Tale of Three Little Ladies: Chicago

A couple weeks ago Chris and I spent a few days away in Chicago. It was a lot of fun and was nice getting away, just the two of us...a much needed time alone.

We were originally supposed to go to Vegas with some friends of ours that had never been there before, but that ended up not working out. So Chris and I thought we might as well go somewhere since we already had the kids taken care of. However, we have been to Vegas tons of times, so we decided to go somewhere different...somewhere we both had never visited...and we ended up choosing Chicago!

Chicago really is a pretty cool city. There is a LOT to do there. We wanted to make sure we saw a lot of the city; but we also wanted to relax and have a romantic weekend away too! I think we did a pretty good job of accomplishing that!

We stayed at the Swissotel, which was right along the Chicago River AND Lake Michigan! This was the view from the 32nd floor!

Our first evening there we decided to hit a pizzeria...I mean you can't go to Chicago without eating their famous deep dish pizza! We asked around and decided to try out a place called Giordano's Pizzeria. It was fabulous! We STUFFED ourselves on a tiny small pizza that was sooooo cheesy and sooooooo good. We laughed as we decided this pizza was not a "pick up and eat it" type of pizza but that you MUST use a fork!

After dinner we went to Howl at the Moon, a piano bar known for it's dueling pianos! I had been to one of these places before with some friends and I wanted to take Chris there so he could see how cool this place was! I still am amazed at how talented these people are that play up there! They play songs by request...from newer music to old classics. And, they can just belt the songs out and pound on the keys without blinking an eye. It's crazy... and so much fun!!! We had a really good time. The only bad part was that we were somewhat miserable from eating WAY too much pizza!

On Friday, we spent most of the day at Navy Pier. It was a relatively nice day... a little windy... but we made the most of walking alongside the water and enjoying each other's company!

The main thing that I wanted to do at Navy Pier was ride the Ferris Wheel. Did you know that the Ferris Wheel was invented by George Washington Ferris for the World's Fair that was held in Chicago in 1893. It was built to compete with the Eiffel Tower, which was built for the World's Fair held in Paris. This Ferris wheel at Navy Pier is a non-stopping wheel that is 150 feet high.

Fun...huh! I thought so.... until I got to the top. I was FREAKING OUT!!!! I hate heights, but I thought I would be fine. Well...not so much. I couldn't wait to get out of there. I could hardly even look out at the view.

Here I am...trying to crack a smile...even though I was scared out of my wits!!!

Chris didn't have such a hard time!

One things that Chris and I do for fun when we go on romantic trips is for each of us to plan an evening and keep it a surprise. So, we decided to do that this trip as well. Chris' evening was on Friday!

He first took me to Geja's Cafe. When we got in the cab and he said it, I was thinking "a cafe...hum...how romantic!" Well, it WAS! And, it was so cool. It was a fondue place, but it was a very romantic setting.

We started out with a rich cheese fondue for our first course...and they provided different breads, apples and grapes to dip in the cheese! For the main course, we chose our meats and were provided with a huge platter of food...all of it raw!

Because at a fondue place.... you cook your own food. So, after receiving cooking instructions we cooked our own vegetables, potatoes and meat in the hot oil that they provided.

It actually was a lot of fun! Very interactive!

For desert, we obviously were served a chocolate fondue with different fruits and pound cake for dipping! Delicious!

We had a wonderful time and didn't over stuff ourselves this time. After dinner we decided to head over to the John Hancock Building. This is a 96 story building that is known for one of the best views of the Chicago skyline. We decided to do the two time experience so that we could see the view at night AND during the day. It really was a spectacular view!

This a view of the John Hancock Building from the street it's located on looking straight up!

Once we were done there...we walked about a block down the street to where there were horse drawn carriages. Chris had planned to take an hour long carriage ride through the city at night! What a GREAT IDEA!!! So much that I had thought of the same thing to do the next night...on my date! We had such a good laugh at the fact that we had planned the same thing. So, on our carriage ride... we had to discuss another option for our evening the following night! However, we very much enjoyed the carriage ride... in fact, we both felt that was probably one of our favorite things of the whole trip! If you ever get a chance to do this...DO IT! It was very romantic and lots of fun! The only snag was the fact that it started raining a little and we had to put the top on the carriage about halfway through, so it wasn't quite as easy to see the tall buildings with the top on, but it was still VERY romantic!