Chicago Trip: Day 1

This year Miguel surprised me with a trip to Chicago for my birthday! He gave me numerous hints weeks before the trip and when he finally told me where he we were heading I was truly surprised! We've talked about a bunch of different places we want to visit and now we can cross Chicago off the list! I had such a blast!!! Honestly, I think I enjoyed our trip to Chicago more than our trip to New York City. Chicago is just a really neat city! We packed our days completely full so I'm going to have to split the trip into two posts!

We headed out early Friday morning so we could spend the whole day exploring and enjoying the Windy City!

On the plane to Chicago (I definitely think Miguel was humoring me by taking this picture! haha!)

When we landed we purchased a three day metro or "L" pass and we definitely got our money's worth out of them! The picture below is of the L station in the airport. I took a picture because I thought it was so pretty! 

One of the most fun parts of the trip was our hotel! Miguel got us a room at the Congress Plaza Hotel. The hotel was constructed in 1893 and featured cobbled streets, gaslights, horse drawn carriages... you get the idea! The Congress Hotel was once known as the "Home of Presidents" for Chicago. It just feels rich with history, which, of course, I loved! The hotel is situated adjacent to Grant Park and is in walking distance to so many cool things! 

The ballroom in our hotel

View from across the hotel entrance

We clearly looked ahead at the forecast for our trip and packed boots, coats, scarves etc. Ha! We were so naive! When we landed the temperature was in the low 30s and it felt like it was in the 20s! I'm positive the wind added to the cold. Boy does Chicago live up to its nickname! That is one WINDY city! One of the first things we did before we even dropped our bags off at the hotel was purchase extra gloves and ear warmers! And it even SNOWED! It wasn't fluffy, soft snow, but it was snow! In April! HA! This is a rare experience for two Southerners! 

We dropped our bags off and headed out to explore our surroundings. I was so impressed with the amount of beautiful landscaping (even though there were no leaves on the trees -- because it was still WINTER) and the plethora of art all throughout the city. More cities should be like Chicago in that respect. Everywhere I looked I saw something beautiful! I especially loved the juxtaposition between the old and the new.

Old with the new... so pretty!

Look! It's that triangle building! (That building is how I know a TV show or movie is set in Chicago, haha)

Of course we had to go see Cloud Gate... or the "bean". It was a short walk through Grant Park from our hotel and a beautiful walk! A cool thing about Grant Park was that they had music playing for no particular purpose except for people to enjoy it. And whats more, is that since the weather was gray and cold and it's not really the peak tourist season, at times it really felt like Miguel and I were the only ones in the park that day. So cool. It was like we had a soundtrack while we walked around =)

Our reflection in the bean

Under the bean

After we had walked around for a bit we had worked up quite an appetite. We headed to Lou Malnati's to thaw and eat some Chicago style, deep dish pizza! It was delicious, and again we mostly had the restaurant to ourselves until right around the time we left. The pizza is so dense I only finished one piece and Miguel only had two! If you don't understand the significance of that, know that we rarely leave leftovers in this household! ;)

Mmmm! We enjoyed our pizza and the warmth!

After lunch we walked to the Field Museum. Originally I agreed to go visit the Field Museum to humor Miguel and his "science side", but I think ended up being one of my most favorite things we did! I want to go back! That's the most frustrating thing about visiting museums while on vacation... I could literally spend all day exploring both the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago Museum (which we visited on day two)! There just isn't enough time in one day!

Self shots are always at such flattering angles ;)

This place was HUGE! And this would have been such a cool photo if those silly segway tourists hadn't rolled in at the last minute!

The museum houses some really amazing things, but even the building is stunning and a work of art on its own!

Hello, Mr. Dinosaur!

While we were exploring the museum a high school symphony set up in the lobby of the museum and we got to enjoy some beautiful live music! Such a fun perk! 

So glad we visited on a Friday afternoon because the crowds were pretty non-existant. Well, except near the end --when our patience was running low and we were getting pretty tired-- a group of unsupervised field trip kids showed up (rolling eyes).

I took loads of pictures and am sharing only a few, but even after I've edited myself there still seem to be a lot... but it's my blog and I'll over share if I want to! ;)

Comparing head sizes

A WHOLE WALL OF SHOES!

One of the coolest rooms! So much sparkle! Yay!

I took this picture to look up this Mrs. Thuy Ngo Nguyen. Almost everything in that room was donated by her!

After a couple of hours at the Field Museum, Miguel and I went back to check into the hotel and clean up a bit before we headed out again to dinner.

Waiting for the L

Miguel had done a lot of research before our trip and got some tips of places to visit from locals and people who knew the city outside of specifically "touristy" places. Friday night we started out at Half Acre Beer Company. It was seriously busy when we arrived so we had to stand, but we played Mancala and enjoyed our drafts.

Next we headed to dinner but when we got there, there was a cue out the door and it was cold! Way too cold to wait, so we went across the street to the Violet Hour. The Violet Hour is a really cool bar that is kinda hidden from the outside. It has no sign and is marked only by a wall mural, which changes frequently. The picture directly below is the of the mural that was painted while we were there. I've added some photos of previous murals too. They don't take reservations and have strict "house rules" like no photos or cell phone use inside. It was posh and fun and I really enjoyed my champagne cocktail!

Inside the Violet Hour

After our drinks we really wanted to eat so we headed back out to see if the lines had died down some across the street at Big Star. They hadn't, but we discovered they had a to-go window, so we ordered some tacos and headed back to the hotel.

Big Star

We had a wonderful, busy first day in Chicago. And it was a fun treat to see our view from the hotel room at night. Such a great view of the Willis Tower! Day two was just as busy and fun, I'll blog about that soon!

View from our room!

Water is so frightening!

After two years using the same bowl, Emma randomly became very frightened of her water dish.

The past couple of months we've been letting the dogs drink out of a plastic Tupperware... and it's just really an eye sore.

Putting away Christmas decorations yesterday, I rediscovered the old water dish and decided to give Emma another try with it ...

She's really not having it! Why is this dish so scary?!? Jack doesn't have a problem with it.

Goooooooooo Mountaineers!

Ummm... wow. I have not blogged since October!?! Yikes. Working full time has really gotten in the way of my blogging! So as I'm sure you can imagine I'm way behind on a lot of events. Our camera was broken for a couple of months though too. 

I'm about to blog about a friend's wedding and Christmas, but saw that I had started this post back in SEPTEMBER and figured I should probably finish it! This is the second half of my West Virginia trip with my dad.  

Our second day in WV we traveled up to Morgantown to go to the WVU football game. I love traveling with my dad! He is so generous and thoughtful. He had researched ahead of time and found a couple of vegetarian/vegan restaurants to take me to! This first place, New Day Bakery, had some amazing chocolate chip bread! 

I had been to Morgantown before as a little girl, but childhood memories are so often so different from reality. I had so much fun exploring the college town with my dad! As we journeyed around campus my dad pointed out places of interest and told me stories from his childhood visiting with his dad and also from his college years. I love history and love my family so it was the best of both worlds!

If you know me well, you know that I like to personify inanimate objects. This was no different when my dad took me to the ride in the campus PRTs (Personal Rapid Transit). These little guys take students from one end of the campus to the other. I think they are so cute and funny looking!! I gave them all names like Walter and Gus and felt bad if we passed one with no one riding in it. Ha.

We went to the 3rd or 4th game of the season and the Mountaineers had been doing really well! They were undefeated and Gino Smith was getting lots of attention. There was a great energy surrounding the campus and game and it was a blast to be a part of it! Tailgating was really fun. I love themes and school spirit and loved how much everyone was in to it! 

Dad and I got to the game early enough to see the team get to the stadium. I think it's called the Man Walk? I remember I kept saying it wrong during the trip...  but anyways, it was really fun! Anticipation builds as you stand there with the crowd waiting for the team to arrive. Then they all part to make a path and the cheerleaders, mountaineer, and band leads the team in to the stadium.

Gino Smith

I got to give a lot of the team high fives!

Coach Dana Holgorsen

Dad and I tailgated with some high school friends of my dad who were super generous and gave us some yummy food. 

Like I said, I hadn't been back to WVU since childhood and I had a lot of stereotypical, "Appalachian Man" images in my head before visiting. Overall, this really wasn't the case. But just like you'll find the redneck, wife-beater wearing, uneducated UGA fan at Georgia games, there were some stereotypical WVU fans as well. Dad probably won't like me sharing these two with you, but I find them hilarious! 

"Want some Moonshine, ma'am? It's cinnamon flavored."

Besides being pretty chilly, the weather was really cooperating for the first half of the day. The sun was warming everyone up and I even went on a search for sunscreen. 

It did end up raining on us a little bit later, but my dad came prepared with some heavy duty ponchos and I was actually really comfortable.

The WVU band is really good! They're known as The Pride of West Virginia and do an amazing job. Their performance leading the team onto the field gave me goosebumps and got me really excited for the game!

The game was really so, so much fun. The Mountaineers won and it was a good game to watch! We sat pretty close to the student section and that provided good people watching. Or maybe a lot of the fun people watching was due to the fact that beer is sold at the stadium...? ;)

WVU student section... top level. 

We won and I'm so glad I got to go to a game at the beginning of the season when the weather was still warm enough for me to wear my gold and blue dress! Even if I was literally the only person I saw in a dress. 

Thank you dad, for taking me on such an amazing trip! Love you!