Before our 8 hour trip home, we spent the morning at the Shedd Aquarium. We took one last walk through Grant Park on the way to Museum Campus. The weather was awesome this whole week! (Coming home to 30's was brutal!)
We got home around 11 pm on Friday night and I was greeted by Bella and McClane! Chris's mom had dropped the "kids" off earlier in the day for us. Bella has been sweetest lap cat ever since...
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Spring break in Chicago- day 3
So much to do, so little time! Chris and I had each bought a Chicago City Pass which covered admission to The Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry and either the Sears Tower or John Hancock Observatory.
On Thursday we got up bright and early with the intent of having a quick breakfast and checking out the Planetarium. We wanted to try and squeeze the Aquarium in too. But quickly realized that that wouldn't be happening. Instead we chose to enjoy a leisurely day at the Planetarium, a quiet stroll back to the hotel and a have a nice meal somewhere.
The Planetarium was super fun. We racked our brains and realized that we had both been to a planetarium at home during our school days- but wondered what happened to it. (They had the same machine in the center of the room as we had experienced once before.) I didn't mean to, but I did fall asleep during one of the shows!
We returned to the hotel to watch some TV and to eat a quick bite to tide us over until our 8 pm dinner reservation at l2O. That dinner was the best meal I've EVER eaten. The pictures I took on my phone didn't save- which is such a shame. We will be talking about this meal for the rest of our lives. All I'll say, is that my second course was served under a "cloud" of cotton candy sprinkled with peppercorn and bee pollen. Seriously.
Pictures from day 3:
On Thursday we got up bright and early with the intent of having a quick breakfast and checking out the Planetarium. We wanted to try and squeeze the Aquarium in too. But quickly realized that that wouldn't be happening. Instead we chose to enjoy a leisurely day at the Planetarium, a quiet stroll back to the hotel and a have a nice meal somewhere.
The Planetarium was super fun. We racked our brains and realized that we had both been to a planetarium at home during our school days- but wondered what happened to it. (They had the same machine in the center of the room as we had experienced once before.) I didn't mean to, but I did fall asleep during one of the shows!
We returned to the hotel to watch some TV and to eat a quick bite to tide us over until our 8 pm dinner reservation at l2O. That dinner was the best meal I've EVER eaten. The pictures I took on my phone didn't save- which is such a shame. We will be talking about this meal for the rest of our lives. All I'll say, is that my second course was served under a "cloud" of cotton candy sprinkled with peppercorn and bee pollen. Seriously.
Pictures from day 3:
Spring break in Chicago- day 2
On day 2 we donned our green (it was St. Patrick's Day) only to learn that Chi-Town celebrated the lucky leprechaun the previous Saturday night. Booo! We were kind of bummed about that- St. Paul celebrates St. Patty's day on March 17th- no matter the day it lands!
Anyway, on Wednesday we took a cab to the Museum of Science and Industry where we explored a German submarine among hours of exhibits and walked to Millennium Park before dinner to marvel at "the Bean".
We put some serious miles on our feet this week, we only drove (or took a cab) twice.
The night before Chris had woken up to the sound of a little girl laughing and it bugged him all day. After returning from dinner Chris picked the brains of the bartender, bellhop and head of security. He quickly discovered we were staying in haunted hotel! The barkeep sent us to talk to the bellhop, the bellhop shared us a few of his experience and then sent us to the head security guard. The security guard sized us up and kept his cards close to his chest at first. But Chris's experience and sincere interest must have won him over.
He nodded his head to our laughing little girl, she had been noted in their files thousands of times. (Thousands!) They keep track of all of the things guests report, but they don't get concerned about things until they get in the 100s or so.
The security guard, who was missing two fingers!, shared several stories, but my favorite is about the the time he assisted ghost hunters in analyzing that room. The first few rounds of setting up tapes, securing the room and the area resulted in all of the recorders being turned off. Finally, one tape caught foot steps approaching the recorder and a low raspy voice asking "what are you looking for?" Chills.
Pictures from day 2:
Anyway, on Wednesday we took a cab to the Museum of Science and Industry where we explored a German submarine among hours of exhibits and walked to Millennium Park before dinner to marvel at "the Bean".
We put some serious miles on our feet this week, we only drove (or took a cab) twice.
The night before Chris had woken up to the sound of a little girl laughing and it bugged him all day. After returning from dinner Chris picked the brains of the bartender, bellhop and head of security. He quickly discovered we were staying in haunted hotel! The barkeep sent us to talk to the bellhop, the bellhop shared us a few of his experience and then sent us to the head security guard. The security guard sized us up and kept his cards close to his chest at first. But Chris's experience and sincere interest must have won him over.
He nodded his head to our laughing little girl, she had been noted in their files thousands of times. (Thousands!) They keep track of all of the things guests report, but they don't get concerned about things until they get in the 100s or so.
The security guard, who was missing two fingers!, shared several stories, but my favorite is about the the time he assisted ghost hunters in analyzing that room. The first few rounds of setting up tapes, securing the room and the area resulted in all of the recorders being turned off. Finally, one tape caught foot steps approaching the recorder and a low raspy voice asking "what are you looking for?" Chills.
Pictures from day 2:
Spring break Chicago- day 1
This past week was Chris's spring break. With the wedding around the corner we knew we couldn't do anything too extravagant, but we thought Chicago would be a fun trip. So Monday morning we packed up my car, dropped off the "kids" at Grandma's and headed (south)east. About 8 hours later we arrived in Chicago.
We walked just about everywhere and had the best weather. Our hotel was on Michigan Ave and had a great view of the lake, Navy Pier, Museum Campus and Buckingham Fountain.
Later, we found out that that the hotel is haunted, but more to come on that later. Here's a slideshow for day 1.
We walked just about everywhere and had the best weather. Our hotel was on Michigan Ave and had a great view of the lake, Navy Pier, Museum Campus and Buckingham Fountain.
Monday, March 8, 2010
March: The muddy month
I love the spring and fall transition seasons! They smell crisp and earthy, I can wear less/more layers and I love the feeling of change.
The highs have been in the upper 30’s to mid 40’s the last week or so, which has been absolutely welcome after a long snowy Minnesota winter. I loved this winter! It reminded me of the winters of my childhood- it’s been awhile since our region has seen this much snow.
Now Minnesota is shedding its layer of snow in preparation for another growing season. The snow melts a little more everyday and each night creates ice skating rinks on sidewalks and roads, thaws into swampy mud in our yard (while unveiling countless piles of, uh, “gold”) and causes me to use a ridiculous amount of windshield fluid.
But, I know in just a few short weeks the wildflowers will emerge, the sap will stop running and the trees will bud and well… I’ll be a few weeks closer to being married!
Bring on spring!
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