) before bed.

On Saturday morning (11/7/09), Joe and I left Iowa for Chicago. Roxana was still at Joe's mom's house, so Logan was having fun playing with her and didn't care that we were leaving. He just waved to us again. :) I'm sure some day he's going to cry, but so far he has never cried when we've left him with Joe's mom or my mom & stepdad so that has always made it very easy on Joe & me. According to our moms, he was the perfect little boy at both grandparents' houses this time - as always!

Joe and I arrived to The Courtyard in downtown Chicago at 3 pm. It didn't start off on the best note - Joe decided to pay for valet parking and as I was grabbing my bags, ready to go inside, I swung my suitcase just as the doorman walked right next to me and the wheels jabbed him super hard in his knees! He about fell to the ground. . .I felt terrible!!!! He limped to the door and kept saying "owe, owe, owe!" as he opened the door. Gritting his teeth said, "Welcome to The Courtyard."

Thankfully everything after that went well. Our room was on the 11th floor and we had a view of the city (what you see in this pic). Joe had gotten tickets to The Blue Man Group and so after we unpacked we decided to go eat supper before heading to the show.

Everyone whom we told we were going to Chicago said we had to eat at Giordano's World Famous Pizza. I found out later I actually ate there the only other time I've been to Chicago (summer of '97) but I didn't remember. But by then it was 4:30 and there was a two hour wait which wasn't going to work since our tickets for The Blue Man Group were at 7 pm. So we were going to head back to our hotel where there were two restaurants across the street that my parents had recommended because they stayed at the same place when they went to Chicago last February to see Oprah :)

But we had already walked several blocks, so before we got to Phil Stefani's or Shaw's Crab House, we saw a Mexican restaurant and decided to eat there instead. The food was just okay, but we were seated immediately and our meal came to our table less than two minutes after we ordered it!

Afterwards we took a cab to Briar Theater. The Blue Man Group was spectacular! We had so much fun. We were exhausted when it was over, though, so we took a taxi back to our hotel and were in bed at 10 pm!

On Sunday morning (11/8/09) we got up, got ready, and took the subway to Soldier Field for the Chicago Bears game! We still had some walking to do, though, so remind me next time not to wear high heel boots in Chicago - ouch!!!

Joe went to Chicago when he was a young boy with his family and had the option to see Soldier Field or go to the museum next door where there were dinosaurs. This is hard to believe for anyone who knows Joe now (he's the Bears #1 fan), but he chose the museum! I guess the other half of his family found an open door and were able to actually walk on to Solider Field! So he's been wanting to make up for that for years, haha. He's seen two Chicago Bears games before but both were in Minnesota against the Vikings (one of them I went to in 2003). This time we had FIFTH ROW seats so I thought it was incredibly awesome, too -- we are definitely going again in the future! Maybe next time we'll bring Logan :)Unfortunately, the Bears lost to the Arizona Cardinals but it was gorgeous weather (70 degrees) so it sure beat watching it at home!

When Joe had bought The Blue Man Group tickets, he'd received free tickets to the John Hancock Center. So we took the subway to the tower and were able to watch the sunset from 1,127 feet above Chicago!

This time for supper we were able to get right in at Giordano's and it was a great way to end our mini vacation, as it was definitely worthy of the world famous title!!!! I wish we would have been able to eat the last two pieces but we were stuffed and knew we'd be leaving right away in the morning, plus with no microwave, we gave them to a homeless family outside.We had wanted to do some shopping at Magnificant Mile, but unlike our Lake Rathbun getaway last month that was for relaxation - we didn't really do anything - this one was the complete opposite, it was so action-packed that we didn't have a moment to rest. I LOVED this trip, I wish we would have been able to stay for longer, it went way too fast. We were in bed again by 10. It wasn't good enough for me, though. . .I woke up Monday morning (11/9/09) with a horrible sore throat and officially have my first virus since the fifth's disease the end of May/early June. I can't tell if it's a cold or what (I don't have a runny nose and feel fine otherwise, but I now have a cough to go along with the sore throat).

Anyway, my mom & stepdad had picked Logan and the dogs up the day before at Joe's mom's house, so we drove to my parents' house in Iowa to get them before arriving home to Nebraska last night. Unfortunately, both of my dogs were sick as well - having diahrrea for 24 hrs. :( Nobody fed them anything weird so maybe they caught something when they were at the vet last week. Who knows. . .but I have decided that after Christmas I'm not traveling with them anymore. Not only is it too much work for us these days with Logan (and we don't even have a van) but my dogs seem to get way too anxious and nervous (the last time my dad & stepmom were the ones who dogsat, and Bella & Cosmo had an accident at their house; now this time they were sick - even throwing up - inside my mom & stepdad's house).

It's kind of like the behavior thing, I don't know why they changed - for two years we used to go back to Iowa every month before Logan was born and they loved it! They were relaxed, comfortable, and never had accidents or got sick. But now they clearly have issues. So either we'll ask our neighbors to check on them like we did when we visited my grandma in August, otherwise my friend Stacy said her HS friend is her dogsitter and would actually stay in my house with them. I haven't met her yet, but I can't bear to put them in a kennel so I hope it works out, starting in the new year.

Speaking of my dogs, we take Cosmo to the vet at 7:45 am tomorrow for his surgery (this pic was taken this evening), so wish him luck. :(