Friday morning we took the train from Holland to Chicago. Mike hadn't taken the train before, and it was a nice ride. He was a little bummed when I saw a deer first and he didn't see it at all, but later he saw a big buck and was pretty geeked. :)
Once we got to Chicago (train takes you right to Union Station downtown) top priority was finding someplace for lunch since breakfast had been minimal. We came across Elephant & Castle an Irish pub type place (for those of you in the area here, think Curragh in downtown Holland). After that we made our way to our hotel. Our hotel was in a great location for all the walking around we did, and thankfully we were able to check in early so we could drop off some stuff and have less to lug around.
For the afternoon we headed up Michigan Ave, walked around Water Tower Place (where I dropped my lens hood one floor and cracked it...) and checked out the Lego Store and the American Girl store (where Mike had to hear how much I would have LOVED that store as a little girl). We headed to the top of the John Hancock building to watch the sunset from the Signature Lounge - our timing there was perfect. We only had to wait a bit to get up and get a seat, and when we left the line to get a table was long and the line at ground level to take the elevator was even longer! It was a great view of the city, but I didn't mind getting my feet back on solid ground. :)
Then we headed down to Gino's East for supper. We had great timing there, too! Helps that our bodies were on Michigan time, I guess, and so we were eating on the early side. We didn't have to wait long for a table, but while we were in there people were starting to wait in line outside. Great food! And I'm full just thinking about it.
We definitely needed to do some walking after supper, so we headed out to Navy Pier. Had a beautiful night view of the city.
We got back to the hotel and crashed pretty early. I was already tired from all the walking and we still had a whole day ahead of us! The next morning after breakfast we walked over to Millennium Park. I have been wanting to see "the bean" for so long - and, yes, it was everything I hoped it would be! :)
Walked over to and along the lake for a bit, then started making our way along the river back to our hotel. Starting to move slower at this point, thankful for my patient hubby. :) Found a safe spot to set up my self-timer so we could try and get a photo of the two of us.
We also came across this Marilyn Monroe statue. Had no idea they had this! And, yes, we were curious and looked up her skirt. :)
We had to check out of our hotel by noon, but they were able to hold the bag we didn't want to carry around for the afternoon. After taking care of that we went back up to Water Tower Place for lunch. Ate at a trendy cafeteria type place that had good food, but for us Dutch people it was a little pricey. :) But, we couldn't feel too bad about it - we were on vacation after all, and the only money we spent was transportation, hotel, and food; we didn't do any museum's/entertainment or other shopping. Anyways, didn't mean to get sidetracked into our finances. After lunch we made our way to the subway - finally admitted I couldn't walk anymore and had to sit down for awhile. Connected to the "el" and rode it all the way out to Midway and back! Now there's a cheap way to get a different view of the city. Was a nice ride.
After the subway ride there was some walking around to do, but it was leisurely. Got our bag at the hotel, and stopped in a few stores on our way back to Union Station. Had plenty of time there to walk around and get some food before catching our train home. Was a very nice ride home, better than the ride out there. Got home and fell into bed completely exhausted!
I was worried the boys weren't going to be excited to see us when we picked them up, but I think they were sufficiently happy. :) I was pretty miserable with a cold on Sunday, which was not cool, plus the boys were totally acting up after we got them back home. But, we're pretty much back to normal now (be that good or bad). The boys have had runny noses, but it hasn't gotten any worse, and Mike got the cold, too, but is also on the mend.
No comments:
Post a Comment