Mike and I celebrated our first anniversary with a weekend trip to Chicago. We booked our hotel through Priceline and snagged a great deal! We decided to take the train in from Michigan City so we wouldn't have to pay for parking. Our hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the train station, and about 15 minutes from the beginning of the Magnificent Mile. We were within walking distance of everything we wanted to do, so we didn't even have to pay for a taxi!
We had an awesome trip...it went by way too quickly, but we really enjoyed our time away with no set schedule or anything we had to do! I have a ton of pictures to share, so I hope you enjoy them all!
Our hotel room was huge! I have to tell you about the pillows...do you see that little green thing around the pillow? They actually have a "pillow menu" so you can choose a pillow to fit your needs (soft, firm, etc). The green tags tell you what kind of pillow you have! The bathroom was quite large, and I was impressed by their Bath and Body Works shampoos, conditioners, and lotions!
Our room was on the 20th floor of the hotel, and we had an incredible view of the city!
For dinner on Friday night, we went to the famous
Ed Debevic's. Mike had eaten here once before and he really wanted me to experience it. Mike ordered a chili dog...it was over a foot long and more a sausage than a hot dog! I had a buffalo chicken sandwhich which was super spicy, but tasty!
The food was good, but the atmosphere is what really made the night. The restaurant is set up like a 50's diner, and the waitstaff tries to dress the part. If you didn't know what to expect before you went, you'd think the waitstaff was incredibly rude; however, that's the point. For instance, after we were seated, our waiter (the male in the picture), threw paper hats at us and told us to put our thinking caps on and order! He mocked Mike for eating slowly and spilled my drink all over when he brought a refill. It's all part of the exprience. And of course, we can't forget the waitstaff dancing on the counters!
After dinner we ventured out to find
Trader Joe's. I was super excited when I heard there are multiple TJ's in Chicago and I told Mike we had to go to one! I could have bought so much more but since we had to carry our items on the train, I restrained myself. I wish there was a TJ's in Michigan! We also made a stop at the 8 story
Sports Authority (I found another favorite store!) before heading back to our hotel room (the view was even more spectacular at night!)
Saturday morning, we went to
Eggsperience for breakfast. Wow was it ever good! I saw Nutella crepes on the menu and I knew I had to have them. I also had a mango smoothie and I left completely satisfied and overly stuffed! Mike ordered an omelet, expecting just an omelet. You should have seen his face when he received an omelet the size of his plate, with a side of hash browns and 2 pancakes! Food might not be cheap in Chicago, but you certainly get what you pay for!
After breakfast, we ventured down to the Magnificent Mile--we had to burn off all we ate of course! We passed a huge mob outside the Apple store. We stopped to see what the fuss was about and saw hundreds of sticky notes on the front windows with flowers, apples, pictures, and notes, all in memory of Steve Jobs who had passed just days before.
We saw this in the Water Tower Place--would you have guessed that it's made out of Legos? By this point in the day we were both getting tired of walking, and my stomach was really hurting (I probably ate more at breakfast than I had eaten in the previous 2 days!) so we headed back to the hotel. We ended up taking a 2 hour nap, and we were still so full from breakfast that neither of us minded skipping lunch. (I was disappointed that it was one less restaurant I'd get to try, but I didn't want to not be hungry for supper!)
After a relaxing afternoon, we ventured out again to the Magnificent Mile. We still had a few stores that we wanted to visit. One of those stores was H&M, we were right across from it earlier in the day but we didn't see it! I went in and found a shirt that I liked; I asked Mike if he wanted to look in the men's area. He said he didn't need anything, but let's look anyway. We ended up buying him 4 new shirts! So much for not needing anything... For dinner, we went to Cheesecake Factory! I started with a salad and Mike ordered some sliders. We split a bbq chicken pizza for our main course. And of course, we took a piece of strawberry cheesecake back to our hotel room!
Sunday morning we woke up and looked out the window. This is what we saw! Runners! We had no idea that we were in Chicago for the Chicago Marathon until someone asked us about it at the train station Friday. I was so excited when I heard we'd get to watch! We didn't know that the race went right past our hotel so that was so neat!
This picture was taken about 30 minutes after the previous picture. When we first got up, I thought we were just seeing the stragglers in the back of the pack since there were so few runners. I was wrong though, and they were the leaders!
After breakfast (at the hotel's restaurant), we ventured outside to see the race up close. We found out that we were seeing the runners just past the 12-mile marker. I commented to Mike about a very pregnant lady we saw running and we're fairly certain
she's the one who gave birth shortly after finishing!
Our hotel was in the same building as the Art Institute, so we saw some really neat structures outside. This one reminded me of a similar colored
one in Grand Rapids.
This was the view from our floor on the hotel. You can see the
restaurant in the back and some cozy sitting areas in front of them. It was a very modern feeling hotel!
Here we are on the train heading back home! We had such a great weekend--lots of good food, good shopping, and awesome company!
This is a bench right outside the restaurant, I thought it was really neat!
And this is the restaurant we went to. We went to the Lou Malnati's in Lawndale. Whenever our youth group would go to Chicago for our mission projects, we would always get pizza at Malnati's on Saturday night. Here is a quote from the website describing the uniqueness of this particular restaurant: "Carrying on Lou's vision of providing great food at reasonable prices, Lou Malnati's has grown to include 21 family-owned Chicagoland pizzerias. In recent years the Malnatis have felt blessed by their success and wanted to do something to give back to the community. In the fall of 1995 the Malnati's opened a restaurant on the West side of Chicago in an effort to help rejuvenate a neighborhood that has not had much success in recovering from the riots of 1967 that ravaged the area. Lou Malnati's Lawndale Pizzeria is unique in that all profits will be given back to the community to benefit children's educational and recreational programs."
Notice anything different about the sign below the green light? ;)
There was a traffic cop directing the traffic, specifically the pedestrians...we don't see them around little ol' Allendale!
If we weren't so full from delicious pizza, we probably would have stopped to get food from some of the many street vendors! We saw people with ice-cream, popcorn, hotdogs...all kinds of stuff! There was even someone walking down the median before the highway selling cold drinks!
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