Chicago is one of our favorite places

About two weekends ago we took a trip down to Chicago. Several tolls later in which we did not have cash (whoops) we landed in Carey, Illinois, which is where Peter's uncle Jared and his wife Matia live. (so Jared is really Peter's uncle's brother, but. . . same thing.) They were sweet enough to let us stay the weekend there with them and their so-cute two little girls. And their pet snake, who is currently receiving antibiotics via injection by Jared. Random, but kinda awesome to watch.

So Saturday morning we get up early to go catch the train into town, and once we get there we realize the station in closed. Thinking we could just buy tickets on the train, we hop on and wait for the ticket man to come around. Once he gets to us, I pull out my credit card and he says they only take cash. We do not have any cash (as evidenced by the toll booth situation) and the guy tells us we will have to get off, get cash, and wait for the next train (at least an hour). Thankfully, the amazing guy and his daughter behind us offered to pay our fare and we could reimburse them when we got off. So nice of him!

We got into town and hopped on the bus, and the first place we got to was Navy Pier. It smelled of delicious roasted nuts and lots of other fried foods. As you can tell, Peter decided to make a photo op without my knowledge:

Also located on Navy Pier is the National Public Radio station where they air and record "This American Life." We buzzed the intercom and tried to get in, but I guess they only do tours and visits during the week. I guess that means I will have to wait until my next trip to meet Ira Glass.
After that we hopped on a bus that took us to the Miracle mile to check out all the shops and fun fancy places. And what did we find?? Steve Urkel's car from Family Matters!!

So funny. The people in the store probably thought we were silly, but that is okay. Peter was sweet and let me go into all the shops and spend as much time as I wanted. When we got too pooped we stopped at the Ghiradelli store and ordered an amazing banana split. There were lots of really neat buildings, like the Wrigley building, and a lot of them were pretty historic. It makes me want to move to a huge city!

If you walk further down on Michigan Ave you run into the beach (lake beach is still a beach!) It was such a beautiful warm day that we took off our shoes and waded in the water for awhile. It was so funny to be in the midwest and see a beach.

Towards the end of the day we both were starving, so we stopped at Gino's East to get some real Chicago-style pizza. Everyone writes on the walls and benches there, so we were sure to make our mark as well. (It is the reddish pinkish writing on the right-hand side)

We took the train back that night and heard all of Jared's great stories from his medical rotations and all in all had a blast. I could definitely live in Chicago, should the right job take us there.