*: November 2007

I made my first trip to the Windy CIty this past weekend. I say first because there will be others. It was an amazing trip with great friends. We celebrated Missy's 25th Birthday! We went all out and did it up right in Chicago! Missy and I left before the sun came up Friday morning and made it to Midway before 830am, which gave us a full day in the city. The flight was the smoothest and easiest flight I have ever experienced. When we arrived at Midway we grabbed some breakfast and made our way to pick up our luggage. There weren't many people around and our luggage was already circling the carousel. Which was surprising! Then, Missy and I looked at each and said, "Now what do we do?" It had been such an easy trip so far that we hadn't thought through what to do once we picked up our luggage. So we decided to brave the city and head for the orange line subway. It took awhile to navigate through the airport to the actual subway station, but finally we made it. We bought our tickets and were on our way.

Emily and Ruth finally made it to Chicago after electrical problems with the plane, a nice stay in the Birmingham Holiday Inn Airport (before they even left) with room service and a shuttle to the airport, being rerouted to a bus from the subway because of construction, and a lengthy walk down Michigan Avenue (with luggage).

I felt I was living someone else's life for a few days! Our time in Chicago was centered around meals (of course)! We induldged ourselves in fine cuisines around the city. My favorites were lunch at the Ralph Lauren Restaurant, Missy's birthday party at Bistro 110 (the best Wild Line salmon!), breakfast at Corner Bakery, and Sunday lunch at Gino's. We also shopped, saw Wicked, did lots of walking, and people watched.