Another Bite Out of Chicago

My friend Shannon and I didn’t coordinate our plans so that the week she spent in Michigan would coincide with the days that I spent in Michigan. This was a problem as both of us felt the need to catch up and neither of us could change our plans. So the only overlapping days were Saturday and Sunday and we made the most of it. Saturday was the reunion and we were certainly able to chat a bit, but of course there were a lot of others we visited with as well. So we made plans to meet up after church on Sunday at her parents house along with her brothers and their families and my brother and his girlfriend and family. (Yes, my brother is dating a family. It’s pretty sweet. Nothing like dating three girls at once, especially when two of them are 6 and 2.)

Shannon lives in Houston and had flown into Chicago for the reunion and needed to fly out again on Sunday night. Kris and I made it our business to get her back to Chicago on time for her 9:40 flight. These plans gave us the opportunity to have lots of time to visit on the nearly three hour drive and also gave Kris and I the opportunity to visit Chicago again. We asked Joel and my dad to keep the boys for us overnight and we were free for a few precious hours to take in a little of the windy city.

We booked a nice yet practical hotel close to Willis Tower so that we could leave the van parked and use our short span of time to see something exclusively Chicago. My desire was to shop, but as nothing really opens before 10:00 and we needed to leave around 11:00 we decided to look for the early morning opportunities. As it turned out…I did shop and we still took in the Willis Tower experience before it was over.

We were hungry once we found our hotel and an Italian place just a block away was recommended. It is the oldest Italian restaurant in Chicago and the food was yummy.

We woke up Monday (after sleeping really, really well…great bed) to rain and clouds, which of course dampens the view from the tower. So…we debated and probably whined a little bit too. From our hotel window I could see a TJ Maxx a block or two away from us. I suggested we go buy me some cooler clothes cheaply and then walk around a little. I usually do laundry on my trips so that I have sufficient clothing, but I hadn’t had time to do that yet and I was left with the long jeans I had worn the previous day and a not so cool shirt to wear with it.

Kris reluctantly agreed to this plan and after a hearty continental, complete with waffles, fruit and English Muffins, we were off. TJ Maxx was even more disappointing than my skeptical husbands dreary outlook would have convinced me. The store was more like a Goodwill than a bright and cheery Nashville TJ Maxx, so we left pretty quickly and almost immediately I saw a NY & Co. I knew they run pretty good sales now and then so I hit them up and got two for one pants. One capri and one a dressy light denim. Now…they have that store in Mt. Juliet so I wasn’t satisfied of course. We were not near the Michigan Ave. shopping, we stayed in the theater district…

…so I wasn’t expecting to find much but almost immediately upon leaving NY & Co. I saw this…

I have never been in one of these stores but had heard Christy and Amy rave over the delicious assortment of goodies inside so I begged Kris to oblige my taking a peek. He found a comfy (and adorable) couch inside and I wandered around. The first thing to catch my eye was this…

…so I bought it. Then I found a couple other cutesies and eventually a clearance closet where I picked out a top to wear for the rest of the day. I don’t know if any of you are fussy about wearing things without washing them first, but in the situation I was in…I didn’t care a hoot about that. And in fact I changed into the new capri pants in the fitting room before leaving NY & Co.

Anthropologie was street level for a mall that was still taking in vendors apparently. There wasn’t much there yet, but the list of “coming soon” stores was extensive. They did have a Godiva store and the coffee was on sale. I’ll let you know how that is in a few weeks.

Next was Sears. Again…I know…they are everywhere right? But it was on the way back and it was a “Lands End/Sears” instead of just a plain old Sears and I happen to love Lands End. I got some nice quality long sleeve T’s and a simple button down sweater and in all honesty I could have spent my entire morning shopping that store alone. It’s just my style. I know, I know…what a waste of time in Chicago…but you must understand my inability to shop without kids before you judge me too harshly. And besides…I didn’t stay.

The sky cleared up and we decided to make a mad dash back to the hotel, request a late check out, call dad and get babysitter approval and then high tail it to Willis Tower. That’s what we did. We encouraged dad to put the boys down for a nap which lessens all babysitting responsibility by 90% or more. We got our late check out and burned off all the calories we had taken in at Godiva as we sprinted to the tower. It had been our plan to go the whole time, yet because of the way it happened, my spontaneity gene was all lit up and happy.

I had been to the tower before but it was very cloudy that day (over 20 years ago) and I didn’t see much. At that time they didn’t have these cool overhang boxes either. It was a little eerie to stand here…

…but I did it anyway. I wish we had gotten one like this…

…of one of us, but it was hard to maneuver in all the people.

I loved looking out like that. I’ve never had any qualms about heights so things like this don’t bother me, I just wish it had been less hazy. I especially love looking over the lake on the East side. There is no line between sky and water, they just fade into one another in the distance. Much like the humidity that plagued us the rest of our visit.

We sprinted back to the hotel, checked out, and headed away from civilization.

That’s when the trouble happened. There was a bad wreck that tied up traffic for hours and hours. We were frustrated, dad was frustrated, I felt horrible and somehow slightly responsible for all of the frustration and made several wishes about things I would have done differently had I known, but none of them came true.

It was still worth the trip. In fact I told Kris that every time we come up we should try to take a trip like that, with or without kids, and little by little each visit take another bite out of Chicago.