Chicago!

Chicago was fantastic. Chris and I had a wonderful weekend together (just the two of us) celebrating 10 years ago that we "reunited" in Chicago! We had a blast and the weather was gorgeous...almost too hot!

After dropping the boys off at G & G's house Friday evening, I drove to Napanee to meet Chris. I had forgotten that Napanee is home to a very large Amish population. I was reminded of that Amish population as I was driving down back rural roads in the dark trying to dodge buggies and cycles! Yikes!

He and his crew had a Friday night football game at Northwood High School. It was the first, in a long time, that I had a chance to watch him officiate. I enjoyed myself and got a good taste of high school and middle school children. Mine are never allowed to grow into that breed! Agh...they were awful!



After his game was done we drove on to Merrillville to spend the night. It was well past my bedtime but I managed to stay awake for some food at Buffalo Wild Wings! I guess that is a standing tradition that the crew always eats there after a game.

We drove into Chicago on a beautiful, sunny, Saturday. For old times sake we went past downtown and into the Lincoln Park neighborhood, where Chris had his apartment. This is the same small apartment that we managed to co-habitat for a few months after we were married. We took a few pictures for the boys to see where we used to live!


It's the building with the black door.

We then proceeded downtown to an early check-in at the Renaissance Hotel. The hotel and the room was gorgeous. We have stayed at many different Renaissance Hotels and they have never let us down. It was perfectly situated on the river at Wacker Drive. Which was a great spot to walk to Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park. Millennium Park was an event all in itself and worthy of a second post!



We joined the thousands of shoppers and Chicago Marathon Runners who were walking up and down Michigan Avenue. To our disappointment, FAO Schwartz had closed their store. We had hoped to do some early holiday shopping for the boys. Oh well.





After relaxing, after all our walking, we got ready for the highlight of our weekend. A virtual beef feeding frenzy was in store for us at Fogo De Chao. It was the most full I have ever been after a meal. The food was amazing. And, it just kept coming and coming for as long as I could take it....and the mashed potatoes were great too. I finally had to stop after I thought my button on my dress jeans was going to pop off and wound some other diner. And, as if that wasn't enough...the amazing wait staff overheard us talking about our 10th anniversary and brought out this huge piece of chocolate cake with "Happy Anniversary" written on the plate. We were both surprised! It was all I could do to walk out of there.

It was a beautiful evening to walk and we had a great time! After an hour or two I started to feel like I could breath again...I really have never been so full. Thanksgiving meal has nothing on that place.

Sunday was the Chicago Marathon. Obviously, we were not running the race, but we watched it from the 18th floor of our room. That is about as close as I will ever get to a marathon! Runners started going by on the street below at 8:00. You could tell the real runners from the fun runners. The real runners were hauling ass and had the trucks with the camera guys following them. The real mass of runners came by much later!

We headed back to pick up the boys Sunday and just hung out for the rest of the day. Thankfully, Chris took today off, so it was nice having him around for the long weekend.

I can't thank Chris enough for remembering this special anniversary for us and for finding a way to make the weekend happen. Thank you for handling all the arrangements, reservations and taking the time off to spend the weekend with me! You are the best! I'm looking forward to many more anniversaries with you!