Our trip to Chicago.

We left DFW on Thursday, August 21st. The flight left on time. The weather was great and first class is truly wonderful. Renting the car went without a hitch and cost all of $2.75. Love it.
We drove to Naperville and popped in on Tracy Ferak. Becky's good friend. She just added another baby girl to her family and we visited for a short time, meeting not only the baby but her 3 year old daughter Isabella for the first time. Tracy has a lovely home and it was a quick but great visit.

Mia and Isabella

We then drove down the road in Naperville and stopped into my hairdresser for 25 years...also a very close friend for those years....and surprised him. It was nice because he was not real busy so we also had time to catch up on news and share pictures of the girls weddings and grands with him.

Sue and Ed

Then off to Dad's to see his condo and pick him up for dinner. PIZZA!!! It was BEYOND BELIEF. How do we survive without it? Two of the waitresses from 12 years ago...still there. NOTHING changes there. We had the great cheddar cubes for starters and then ate tons of pizza. We ordered one to take with us and had that reheated in the microwave on Friday night at 10 PM and again....WONDERFUL.

Dad had a hamburger but took home the left over pizza from dinner.

We then drove around the stomping grounds where we raised the girls. It is beyond belief the growth in that little town. They even put up a mall with Macy's in it since we've been gone. There is NOTHING that the town does not have now. The neighborhoods we are so familiar with all looked the same except for the trees, which are so much bigger then they were 11 years ago. The high school is now a middle school and the high school...well...unbelievable. When I think of the conflicts we put up with...the dance team....in getting a tiny space for practive because of the little gym and one common area....my mind is boggled by what they have now. It was fun to see the changes and yet the things that stay the same.

We took Dad home then and drove downtown. Good timing too. The Bears game started at 7 so we missed the mess passing Soldier's Field. After checking in we took a short walk to get some coffee. It amazed us how gentrified downtown is. I could live there in a fancy condo with no car....maybe for a year or two. It would be fun to live like that and a beautiful place to do it. Maybe in the new building Trump is building? I can certainly afford a million for a condo.

Friday we did not rush to get up and left the hotel around 11. We walked to the Wacker and Michigan where the tour boats are leaving from temporarily while the original place is being rebuilt...mind you to accommodate the handicapped. I was in trouble then since I had done some steps earlier. Walking up and down steps and slopes is murder on the knee. Getting down to the boats has maybe 75 stairs. Yikes. John went down alone to check the status since there were TONS of people getting tickets and standing in line waiting to board. There are a few boats that go out and it was looking like the wait would be forever. We got pretty lucky. We only stood in line for 30 minutes and boarded a smaller boat then the usual. The tour was a delightful hour and a half out on Lake Michigan and down the Chicago river to learn some history of the buildings.
I had been on these tours many times with my Junior Misses but John had never been on one and we both truly enjoyed it, despite some gray skies and a little drizzle. The water was a bit choppy too but we sat in the back of the boat so stayed dry. Wonderful thing to do if you are ever in Chicago.

John and Sue with Navy Pier behind them.

Some shots of the skyline, Navy Pier and lake front from Lake Michigan. Cloudy day but beautiful nonetheless.

We walked back to the hotel, cleaned up a little and took a cab to Navy Pier. Another surprise for us. We had not been there since the rebuild except during the Xmas holidays 13 years ago and everything was shutdown. What a fun place for all ages. Too much walking but we traversed the whole thing then had lunch at Bumba Gumps Shrimp Place. That was disappointing I am sorry to say but Pizza at 10 that night washed away the distaste of lunch.
Some shots below from Navy Pier. There is a garden...or whatever it is called...up on the second floor. So beautiful. I'm glad we found the elevator.

Garden on/in Navy Pier.

Below are 2 pictures. This sculpture is on the walk outside Navy Pier. It is Bob Newhart and his couch. It is amazing how real they look. The couch really looks like a couch. John and I chatted with Dr. Robert Hartley, Bob Newhart. Wonder if he is really that small?

We again walked back to the hotel where I iced my knee and John checked in at work email. Enough resting!! We're off again. To Millennium Park in Chicago. An all new area near in Grant Park. Millennium Park
This Cloud Gate structure is the most amazing thing we have ever seen. We could have walked around it forever looking at the city from different aspects reflecting in it...especially with the sun going down changing the reflection moment by moment. Awesome thing to see. Hope the pictures give a fairly decent idea of how awesome it looks. We sat and watched the little ones play in the water and just enjoyed people watching.
It's not like a pond water or deep water. It is like splashing in one huge puddle that runs between two of these huge buildings with water running down them. The following are pictures of cloud gate but Chicagoan's call it The Bean.

The Chicago Symphony was performing at the concert shell but we were not at all prepared to sit on the grass and we wanted to get to the Buckingham fountain for the first show...so again WALKED down to the fountain. It is as we both remember it. What a treat. We talked about when it was built and had no clue, but our good old iPhones and Google we could look up any history we wanted on the spot. It was built in 1927 so it is no wonder we cannot remember a time that it was not there. Again delightful...and the same.


The light show is done to music. The shots John took with the camera came out dark but the ones I took with the iPhone came out much better. It was great to see again. Being there brought back so many memories from our youth. And I mean youth because I can remember going there before I even started School. That would make it before Peggy was born and it was just 3 of us girls. We would sit by the lake and dance and sing as a trio for Mom and Dad while we waited for the light show.

Thank goodness we nabbed a cab and headed off to the hotel because we were both pooped by then.

This AM we had a relaxing breakfast, people watched and decided to get the car out of hock and drive through John's old neighborhood and the first apartment we lived in together. It was fun to think back and again to the familiar yet see all the changes.
We then headed to O'Hare a little early figuring to relax there for a couple hours. That's where the fun ended. LOL. Travel today is not fun. But I will just say we did not arrive home until close to 10 PM instead of 5 PM. John had to drive back for our suitcase and we ended up awake until 2 AM.

Today we prepare for me to head to the hospital in the morning. If my nerves were not bad enough, we got a letter confirming the insurance approval on the surgery and it not only has John as primary insured but John getting the surgery. Sigh. This scares the pants off us. We are attempting to get this straightened out today but it may not be possible so he will be on the phone in the AM before and while I am under the knife.

Hope you enjoyed my travelogue. Your probably hoping I do not travel often. LOL. This is so long. But again...it was delightful. Chicago is definitely a place to see. Mayor Daley has just an absolutely AMAZING job in that city over the years.