Paul and I went to Chicago this weekend for his birthday... Happy Birthday Paul!!! It was a big city for us small town folks, but we had a good time. We left Friday morning-ish. Started out great, went to pick up my paycheck at work and somehow I only got payed for 1 week instead of 2, so they went a cash register and counted out the other half of my check... in cash. That was fun to carry around... for about 10 minutes till we got to our bank. Had NO desire to carry that much cash around downtown Chicago!
Anyhow, a long toll-road and lots of traffic later we found ourselves hunting for our hotel in downtown. People are CRAZY down there. Drivers, pedestrians... all CRAZY! So glad to finally park our car (for a mere $32) and start walking. We first got ourselves a genuine Chicago-style hotdog. They are described as having been "drug through the garded" they have pickles, tomatoe, onion and NO ketchup, apparently ketchup ruins the flavor.
We then walked to the Sears tower (tallest building in the US), payed a ridiculous amount of money to ride to the top and look around, but it was pretty cool. On a clear day, which it was you can see over 50 miles!
Then we hooked up with Paul's aunt Leilani and Uncle CJ (who were in town from Tennessee for Uncle CJ's b-day) and went out for some authentic stuffed Chicago pizza at Giordano's on the Magnificent Mile. It was DELICIOUS and FILLING!
Oh yeah... that's right I have a black uncle.
Later we took a taxi, adventure for us... neither of us had ever done that, and did what you can only do in downtown Chicago, see a movie.
The next day we shopped around for a bit then drove out to the suburbs to see the Chicago Temple.
Then we went to Ikea... wonderland for me, torture for Paul. We really needed some chairs and finally got some! Hooray! Then we ate dinner at Paul's favorite the Cheesecake Factory and went home... oh yeah, after stopping at the outlet malls. It was super fun!
