Week 36: Chicago in the Springtime

It was another rough week, but the weekend has been super great! This week we basically just survived and fended for ourselves. Jonathan made sloppy joes on Monday for us and we just ate leftovers from last week and from the sloppy joes for the rest of the week.

We both worked all week (as usual) and it seemed to go really well for both of us. Wednesday I was there until 5:45, so that was a late day, but otherwise it was okay. I also had a quiz to take for school that evening. Those are always stressful, but, thankfully, it was the second to last one and I got an “A” on it, so life is good! I also heard back from my last rotation site about my schedule. Sadly, they have me working on Thursdays during small group, so I am hoping to talk to my preceptor about changing that, but we will see. I am pretty disappointed about the prospect of missing out on small group though.

Thursday was the last work day of the week for both of us. Jonathan went to a site in Madison-Plains with his boss, so he didn’t get home until a little after 5 and we took his car to drop it off at the mechanic’s place because it needed to be looked at. My preceptor let me leave a little early, so that gave me time to get some things done for my rotation and to start laundry so we could be all prepared for the weekend. We had small group, which was wonderful, as usual. They are dividing the small group since we are so big and we did not get assigned a group…of course, but it is still sad that we are going to be leaving all of our awesome friends!

Willis Tower

First time on the ledge!

First time on the ledge!

First time on the ledge!

First time on the ledge!

Ledge selfie!

North side of Chicago before sunset                                                                                         North side of Chicago after sunset

South Chicago

East Chicago/Lake Michigan - love the shadows of the buildings
 on the water!

Sun setting!

Friday we left for Chicago! Jonathan had been there a few times before, but it was my first time. We went directly to Sara’s place and then proceeded into the city after seeing her apartment and school. When we finally got to the hotel (God bless Jonathan for driving in the city) Sara went to Dustin's and we dropped our things off and walked to Willis Tower. Willis tower is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and we went all the way up to the 103^rd floor. Up there they have ledges you can walk out onto and see down. Somehow we timed it up perfectly. We got to the building at 6:15 and were at the top by 6:30. To put this in perspective – Sara said they waited about 3-4 hours when they were there. We walked right in and got to step out onto the ledge twice (don’t worry, there’s a line for that too). It was so great. The view of the city is amazing from every side. From the east side you can see Lake Michigan and then the ledge is on the west side, so we got to watch the sun set from the 103^rd floor of this enormous building. It was truly an incredible experience! We were on the ledge before and after the sun set and thoroughly enjoyed the view both times. After we had our fill we walked back to the hotel and picked up some Chipotle on the way. No, it’s not anything special for Chicago, but we were super hungry and it was not the time for experimenting.

Sun set!

Second ledge visit!

Second time on the ledge

Ledge selfie

Greenhouse!

Breakfast!

Navy Pier from our walk along the lake

Saturday morning we met Sara and Dustin for brunch at Yolk, which was a 15 minute walk from our apartment, and it was really close to Navy Pier, so after we ate an enormous breakfast, we went to Navy pier and enjoyed the greenhouse and the little shops out there. Jonathan found an awesome deck of playing cards, they are probably my favorite of his collection. He has been collecting playing cards for a long time and has quite a few awesome decks, but these ones are for sure my favorite. They are really intricate and are made with gold foil so they are pretty glitzy! After we enjoyed our time at Navy Pier we walked along the lake to the north side of Michigan Avenue, which has a bunch of different stores and things along it. My store request was the American Girl store, as I have always loved the American Girl books and dolls and everything about all of it. It was definitely a fulfillment of one of little Alli’s dreams! All the dolls and books and outfits and everything cute and girly.

Favorite American girl

Sara and I in paradise

Happy hubby!

Yes, the entire background is Lego!

Dustin and Jonathan in absolute awe

As an added bonus, there was a Lego store right outside of the American Girl store! So, of course, we had to go there as Legos in general are a fulfillment of little and big Jonathan’s dreams. (See photos...)

Area beside the river!

Trump tower in its glory

I really wanted this photo...

Our souvenirs!

Bean selfie

Bean photo

After that we basically just walked down the road and enjoyed the nice weather. Once we got to the river we stopped to sit for a little while, then we kept walking until we got to Millennium Park. This is where “The Bean” is, so we had to get a picture there, then we walked across snake bridge (don’t worry, no snakes, it just looks like one), and sat on a bench to chat for a little while. We also people watched, which is a great activity in the city. Once we felt well rested and were ready to pursue dinner, we went to check out a few more souvenir places so we could find a Christmas tree ornament (our family souvenir) and a mug. Mugs are my new souvenir collection established by Jonathan on our honeymoon. I have never collected anything or had something I always get when I travel, but since I absolutely love mugs, it is the perfect thing for me! This one is a different shape than any of my other ones and it is pretty plain on the outside, but the INSIDE has the city skyline, so I think it’s pretty cool. After we were all set, we took some quick pictures at Trump tower (because it is probably underappreciated in the city) and went to Giordano’s for some deep dish pizza. Since it takes an hour for them to make it, we also had some bruchetta. All of the food was amazing, so we thoroughly enjoyed our time. Dinner was our last hoorah with Dustin and Sara, so we said goodbye at the corner of Ohio Street and Michigan Avenue so they could head back to Dustin’s and we went back to our hotel.

Photo in front of the bean :)

 We relaxed at the hotel for a little while (it felt great to take our shoes off!), then met up with Rodney and Kyra. Rodney and Jonathan went to school together and his fiancé, Kyra, is going to school in Chicago, so Jonathan text him to see if we could meet up for drinks or dessert. One of the cooler things we did in the city, was go with them to an underground tiki bar. It was SUCH a neat experience! The drinks were good, we loved spending time with them and they said we were the first people to come see them since they moved! It was an honor to be their first visitors and we thoroughly enjoyed experiencing our first underground tiki bar.

This morning we woke up, checked out of the hotel and pointed the truck toward home. Jonathan has a volleyball game tonight and I need to do a little bit of studying and preparing for the next week, not to mention, we need to go grocery shopping in a bad way. It has been an amazing weekend and we are so glad we took advantage of how close the city is! Next week is looking really boring, so we are very excited about that and plan to protect the boring as much as possible. We have missed boring. I hope everyone has had an amazing week and is ready for whatever comes next! We love you all!

Love,

Alli and Jonathan